I am thinking of doing away with the engine driven cooling fan on my 56 f100 and replacing it with an electric one. My question is. Is a large one better than two or three smaller ones? Has anyone done this conversion and what worked best for you? Your input is appreciated as allways.

Hang loose and enjoy the ride.

Brisbane Australia

Simply going by size may get you in trouble.  There are some quite large electric fans out there that have relatively low CFM ratings.  And there are some small ones that have surprisingly high cfm ratings.  You want to be able to put as much air as necessary through as much of the core as possible.  So a large fan may not pass enough air through and a small fan may produce huricane force winds but only on a fraction of the core.  In both cases the cooling will probably be poor.

When I go electric I plan to install 2 fans and make a shroud so they will only pull the air through the core.  Two fans also offer a little bit of redundancy;  In the middle of nowhere some cooling ability is better than none at all.

Lawrenceville, GA

I use a single 16 inch curved blade fan with 1200 cfm pushing thru. it was the highest cfm I could find . I used to live in Dallas Texas and the blade fan just didnt work well at cooling. I installed the 16incher and a thermostst and it has worked well  ever since. I did have a 14inch one at first but it didnt have enough air movement so i got the 16. this has been 3 years ago. I now live in North Carolina and it isnt as hot here but I do like the temp gage readings.  my 2cents 55birdman

55Birdman  Hickory NC

My electric fan is an Air Vintiques brand.  It does 2600 cfm advertised, and cools well in traffic or long stops.  I dont use it at all if moving more than 10 mph.  The fan mounts directly to the inside face of the radiator, using four adjustable brackets which attach to the rad frame.  No shroud required, except for what is built into the fan itself.  It is 16 inches.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Thanks 46yblock. You say you dont use it above 10mph, do you switch it manually? or use a thermal control? 

 56 effie.

Hang loose and enjoy the ride.

Brisbane Australia

Yes, there is a toggle switch to turn it on and off, and an accurate water temperature gauge.  Automatic switching isnt very expensive, but then my truck is kind of "interactive" .

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Here is a picture that shows one of the mounting points.  There is adjustability for inward and outward movement of the fan, allowing it to be flush to the core.  Two of the four bracket holes lined up with existing frame holes, and the other two had to be drilled.  I was able to do it without removing the radiator.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Thank you to all, looks like the next project will be an electric fan upgrade.

56 effie

Hang loose and enjoy the ride.

Brisbane Australia

I have a 16" fan from proform, flows somewhere around 2300 cfm, cost about 90 dollars, I have it switch on by a thermal switch, 200 on 180 off. have a aluminum radidator i got from jegs, with a 195 thermostat, it never get above 175, i think i need to restrict the water bypass a little, the radidator cools too well.