Taurus/E-Fan wiring confirmation

[Neejay]

Planning to use my Taurus e-fan:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/neejay/fan_wiring_final.jpg

I managed to put that together with searching + MS Paint. Am I missing anything? I still haven't decided if I want to use a radiator probe (which isn't the most accurate right?) or the stock setup. Currently, my stock e-fan setup doesn't work without the help of a manual switch. I even replaced the relay and removed the switch wiring to test it (I only tried this by cutting the AC on, but I think it needs freon. Maybe that's why it didn't cut on and it's not the wiring that messed up?)

EDIT: Updated pic with some of the info provided all below.

[CylonFrakker]

Looks good to me except that the wire going from 87 to the Fan and the indicator is bound to get very hot. Remember you will be sending the same amount of voltage and amps to the indicator as the fan so its bound to get hot. I would probably find some sort of way to indicate that the fan is on. Don't have any inputs for it...

Edit:

found this for ya. I know its for car stereos but has some good infor about relays and amperage draw

http://www.bcae1.com/images/swfs/relaywirefuseassistant.swf

http://www.bcae1.com/relays.htm

Good luck let us know how it works out!

[240sx_LE]

I wired mine to a temperature switch. I got the the switch from the lower radiator hose from a single cam and stuck it on the upper radiator hose. Works fine for me, dont have to deal with turning it on and off manually. It also stills cools the motor down when you turn the car off.

[Neejay]

Looks good to me except that the wire going from 87 to the Fan and the indicator is bound to get very hot. Remember you will be sending the same amount of voltage and amps to the indicator as the fan so its bound to get hot. I would probably find some sort of way to indicate that the fan is on. Don't have any inputs for it...

Edit:

found this for ya. I know its for car stereos but has some good infor about relays and amperage draw

http://www.bcae1.com/images/swfs/relaywirefuseassistant.swf

http://www.bcae1.com/relays.htm

Good luck let us know how it works out!
Thanks a lot man. I'll look over those.
I wired mine to a temperature switch. I got the the switch from the lower radiator hose from a single cam and stuck it on the upper radiator hose. Works fine for me, dont have to deal with turning it on and off manually. It also stills cools the motor down when you turn the car off.
Sounds good to me. Do you know what temp they turn on at?

[bo2o]

stock should be at 195 degrees.

i was going to do the same thing but leave it on the colder hose so it turns off faster.

[240sx_LE]

stock should be at 195 degrees.

i was going to do the same thing but leave it on the colder hose so it turns off faster.

Answered it for me.^ Just cut the upper radiator hose in two and just clamp it on in between. Might be longer than before so you might need to take some rubber off. Also take the other plug, the one you plug into the temperature switch, it makes it easier to replace radiator hoses later on.

[LA_phantom_240]

Looks good to me except that the wire going from 87 to the Fan and the indicator is bound to get very hot. Remember you will be sending the same amount of voltage and amps to the indicator as the fan so its bound to get hot.

The way he has it drawn out, the indicator is going to turn on when the fan turns on, like an LED on the dash or something. He won't be sending 30 amps at 12vdc to the thing. The indicator (which I assume is some sort of light) isn't going to draw 30+ amps. The only reason why the wire going to the fan is going to be hot is because it is a 10awg wire carrying over 30 amps of current. I would go with an 8awg wire, and find a relay capable of handling 50 amps, because current draw will spike very hardcore at startup, and a 30 amp relay will only last so long. Taurus fans are current whores, and that's something you need to take into consideration if you want something reliable.

[Neejay]

stock should be at 195 degrees.

i was going to do the same thing but leave it on the colder hose so it turns off faster.
well, is 195 degrees in the lower hose different than 195 degrees in the upper hose in terms of heat? If that's the case, then why would it be better to mount it in the lower hose?

[Neejay]

The way he has it drawn out, the indicator is going to turn on when the fan turns on, like an LED on the dash or something. He won't be sending 30 amps at 12vdc to the thing. The indicator (which I assume is some sort of light) isn't going to draw 30+ amps. The only reason why the wire going to the fan is going to be hot is because it is a 10awg wire carrying over 30 amps of current. I would go with an 8awg wire, and find a relay capable of handling 50 amps, because current draw will spike very hardcore at startup, and a 30 amp relay will only last so long. Taurus fans are current whores, and that's something you need to take into consideration if you want something reliable.
So I need to use 8 gauge wire and a 50amp relay?

[stinky_180]

cold coolant/water is coming out of the lower radiator hose. hot coolant/water is going into the radiator. i use the lower radiator hose for my set-up.

[Neejay]

cold coolant/water is coming out of the lower radiator hose. hot coolant/water is going into the radiator. i use the lower radiator hose for my set-up.
That kinda confused me so I looked at the FSM. Did you mean colder coolant is coming out of the upper radiator hose, and hot coolant is coming into the lower radiator hose?

