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Old 07-08-2011, 11:05 PM   #1 (permalink)
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1998 Mercury Mountaineer electric fan MPG increase.

I recently swapped the engine driven cooling fan on a V8 1998 Mercury Mountaineer with a dual electric fan from a Ford Contour and a homebrew dual speed controller.

That's the Contour with the single piece shroud, not the completely separate dual fans, which are quite a bit thicker. The fan unit mounts vertically in the Mountaineer/Explorer and is the exact length required to match the height of the truck radiator. (It's also exactly the right size to fit horizontally on many Jeep and other brands' radiators.)

The thermostat housing had a spot to drill and tap for a sensor, had to install a 90 degree brass elbow so the sensor would fit below the AC hardline. The sensor I used was an ordinary Ford ECT as used in the late 90's.

The controller has a relay setup copied from some Australian Peugeot. It switches the two single speed fans between serial and parallel connection. At the low turn on setting the fans run in series at 6 volts each. When the high setting is reached the low circuit runs only one fan while the high circuit runs the second fan.

There's a 4th relay in parallel with the AC clutch and the low speed relay so the fans run in low speed when the AC is on.

I used a pot of water on my stove and a battery charger to calibrate the high and low settings. Low turns on at 190F, high at 200F. The engine thermostat is rated at 195F, so soon as the thermostat opens the fans come on low speed.

Before doing this electric fan mod the truck averaged 15 to 16 MPG in mixed driving conditions. Now it averages 18 to 20+ Since I have well under $200 in the electric fan setup it will pay back very quickly.

An extra benefit is how much *quieter* the truck is without that big air chopper constantly whirring under the hood. The Contour fans are very quiet, even on high.

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Old 07-09-2011, 12:16 AM   #2 (permalink)
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I immediately noticed how much quieter the engine was when I did my fan delete. Didn't pick up that many mpgs though.
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Old 07-09-2011, 08:17 AM   #3 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Galane View Post

There's a 4th relay in parallel with the AC clutch and the low speed relay so the fans run in low speed when the AC is on.

I used a pot of water on my stove and a battery charger to calibrate the high and low settings. Low turns on at 190F, high at 200F. The engine thermostat is rated at 195F, so soon as the thermostat opens the fans come on low speed.
Why the choice of low speed at 190F? I would have thought you would want to set it a bit higher, above the thermostat say 200F. And for the high speed say 205F. Do you know what the normal operating range is for you engine?

On my car (06 GP) the operating temperature range 194 to 225. The cooling fans with the air off won't come on until the temp reaches 220 degrees then turn back off at 197 degrees via the u gauge.
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Old 07-09-2011, 02:07 PM   #4 (permalink)
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Did you have a scangauge to see how much the engine load has changed with the clutch fan and now with the e-fan? Also was the clutch fan in good working condition prior to its removal?
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Old 07-10-2011, 01:03 AM   #5 (permalink)
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A 302 Ford V8 doesn't run that hot, not like newer and smaller engines. I don't have a scanguage, I doubt the 1998 OBDII reports enough data for engine load etc, it doesn't even tell me the VIN.

All I care about is it has made a real improvement in MPG.
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Old 08-14-2011, 04:26 AM   #6 (permalink)
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Took a trip towing an 8x10 rounded front enclosed trailer load of car parts to and from Oklahoma City. Spent 4 days in OK City.

Went outbound through Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas. Came back via Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Lots of desert, corn and grain fields, windmills and oil wells, plus a couple of the smelliest cattle yards I've ever smelled. Most everwhere was dry except in the mountains. Still snow on mountains many places in the middle of July!

MPG ran anywhere from a dismal 9 MPG up to a high of about 20 MPG. Would've been worse without the electric fan mod.

What surprised me is where the worst and best MPG happened. Most of the worst was on the middle of the country flatlands. Gasoline out there is crap, even the 92 octane. I suspect some of it has a bit more than 10% ethanol. Got the best efficiency crossing the continental divide and other higher elevation areas.

Most of the time I ran 85 or 87 octane. Never pinged or knocked. On the way out, just before leaving Idaho, the battery quit. Had to run all the way to Brigham City on the alternator, stopped in Tremonton, UT but that town totally shuts down on Saturdays.
This was *not* the tank that gave the worst MPG. IIRC the worst was from some petrol in Kansas, from an outfit that's big back there, claimed not to have alcohol in their gas.

Ran the AC almost all the way, except for when the battery quit and some in the mountains.

Overall I'm happy with my homebrew electric fan mod.

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