Electric Fan Swap. A pictorial story!

[captainzeros]

Welp, a while back my water pump started pissing coolant all over, so I replaced it.

The reason was that my fan had lost an entire blade, unbalancing it and putting undue stress on the pump.

One pump, and lots of searching for a fan later, on ebay and in junkyards (the two very picked over 720s at the local pick-a-part)

There were actually two acceptible fans from 300ZXes, but they were melted into goop... makes me really wish I had a 300ZX :lol:

I decided SCREW IT, TIME FOR ELECTRIC! I pulled a pusher fan from the front of a Geo Metro's radiator, paid $15 for it, and was on my way!


More tomorrow when there is light to take pictures of my conversion.

[captainzeros]

Also, can we not edit posts anymore in the new system?

[captainzeros]

LOOK MA, NO FAN!


Weasling this in here was sort of a pain, but I managed to make it fit without actually removing any body panels from the truck. I had to unbolt the front fascia, and let it hang, and two bolts from the passenger side fender, which gave me enough slop to slip the fan in there. Heck, I even unbolted the passenger side headlight assembly to give me that extra inch of clearance.



Once the grill is back on, it's fairly inconspicuous... other than a pretty loud WHIRRRRRRRRR noise, not that you can hardly hear it over the engine once it's fired up anyways.



And finally, the wiring. I tied the fan's bit of harness I scabbed from the donor Geo into the main harness in the 720, and if I had wrapped it properly and used black tape instead of brown, I'd be hard pressed to tell it wasn't original equipment. For anybody else doing the swap, the brown wire is hot with the key on in the ignition and runs stuff like the fuel pump, and that's where I wired my fan. No thermal controls, no nothin', if the car is on, the fan is on, which fits my budget just fine.

[PEZi]

Also, can we not edit posts anymore in the new system?

those-with-missing-edit-quote-buttons-l ... 89195.html

pics look good!

[captainzeros]

Thanks for the edit button fix! Oh how I very hate getting used to new user interfaces on websites.

Anyhow, overall this set-up runs a little warmer than the original mechanical fan did, maybe one or two needle-widths on the gauge, but considering my truck always ran real cold that's no big deal. Side benefit, I can definitely feel the improvement in the engine response without the mechanical fan.

[86 720]

If you want to get rid of the fan clutch, you can get a Z water pump which is almost a direct fit minus the large clutch. I'll look for the proper year.

Here is the thread for it:
http://www.infamousnissan.com/forum/sho ... fan+clutch

[Charlie69]

Here is a water pump mod I did for my 520.

http://www.datsunnissandrivers.com/phpB ... =11&t=1884

[GahannaKid]

Heh, I could used half those body panels from the picked over 720s. Nice work on the fan mod, if I ever find a nicer 720 to buy I think I'll do the same.

[captainzeros]

Actually, the pictures do them far greater justice than they deserve, everything you can't see, and even some of the things you can were pretty bad.
edit: All things considered, the red truck hasn't been there very long, also, so it wasn't quite as picked over. It wasn't there on my previous visit to this one when I was looking for body panels, if it was, I woulda taken that driver side fender probably.

[flinterman2000]

The one fan is a little small but no problem as its right fort you.

[captainzeros]

Actually, the little fan has been working magnificently. I only run one, maybe two needle-widths temp higher on the gauge then I used to, and it still doesn't get up above halfway ever.

[flinterman2000]

Actually, the little fan has been working magnificently. I only run one, maybe two needle-widths temp higher on the gauge then I used to, and it still doesn't get up above halfway ever.

Cool, but if you were going to knowingly use one fan then it should have been at least a 12" fan. The one you put on looks like a 9 or a 10".

[captainzeros]

It's 13"

[86 720]

Nice!

Was going to do this to my truck, but noticed at the last minute that you don't have an A/C condensor. My truck has A/C so I can't put the pusher in. =[

[flinterman2000]

13" is real good. 86, I'm installing A/C in mine so I installed a double fan from a 2001 SSS Bluebird. Will post pics of the set up shortly.