Clutch Fan Delete

crazykid1994 · Aug 9, 2019

clint440 said:
How did you pick what PWM controller to use? I see that there various brands to possibly use...

I chose this one based on how it controls the fan. It’s a true pwm module not a 2 speed fan controller like most that jegs or summit have. Also most of the controllers are rated around 35 amps max draw. I believe this fan to be around 35 amps. This controller is rated at 50. They sell others higher or for dual fans even. I know most people have good luck with just running a tune to adjust fan temps but I wanted something more meticulous. Also I’ve yet to see or hear of anyone running a stand-alone fan controller on these trucks so that was part of the reason I wanted to do this. I’m not tuned currently and getting ready to drop in a 180 tstat. Next is tune and full exhaust headers back

clint440 · Aug 9, 2019

crazykid1994 said:
I chose this one based on how it controls the fan. It’s a true pwm module not a 2 speed fan controller like most that jegs or summit have. Also most of the controllers are rated around 35 amps max draw. I believe this fan to be around 35 amps. This controller is rated at 50. They sell others higher or for dual fans even. I know most people have good luck with just running a tune to adjust fan temps but I wanted something more meticulous. Also I’ve yet to see or hear of anyone running a stand-alone fan controller on these trucks so that was part of the reason I wanted to do this. I’m not tuned currently and getting ready to drop in a 180 tstat. Next is tune and full exhaust headers back

I hear ya, I wanted to meticulously control the temp and utilize the PWM technology. I really thought that Jay Greene was going to be able to program for the factory style PWM fan to work as I wired it in just like a factory Pentastar truck. It was a gamble that didn't work at least with Diablo programming. I don't know if maybe I had used HP tuners it could have worked. I went diablo as it was such a hassle to mail in your PCM to be unlocked and then have it mailed back versus the Diablo exchange.

By the way, Jay Greene's tune kicks ass and he was very user friendly so I'm not disappointed that I couldn't get the PWM fan to work initially. Your post has me thinking to do what you are doing. Right now just getting by with the AC fan while my fancy factory PWM fan sits unused.

pacofortacos · Aug 10, 2019

What is the hottest temp that you can set the module on before the fan turns at all?
Ie. can you have it start to turn at say 210 and maintain 210?
I ask because I have no desire to be below 195-200 degrees and their website isn't very clear on that. They like to have the fan run below the thermostat rating if I remember what I read correctly.

crazykid1994 · Aug 10, 2019

clint440 said:
I hear ya, I wanted to meticulously control the temp and utilize the PWM technology. I really thought that Jay Greene was going to be able to program for the factory style PWM fan to work as I wired it in just like a factory Pentastar truck. It was a gamble that didn't work at least with Diablo programming. I don't know if maybe I had used HP tuners it could have worked. I went diablo as it was such a hassle to mail in your PCM to be unlocked and then have it mailed back versus the Diablo exchange.

By the way, Jay Greene's tune kicks ass and he was very user friendly so I'm not disappointed that I couldn't get the PWM fan to work initially. Your post has me thinking to do what you are doing. Right now just getting by with the AC fan while my fancy factory PWM fan sits unused.

No

I’m looking at Greene tune for my truck. I’m curious how hp tuners works as the tuning platform as I’m more interested in the pcm unlock. I know diablo is upload from laptop to the handheld but I’ve never seen hp tuners. I’ve heard good things about both but never tuned a vehicle before so I’m lost. Last truck was a 97 with the 318 so this is already a lot faster.

pacofortacos said:
What is the hottest temp that you can set the module on before the fan turns at all?
Ie. can you have it start to turn at say 210 and maintain 210?
I ask because I have no desire to be below 195-200 degrees and their website isn't very clear on that. They like to have the fan run below the thermostat rating if I remember what I read correctly.

The thermostat is what regulates your temp. The fan only cools the radiator. The thermostat let’s cool coolant mix from the radiator into the engine to regulate engine temp. I could run the fan max all the time and my truck would still regulate to about 190. If you are only looking at staying with stock temps just stick to the stock setup. It works very well. Only reason I did the stand-alone controller is for full control for racing and off-roading. My truck maintained 192° with the 190° tstat with the stock setup but if I raced or went off-road my truck would go to 205 and higher pretty quickly. I’ve yet to try with this controller yet due to just installing and haven’t installed the 180° tstat yet. The fan speed is supposed to be set with a temp laser on the output hose of the radiator so it’s vehicle dependent.

pacofortacos · Aug 10, 2019

crazykid1994 said:
I’m looking at Greene tune for my truck. I’m curious how hp tuners works as the tuning platform as I’m more interested in the pcm unlock. I know diablo is upload from laptop to the handheld but I’ve never seen hp tuners. I’ve heard good things about both but never tuned a vehicle before so I’m lost. Last truck was a 97 with the 318 so this is already a lot faster.