If that's the case, then I get it now. Thanks guys.

[projectRDM]

The lower hose is always colder.

I'd use 8ga as well, but in reality I'd try another set of fans, the Altimas work just as well and pull less current, requiring less work. You can use all your existing wiring.

I'd also refrain from using a temp probe, those are notorious for going bad.

[jhec23]

Are you going to use both low and high speed? I just did mine a couple of weeks ago and I'm only using the low speed because that alone is more than enough to cool our engine. I had it setup with an adjustable themo switch and a/c turn on which ever go first. I'm thinking of wiring the high speed with a manual switch just in case the low speed system fails.

[g6civcx]

Planning to use my Taurus e-fan:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v422/neejay/fan_wiring_final.jpg

I managed to put that together with searching + MS Paint. Am I missing anything? I still haven't decided if I want to use a radiator probe (which isn't the most accurate right?) or the stock setup. Currently, my stock e-fan setup doesn't work without the help of a manual switch. I even replaced the relay and removed the switch wiring to test it (I only tried this by cutting the AC on, but I think it needs freon. Maybe that's why it didn't cut on and it's not the wiring that messed up?)

My comments:

1) I would upgrade to 8-gauge AWG.

2) pin 85 needs to see current. If you hook it up to a thermostat make sure the thermostat can send current, and not a variable resistance thermostat.

3) The indicator light needs a fuse in front of it where the small wire meets the big wire. The fuse isn't there to protect the light; it's there to protect the small wire from drawing too much current should the wire short out to ground.

4) I recommend using a temp sensor mounted as close to the head as possible. The radiator probe is bad news.

5) I recommend a good fan controller, like DiF from FRSport.

[g6civcx]

The way he has it drawn out, the indicator is going to turn on when the fan turns on, like an LED on the dash or something. He won't be sending 30 amps at 12vdc to the thing. The indicator (which I assume is some sort of light) isn't going to draw 30+ amps. The only reason why the wire going to the fan is going to be hot is because it is a 10awg wire carrying over 30 amps of current.

This is not correct. While the device itself may only draw 5mA, the small wire is connected directly to a thick wire which could potentially draw up to 50A. If the small wire is damaged and gets grounded, the small wire will draw up to 50A before the main fuse will blow.

The small 18AWG wire will melt at anything over 15A = fire = s13 owner who never did research on electronics

[LA_phantom_240]

This is not correct. While the device itself may only draw 5mA, the small wire is connected directly to a thick wire which could potentially draw up to 50A. If the small wire is damaged and gets grounded, the small wire will draw up to 50A before the main fuse will blow.

The small 18AWG wire will melt at anything over 15A = fire = s13 owner who never did research on electronics

While this is true that the wire grounding out could potentially start a fire, it has nothing to do with my original reply. Also, if the 18awg wire somehow shorts out, it will burn itself out long before it blows that 50amp fuse.

[g6civcx]

While this is true that the wire grounding out could potentially start a fire, it has nothing to do with my original reply.

I don't mean to nitpick with you, but everyone needs to understand electronics perfectly when running their own wiring.

Looks good to me except that the wire going from 87 to the Fan and the indicator is bound to get very hot. Remember you will be sending the same amount of voltage and amps to the indicator as the fan so its bound to get hot. I would probably find some sort of way to indicate that the fan is on.

The way he has it drawn out, the indicator is going to turn on when the fan turns on, like an LED on the dash or something. He won't be sending 30 amps at 12vdc to the thing. The indicator (which I assume is some sort of light) isn't going to draw 30+ amps. The only reason why the wire going to the fan is going to be hot is because it is a 10awg wire carrying over 30 amps of current.

Also, if the 18awg wire somehow shorts out, it will burn itself out long before it blows that 50amp fuse.

This is not correct. While the device itself may only draw 5mA, the small wire is connected directly to a thick wire which could potentially draw up to 50A. If the small wire is damaged and gets grounded, the small wire will draw up to 50A before the main fuse will blow

This is exactly what you don't want to happen. If that small wire gets broken and shorts to ground somehow, it can potentially see up to 50A. That small wire will start melting at something around 20A = fire. You need a smaller fuse to protect the circuit.

Guys, when running wires, you can't rely on the fact that a component at the end of the line will only draw a small amount of current for 2 reasons:

1) the component can fail and draw much more current,
2) the wire leading to the component could short to ground and draw as much as the smallest fuse on the circuit will let it.

If the wire draws up to the amount allowable by the smallest fuse, and the wire isn't thick enough to handle that much heat, you will have a fire.

I recommend putting a 5A fuse right where the small wire branches off the big wire. That way at most the small wire will trip the 5A fuse, saving you a fire.

[LA_phantom_240]

I don't mean to nitpick with you, but everyone needs to understand electronics perfectly when running their own wiring.

Absolutely. Not everyone looks a great deal into electronic basics before jumping into something like this.