Thread: Electric fan for 4bd1 +Ti

Have you considered a viscous fan? It might be a half way solution with half the benefits.... (good/bad?).

Somewhere not long back there was a post on the fan options and I think some of the truck 4BD1's came with viscous fans, so it might be a simple swap.

yeh have thought a viscus fan would be an easier option, might end up with one yet, but still think going electric would be better. I have a mate who is an auto AC expert and he can get me a powerful electric fan for cost, so it shouldn't cost me too much. Surely someone knows if it would be a worthwhile modification?

suzi should not get hot enough to need it i have a viscous to swap with the fixed fan on mine and for what its worth the viscous fan would sap more power than the factory item as it has more blades and they are longer and wider so they will cause more drag but move more air

The elec versus belt driven fan is a fair debate I have had both and had problems with both it will all depend on how you want to use the vehicle and on an isuzu for simplicity i would stick with a belt driven fixed or viscous fan as ive seen to many good quality electric fans die from either water ingress or age at the worse possible time

happened to me with a new davies craig that was sold to me as a sealed unit but was not and a cooked motor in the bush due to fan failure had me seeing red and resulted in creased office seats in the davis craig management due to false advertisement of the so called sealed 16 inch fan that was unsealed .
Tho i now have a set of twin denso fans on my rangie and i would not have it any other way as they work great no mater how much crud i rive through and these fans come out of a late 80's datsun and cant be killed with a big stick .

Tho i still think a good viscous fan is the best way to cool a hot engine and can be manualy locked up if they fail so you can get home its a bit hard to get an electric motor tow work once cactus if you need to get home or close to some were for spares/repairs

By responses below in bold

Originally Posted by taylorslandy

My reasons for the conversion are possible pros;
• better fuel economy doubt it will be measurable
• quicker warm up not really, that is thermostat controlled. Btw, the 4BD drives fine as soon as started
• free up power (never have too much doubt it will be measurable
• better low speed cooling for AC and intercooler doubt it will be measurable
• can switch off for deep water crossings OK, this is an advantage
• less wear on water pump bearing ??? No
• less noise doubt it will be measurable

.

Don't believe all the ads you see in british magazines...

I tried a thermofan on my IIA. Went back to the engine driven fan.

Thanks for the replies, sounds like any gains in power/ fuel economy etc wouldn't be worth the hasstle. Only way to know for sure is do it and try and measure the results, but if small, like you said would not be measurable. Oh well, unless someone chimes in who has done it with "amazing" results I'll leave it alone and have to loosen fan belt for those deep water crossings. Cheers.

Take the fan off and go for a drive down the road, that will tell you if it's worth it

Originally Posted by rovercare

Take the fan off and go for a drive down the road, that will tell you if it's worth it

Good idea

Took the fan off in my 90 with 4JB1T and ZF auto

Certainly felt the extra power.


However that was in winter in the UK where cooling wasn't so much of a concern.