The thermostat is what regulates your temp. The fan only cools the radiator. The thermostat let’s cool coolant mix from the radiator into the engine to regulate engine temp. I could run the fan max all the time and my truck would still regulate to about 190. If you are only looking at staying with stock temps just stick to the stock setup. It works very well. Only reason I did the stand-alone controller is for full control for racing and off-roading. My truck maintained 192° with the 190° tstat with the stock setup but if I raced or went off-road my truck would go to 205 and higher pretty quickly. I’ve yet to try with this controller yet due to just installing and haven’t installed the 180° tstat yet. The fan speed is supposed to be set with a temp laser on the output hose of the radiator so it’s vehicle dependent.

I know that. What I want to know is how high of a temp can it get before starting to turn the fan at all.
Ie. if I put my 190 stat back in but wanted the fan to start to come on at 205 and then maintain the temp at 205 (within a few degrees) by cycling on/off/fast/slow - is it able to that? I don't want to run the fan continuously.
The stock setup with electric only will allow the temps to reach 220 before turning on the fan, I would prefer a bit less, but really don't want in the low 190's.

crazykid1994 · Aug 10, 2019

The fan runs the whole time. The whole point to this controller is to keep the fan running but load dependent that way it doesn’t cycle on and off. What you want to do is just run the 203 tstat if you are trying to stay around 205. The fan is not used to regulate temp so why would you want the fan to maintain your 205° instead of the thermostat which is designed for that job. The fan only regulates radiator temp either way. Not engine temp. Your 205 is engine coolant. My radiator output is around +/- 150° That’s just a guess.

pacofortacos · Aug 10, 2019

The 203 thermostat will only regulate the temp at 205 IF the clutch fan is on or the electric fan is running all of the time - I was going for neither of those conditions.
IF the electric fan runs all of the time, it negates what very minor gain there is for removing the clutch fan.
That is why I was wondering what is the max temp that can be set before the fan starts to run.

I do like the idea of a soft start and variable fan vs. the stock on or off setup but only if it can be set to not run until a given temp.

crazykid1994 · Aug 11, 2019

pacofortacos said:
The 203 thermostat will only regulate the temp at 205 IF the clutch fan is on or the electric fan is running all of the time - I was going for neither of those conditions.
IF the electric fan runs all of the time, it negates what very minor gain there is for removing the clutch fan.
That is why I was wondering what is the max temp that can be set before the fan starts to run.

I do like the idea of a soft start and variable fan vs. the stock on or off setup but only if it can be set to not run until a given temp.

It is not adjustable to how you are wanting. The fan runs at low speed which is less load on the system until needed. also, if you run your ac the electric fan is basically on full speed full time anyways. I don’t understand what you are expecting out of this controller. The clutch fan does not draw a lot of power from the motor. That’s the point of the viscous clutch. It reduces fan drag unless needed. You cannot set the high and low range on this. It is based off of the temp sensor and will increase or decrease based on what your radiator temp is. If you have any in depth questions there is an email on the website for the person who can answer any questions you may have about the item. If I leave the ac off the fan turns on around 150° and slowly speeds up till it regulates around whatever temp it’s reading in the output of the radiator. If you are running 205° engine temp you are not running for performance and the 5hp you may see from the clutch fan being removed will not be noticeable anyways

crackerjack1957 · Aug 11, 2019

Quicker warm ups with no clutch fan.........6500 RPM loves not having to spin fan........LoL

BlownGP · Aug 11, 2019

crazykid1994 said:
That’s exactly what I’m hoping. We have a hot one here today. Currently 93° with a Feel of 107° getting ready to take the truck out. The fan runs low speed if I’m not under load. Spins faster the hotter the coolant gets. Supposedly it won’t run or will run really slow during higher speeds unless my ac calls for the fan because the air flow from driving should be enough to keep the coolant temps down.

Sounds very interesting. Curious to see how well it works.

crazykid1994 · Aug 11, 2019

BlownGP said:
Sounds very interesting. Curious to see how well it works.

