Buck,
I have an electric setup on my 200tdi (uses 300 tdi intercooler). I used a kenlowe fan, threw their thermostatic control in the trash and installed an X Engineering fan switch wired to an on-off-on switch. This way the fan can be switched manually at the dash switch, automatically by the thermostatic switch, or switched off entirely for water / mud crossings. I am very pleased with the arrangement. FYI, the only time my tdi needs a fan for cooling is on the trails. It has never come on during normal driving.
This is VERY helpful. Thank you. My fan clutch took a dump. They are $150 now!! So I started thinking about a fan like you have, but I didn't know what would happen to the intercooler since I couldn't make it work with the stock shroud. So you answered that question.
Do you think having a small pull fan on the intercooler would make any difference? Do you operate the Taurus fan on the low setting all the time, or do you only use the high fan when it finally gets hot?
I have the flex-a-lite variable speed controller. No real need...but I was feeling spendy that day. The fan only ever comes on off road and then only 10 seconds every 5 minutes. On road it is not needed.
As to fans on intercoolers, it is pretty uncommon, since it is hard to be on sustained boost at low speed. Without a fan you get better air flow on the highway. Your application is quite different though as you don't drive on the road. I doubt it would make much difference. Off road, they act more as charge coolers, being cooled by the intake air when you let off the throttle. Of course an intercooler fan would not hurt anything either when only used off road.
Oh yah, it is a serious fan. People use them on cars that have substantially more horsepower than any Rover on the planet.... People using tiny fans really give electric fans a bad name.
You really need to get your sight checked!!! :rofl
If you are really worried about your intercooler, you could always go with a water-cooled intercooler. I bought all the stuff to do it to my diesel vw for cheap on ebay. As long as the core is efficient and flows well, it should keep your intake temps down..
I went cheap. The taurus fans are actually expensive now. Best I could do was $55 used before shipping. I ended up with a 16in puller fan. 2500 CFM. The taurus looks like 3,500 or more cfm so it will not move as much air. It sounded like in your posts the Tfan you used was overkill, so hopefully this will work for me. After I install it I will post up pics. I got the fan and controller for $78 shipped.
Follow-up Post:
Turbofan said:
If you are really worried about your intercooler, you could always go with a water-cooled intercooler. I bought all the stuff to do it to my diesel vw for cheap on ebay. As long as the core is efficient and flows well, it should keep your intake temps down..
There are some down in San Diego, and some up in LA but I am 50 miles from either. Plus, it looks like there may be interference issues. Hard to tell. I moved my radiator back something like 2-3in and I only have 4in from the back of the radiator to the front pulley. The fan I bought is 3.5in mounted directly to the radiator. Ahh, small projects, always more involved than you think.
There are some down in San Diego, and some up in LA but I am 50 miles from either. Plus, it looks like there may be interference issues. Hard to tell. I moved my radiator back something like 2-3in and I only have 4in from the back of the radiator to the front pulley. The fan I bought is 3.5in mounted directly to the radiator. Ahh, small projects, always more involved than you think.
Be aware though that it is not exactly drop in. Check here for where you need to trim the radiator surrounds. If you went with a 14in it would not be an issue but you lose a ton of surface area.
As to the result, the water temp can not get over 190 no matter what I try. It spends most if the time around 170 to 180. It was a great success that way. The big negative is I am overheating pretty bad on the EGT's. I have the fuel cranked way up so this may not be an issue for most. I know it was not for Red90, but I hit 1400 in like 5 minutes of murder. That said, the egts have been getting hotter than normal recently so I may have an issue somewhere else. I think I may have pushed it too hard recently, but there is no contamination in the coolant so I am not sure how I could have hurt it exactly. I have hit 1400 twice now, but for seconds.
I am in the process of installing a 1000 cfm 9in fan on the back side of the intercooler right now to see if makes a difference. If not, then I may have to turn it down.
No, as I said EGTs dropped after removing the shroud. The stock 200TDi one is pretty bad, no idea about the 300 TDI one. I have fueling adjusted to limit EGTs where I want them.
Dav-o on my 12 valve cummins, going to a bigger Down pipe and exhaust, plus adding a huge ass air Filter intake, made a GIANT difference on my EGTs...
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