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Permacool electric radiator fan

6322 Views 15 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  thumbster, 
thumbster
Who's running the permacool electric fan on their tundra? I was wanting to know if it would be sufficient to cool the 4.7 - they claim it moves 5500 cfm of air. I was thinking of doing this conversion for better mileage and a little more power.
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The Phoenix
thumbster said:
Who's running the permacool electric fan on their tundra? I was wanting to know if it would be sufficient to cool the 4.7 - they claim it moves 5500 cfm of air. I was thinking of doing this conversion for better mileage and a little more power.
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I don't have experience with the 4.7, but I had one on my Tacoma for less than 24 hours. The damn thing made so much noise, and the amount of draw it put on my alternator made it unbearable. I noticed absolutely no increase in power, and I was supercharged. The only reason I would see someone using one of these fans is if you were strickly rock crawling or mudding, where:
1. The truck does not move more than 5mph but the RPM's can be high for a long period of time (mudding)
2. You don't mind the vibration of the fan shaking the living hell out of the truck. (fans may have not have been balanced properly)
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thumbster said:
Who's running the permacool electric fan on their tundra? I was wanting to know if it would be sufficient to cool the 4.7 - they claim it moves 5500 cfm of air. I was thinking of doing this conversion for better mileage and a little more power.
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Please post a link to this fan. I looked on Permacool's website and the highest rated cfm fan I could fine was only 2950 est. cfm with a 9.8 amp draw. If you were to pair two of those together that would be almost 20 amps! With that much current draw your alternator might be pulling a higher load on the engine at slow speeds than the factory fan would.
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thumbster
Permacool part number is 19512

20 amps of current draw is not much for 5500 cfm of air flow. In comparison the derale fan in my 86 mustang draws 30 amps and pulls 2900 cfm - that's for a single fan!
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The Phoenix
As I said before, despite the power draw, unless you strictly off-road your truck, you will not gain any bit of fuel economy/power/performance what so ever.
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thumbster
FXNGLAS said:
As I said before, despite the power draw, unless you strictly off-road your truck, you will not gain any bit of fuel economy/power/performance what so ever.
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All other vehicles I've owned have benefited one way or another from electric radiator fans - some more, some less. E-fans also improve A/C function when driving in stop and go conditions and keep more air flowing across the trans cooler. There is a reason why most manufacturers are going to electric fans these days - mostly due to mileage figures. I'm not saying the toyota clutch fan setup doesn't work well. I do understand your point - I just want more control over the cooling system.
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The Phoenix
If you insist. Most of the people I know that got them took them back out and sold them.

I'd like to hear how you like it if you do get one though.
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R
I added a Sequoia electric condenser fan to augment the mechanical fan. I have it wired so I can turn it on and off when I want. It helps on 100+ days in the summer in heavy traffic. There are pictures in my gallery. I got the idea from Mustang67408 who was the first to do it afaik.

Rick
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The Phoenix
rlehan said:
I added a Sequoia electric condenser fan to augment the mechanical fan. I have it wired so I can turn it on and off when I want. It helps on 100+ days in the summer in heavy traffic. There are pictures in my gallery. I got the idea from Mustang67408 who was the first to do it afaik.

Rick
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That looks much better than any aftermarket setup I've seen :tu:
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DevinSixtySeven
rlehan said:
I added a Sequoia electric condenser fan to augment the mechanical fan. I have it wired so I can turn it on and off when I want. It helps on 100+ days in the summer in heavy traffic. There are pictures in my gallery. I got the idea from Mustang67408 who was the first to do it afaik.

Rick
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That's perfect. Got a link to a build thread?

I've about had it with running the heater at low speed on hot days...

-Sean
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X
I'm running the perma cool 2 and so far has been adaquate. As for power increase there seems to be an improvement after initial startup
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R
DevinSixtySeven said:
That's perfect. Got a link to a build thread?

I've about had it with running the heater at low speed on hot days...

-Sean
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I don't have a build thread. The parts I used are the ones used on a 2002 Sequoia. As I recall the fan comes as 3 separate parts - fan motor, fan blade, fan shroud. Also you will need a relay and I also got the plug that connects to the fan motor plug. I used 10 gauge stranded copper wire from the high current relay contacts to the fan motor and the positive side of the battery. It is not a cheap mod - about $250 for the parts I think. I had to move the horns to accomodate the electric fan, but that was easy. I also relocated the transmission cooler further toward the passenger side with 4 sheet metal brackets I made. You can see them in my picture - they are the shiny metal. I used the lower mount for the transmission cooler to hold the lower fan shroud mount - they share the same mounting bolt. The upper transmission cooler mount does not line up with the upper mount for the fan shroud so I drilled a hole in the center radiator support and used a nut and bolt and washers to hold the top fan shroud mount to the center radiator support. For the other side I purchased some long threaded bolts (6" I think) and some nuts and flat and lock washers. I drilled holes in the sheet metal in front of the battery and attached these long bolts and used 2 nuts and washers to attach the fan shroud mounts on that side. I will take another picture and put it in my gallery so you can see this better. There is an explanation of how I wired it under the picture of the relay I used for the electric fan. I control it with a lighted switch so I can easily tell if it is on or not. I also used a 12 volt switched power source so it goes off when I turn off the ignition key as a safety measure so I won't kill my battery if I forget to switch the fan off. This is just the way I did the install. I'm sure it could be done other ways. If you have any questions or this is not clear let me know. You can also try to contact Mustang67408 if you have questions. He did this mod before me. I saw his pictures and decided I wanted to do the same mod. He is a Toyota mechanic and is great about sharing his knowledge.

Rick
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R
I added some additional pictures to my gallery with short explanations for anyone who is contemplating doing the Sequoia electric fan mod.

Rick
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DevinSixtySeven
Excellent, thanks. At 250 I might try the boneyards for spare parts.

-Sean
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CHINKinatundra
with the permacool, it completely replaces the belt driven fan right?
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thumbster
CHINKinatundra said:
with the permacool, it completely replaces the belt driven fan right?
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That's what permacool says, allthough I'm not sure how well it would do with the truck towing something heavy. In theory it should be plenty for the power output of the 4.7 V8.
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