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Putting an electric fan in my truck?
I have a 1999 Ford F-150, and I've been popping new stuff in under the hood every now and then to try and squeak out a little more HP and MPG capabilities.
I have a K&N Cold-air intake, a turbo-tornado, I always keep the tach under 2000, and I fill up on cooler days, etc.
A friend recently told me that replacing the stock fan assembly with an electric fan would boost my mpg by around 5, and give me a bunch more horsepower.
Is this true?
When I looked at a couple online stores that had them, some had a disclaimer that an electric fan was not meant for a replacement of a standard fan, others didn't say anything.
Help? Would this be a worthy buy?
While your gas mileage in the city isn't very good, the reality is that your engine doesn't really use that much gas moving around and idling in traffic (gas mileage in the city sucks because of the repetitive acceleration from a stop). And since you're not trying to solve an issue with the engine running too hot, the effect an electric fan would have while sitting in traffic or running around the city is negligible.
So that leaves freeway driving - where your current belt driven fan actually doesn't do much work at all since a lot of air is already being forced past the radiator. There is virtually no realized load from the mechanical fan at highway speeds.
And it should be mentioned that electric fans don't run without their own energy input. It's operating on electricity that has to be generated by your belt-driven alternator, which puts a load on your engine. Nothing comes for free.
So, save your money unless you actually have an overheating problem. A reliable electric fan capable of reproducing the kind of airflow you'd need would cost upwards of $200 if you're not scrounging junkyards for a used one - plus installation and minor things like temperature sensors, wiring and relays. And I'm still not actually convinced that it would make any noticeable difference in fuel consumption. Everyone I know that has done it has been on a quest to improve fuel mileage, so I would tend to attribute any increase to simply being conscious of driving habits, which it sounds like you're already doing.
So I say save your money. Just think of how much gas you can buy with that $250.
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