In the process of replacing my water pump on my 5.3 and found my clutched fan bearing is almost toast. The bearing is NLA but can be found for $$. I have looked into removing the fan and replacing with an electric but there doesn’t seem to be a clear winner here. Just looking for some opinions and advice.

 

Here are the options:

1. replacing the fan clutch unit is the most straightforward, cheapest and reliable fix, even if your fan bearing needs replacing too. As long as the radiator and thermostats are in good shape - and if you have not checked or are not sure this must be ascertained - your cooling thereafter will be fine. This aspect must be checked whatever fan you end up going with.
2. the OEM electric fan is not efficient by modern standards, in any circumstances, and whatever your choice I would chnage it for a SPAL brand electric that will fit into the same space in the shroud, and ensure it is wired to come on with the aircon compressor as well as the water pump inlet thermostat
3. an electric main fan can be a good swap, you will gain: a quieter car, an MPG, better cooling in hot-weather traffic, better access to the front of the engine, and you will remove a V belt entirely.
4. Decent electric fans are expensive. I would only recommend SPAL and the biggest that you can fit in. I have 25 amp 17 incher.
5. An electric main fan will mean your alternator (unless already upgraded) will need to be changed to a 120 amp one, as used in later models.
6. The wiring-in of the main fan has to be 100% reliable and properly done; all aftermarket fan-switching thermostats that I have used have failed quickly. A most knowledgeable guy on here, Grant Francis (turn and bow to the Southern Cross at the mention of the Great XJS Prophet's name) has a very reliable setup that uses the OEM water pump inlet thermostatic switch. This is the only system that works reliably. Also you need to run a feed from the firewall post, via a relay and a fuse, for the 12v to the fan. A cabin-over-ride switch and a fan-on a warning light is highly recommended
7. Finally, if the fan will go into the OEM shroud, fine; but the one I use is a touch larger, so I built a chassis for the fans, and this took me ages to get dead right. getting rid of the OEM shroud also greatly improves frees up access to the front of the engine

This is not meant to be negative about electric main fans - far from it. I have one and I like it a lot. It is just to warn that it is not an afternoon's work to get a reliable powerful system that operates to OEM standards of reliability and ease of access and maintenance. If you do go for it, everyone on here will be sure to help, you will not lack for aid in setting it up.

 

thanks and I understand it’s a choice. I like the idea of more space up front although it seems to be only slightly better with electric fans. I do like the way it looks now with no fan and no pulley for the fan lol.

I found this 2 fan setup in the bay that looks like it would fit fairly well. Probably not high quality fans but they don’t seem cheap either.

again I may just replace my fan bearing and put it all back.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ALUMINUM-RA....m46890.l49286

 

I have Efans on all mine, have been that way since 1994ish.

Ford Australian Falcon Twin Fan Pack fitted too easily, made by Bosch Germany for Ford, NLA, and only cheap Chinese junk that do not do the task, SAD.

A member here in Scotland fitted the Jag X Type fan pack, and claimed it was simple as, and works a treat. Cost him 15 UK Pound for the fan pack.

The options are as endless as your imagination.

I would never go go back to engine driven fans.

 

What part is broken? The viscous fan coupling or the fan mount/spindle? And what part of Chicago are you in? If it's the mount/spindle I'm pretty sure I don't need mine anymore. You're welcome to it.

For what it's worth it I'm going the electric fan route. Greg is right about Spal fans - they're the only after market fan I would consider. This place has good information on specs such as size, amp draw, and CFM.

At the end of the day I'm likely to go with the Wizard cooling radiator and the dual high performance fan kit they sell. It's not cheap but it's something I'll only have to deal with one time.

 

My spindle bearing is bad. I am in the western suburbs near Aurora. I would be glad to take your spindle off your hands if your done with it.

 

Would be very interested to hear how this goes - including the wiring + if you add a manual override switch inside the car.

Cheers!

 

I got one of their radiators with the twin electric fans. So far it looks great, now I just need to install it…

 

As far as wiring goes, I'm thinking about two distinct routes. One is to just plumb & wire in a dumb on/off switch that turns on at x degrees and off at y degrees. I'd add high-amp relays to actually control the fans. If I went this route I'd definitely add in a manual over-ride switch which is easy enough to add to the relays.

Plan B would to use one of AutoCoolGuy's PWM fan controllers. I had one of these on my MGB before I pulled off the supercharger and dropped in a V6. His controller's are pulse-width modulated so you get variable fan speeds. If the controller sees you need more cooling it spins the fans faster. It also has an input to turn the fans on when the AC comes on and also has a provision for a manual override (which he calls a fail-safe). The really nice thing about this controller is you can vary fan speeds but more importantly - it has a soft start feature to prevent the fan from drawing a ton of amps when it tries to start up. I have a lot of trust in his product and would probably skip the manual override if I go this route.

 

The Wizard setup I got cane with wiring for the fans. Two relays, a temperature switch, and a bunch of wires. Simple electronics, but should get the job done. I mention it because no where did I see that the wiring was included with the radiator.

 

That's actually good information. I had assumed there was a switch port in the bottom part of the radiator based on pictures, but wasn't certain. Thank you for sharing!

 

I’ll take a picture of the radiator when I get home this afternoon and post it.

 

The fan switch is in the waterpump housing

 

Depends what fans you use obviously but i'd agree with your plan B definitely recommend some sort of soft-start control. I'm currently running with your first option - a temp controller & a relay for each fan. I'm using an OEM fan setup from a 2004 Jaguar & they clearly aren't really designed for on/off switching - they pull an absolute ton of current when started. They were each blowing 30A fuses when I first fitted them! I'm not entirely sure how long the 40A Bosch relays i'm using will last...

Regardless of that, any electric fans are a massive upgrade over the standard setup & i'd definitely recommend. Mine pull the coolant temperature down extremely rapidly - with the car left idling & temp controller set to control from 90oC to 87oC they come on for circa 5 seconds in every minute - that's all that's needed!

 

Little later than I promised, but here are the pictures of my Wizard Cooling radiator and fans. I went with the "High Performance" fans, they're bigger (deeper really) but provide the most cooling. There is a threaded hole in the outlet side of the radiator for the temperature sensor. It is high up, but bellow the plate that separates the left hand inlet from the outlet. So it will measure the outlet temperature. There is an adaptor plug for the temperature sensor included. The transmission cooler connections are on the right hand side of the radiator. They're optional, so if your car has a manual transmission you can save $30 by leaving them off.

 

Thank you for sharing! I ordered mine last night - can't wait for it to get here.

Would you mind taking a picture of the model number on one of the fans? I'm curious as to which one they use in the high performance configuration.

 

Here you go! I don't think they stock XJ-S radiators. It was 2 1/2 weeks between when I ordered mine and when it shipped. Probably 3 weeks total until it arrived.

 

Thank you. That fan is rated at 1,777 CFM and 19.5 amps. I bet two of those move a lot of air!

 

That radiator is a thing of beauty........... very nice!

 

[QUOTE=garethashenden;2395597]Here you go! I don't think they stock XJ-S radiators. It was 2 1/2 weeks between when I ordered mine and when it shipped. Probably 3 weeks total until it arrived.

Very nice looking setup for sure. Have you had it installed yet ? I’m still torn a bit but I think I am just going to refresh the original fan and associated parts and keep it in place.
I like the idea of cleaning up the space up there but even the electric fans seem to take up most of the room between the radiator and motor.