Grille Block: Fan Changes?

[big shafe]

Has anyone thought of or done a grill block and also changed their fan setup? I'm curious if anyone was able to to offset all/some cooling loss due to grill blocks with a fan change up. Either belt driven to electric or a higher performance electric fan.

I'd like to get a electric fan setup for reduced parasitic loss and increased engine space (much nicer for oil changes) in my F150 and wondered what luck, if any others have had trying this?

Thanks.

[2000mc]

i would think that you would want to have a shroud with as much coverage as possible, regardless of whether you have a grill block or not.

i would say that if someone needed a higher performance electric fan, after doing a grill block, they just need to reopen their grill some.

that being said, going to an electric fan and grill block are both great ideas, i would just say to perform one first, know your temps are ok, then perform the other. other wise it would be harder to know if your fan was undersized, or if your grill was too closed off if your temps started running high.

[mcrews]

part of the benefit of the grill block is the aerodynamics of smoothing the front end.

I also installed an additional electric fan.
My factory fan is fluid drive, which reduces some of the parasitic drag.
I have the 2 aux fans(9" and 7") on a switch that I control on the dash

push fans on front:
passenger side:


driver side

[Frank Lee]

If the grille block causes the fan to run more, I think it's largely defeating the purpose.

I've got two grille blocks WITH two fan deletes.

[2000mc]

mcrews - fluid drive.. as in viscus coupler? still running it? or replaced it with the 2 pushers?

[Diesel_Dave]

I have a clutched fan (from the factory). It basically doesn't come on until it gets close to overheating. I've run with the whole front grille completely blocked off in 80 deg F temps and never had the fan kick on. That being said, I'm the exception--my diesel runs cool, plus my pulse and glide with my very large engine allows the engine not to get very hot.

I've always thought that a clutched fan was the best option, because it doesn't come on unless you need it, but also doesn't have the conversion losses of a pure electric one (mechanical->electrical->mechanical).

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

If the grille block causes the fan to run more, I think it's largely defeating the purpose.

I figured out how to keep the fans off, water injection.
But unless you have a diesel its not going to help.

[big shafe]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

If the grille block causes the fan to run more, I think it's largely defeating the purpose.

I've got two grille blocks WITH two fan deletes.

I'm curious if thats true for highways speeds, which is really why I asked.

I wondered if anyone has quanitified the gains in drag reduction vs. the increased electrical load, as far as gas mileage is concerned. A good comparision would be full grill block with increased fan capacity vs partial grill block with stock fan configuration.

I'm sure for you small car owners this a null point, but for a truck with a transmission cooler and larger capacity alternator, I wanted to know if anyone has actually done this type of testing.

[Frank Lee]

yeah one of them is my truck.

My impression of grille blocks is they mainly help quick warm up; they retain heat between trips; and and somewhere down the line they have an aero benefit although it's been too small for me to quantify.

[big shafe]

I was thinking it might be too small to quantify, but wasn't sure. Thanks for your input.