So far so good. Going on the highway long distance this weekend so see how that does. Everything is working well right now. Installed the 180 stat and truck runs a solid 185° now. Cools down pretty quickly as well after quick launches

clint440 · Aug 11, 2019

What sender did you elect to use? Where did you mount the controller at? Are you wri

crazykid1994 said:
So far so good. Going on the highway long distance this weekend so see how that does. Everything is working well right now. Installed the 180 stat and truck runs a solid 185° now. Cools down pretty quickly as well after quick launches

What fan are you running? The 3.7 V6 fan or the Pentastar Fan (like in the pic beginning of the thread)? What is the best sender to use and did you run the AC and ignition wires from the fuse box to the controller? Where did you end up mounting the controller?

crazykid1994 · Aug 11, 2019

I tapped switched power and constant power from the fuse box. I’ll get more pictures but here’s the controller. Mounted on top of the fuse box. Tapped the ac compressor at the connector for the compressor. I’m running the v6 fan from a 2010. What do you mean Sender?

clint440 · Aug 12, 2019

I saw that were different options for senders from autocool to measure the radiator inlet. Hmm, I wonder if that will fire the Pentastar PWM fan. I couldn't get it to run even when connected directly to the battery.

Tim Garceau · Aug 12, 2019

I like it, how fast does it spin at warm idle? I noticed the stock 4.5 Gen makes quite a bit of noise at the stop sign now that it cooled down enough to have a window open.

crazykid1994 · Aug 12, 2019

clint440 said:
I saw that were different options for senders from autocool to measure the radiator inlet. Hmm, I wonder if that will fire the Pentastar PWM fan. I couldn't get it to run even when connected directly to the battery.

I’m not sure as I haven’t seen the other fan. I had to get the inline temp sensor and cut the lower radiator hose to install. We have plastic tanks so the standard sensor wouldn’t work.

Tim Garceau said:
I like it, how fast does it spin at warm idle? I noticed the stock 4.5 Gen makes quite a bit of noise at the stop sign now that it cooled down enough to have a window open.

Depending on if you just floored it or not idle is usually pretty slow. Maybe around 30% maybe a little faster. Usually it’s not noticeable unless the ac is on because then the fan is full blast

BellevilleRam · Oct 22, 2020

James OBrien said:
For what it's worth, the fan you have already on your '17 is exactly the same as the fan you're looking to replace it with, I think they upgraded it on the '14 and up rams. I just did this on my '18, I purchased the V6 fan and other than a little bit better shrouding, it's the exact same motor. Honestly all you need to do is get rid of the clutch fan, the electric fan will work fine. If you wanted to go with a 180 degree t-stat then you'd probably want a tune to set the fan kick on temp lower. I can tell you with very spirited driving in hot temps my '18, with a 180 t-stat NEVER gets hot and the stock fan is more than enough to cool the motor.

I just got a 3" body lift for my 2017 Ram 1500 and deleted my clutch fan. Are you saying that I wouldn't need to buy the V6 fan as mine is the same size? A mechanic I spoke with mentioned looking for an EcoDiesel fan as he said my electric fan wouldn't be enough in warm weather. Any thoughts on that? Thanks.

James OBrien · Oct 22, 2020

BellevilleRam said:
I just got a 3" body lift for my 2017 Ram 1500 and deleted my clutch fan. Are you saying that I wouldn't need to buy the V6 fan as mine is the same size? A mechanic I spoke with mentioned looking for an EcoDiesel fan as he said my electric fan wouldn't be enough in warm weather. Any thoughts on that? Thanks.

I can only report on how mine behaved, with the stock A/C fan and no extra shroud I've gotten through two summers in the midwest with temps at 100 and humidity not much lower and never had a problem. And I'm running a supercharger. I would get a tune though to make sure it kicks on at a lower temp.

Gone · Oct 26, 2020

James OBrien said:
I can only report on how mine behaved, with the stock A/C fan and no extra shroud I've gotten through two summers in the midwest with temps at 100 and humidity not much lower and never had a problem. And I'm running a supercharger. I would get a tune though to make sure it kicks on at a lower temp.

same here in 100+ heat just the stock electric fan temps are the same..nearly fell for that V6 fan bs lol..
i did get a medium size pusher fan its oem 1990s suburban comes with metal brackets you just bolt on dont need the extra cooling but might install it later as backup..

shadowhawk · Oct 26, 2020

it's getting to be winter here. I might drop the clutch fan for the cold months.

Clutch Fan Delete

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Banned

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Similar threads

Forum statistics

Share this page