I put electric fans on my new aluminum radiator. Right now, they go off when the ignition is turned off.

On a lot of new cars, the fans continue to operate until the car cools off. Should I wire mine to do this? Just for jollys, I tied the relay to the battery to allow this. It ran for 15 minutes! Not sure I want to do this. So how do the new cars get away with it... or do they have a timer on the relay???

>>>Rod<<<

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>>>Rod<<<
A.C.E.S. # 2894
Team Chevelle #115

Some new cars automatically run for 10-15 minutes after the ignition has been turned off, some run until the temp has come down to a certain level.

If you have yours wired to automatically come on with a thermostat, it'll probably run a good 10-15 minutes after you shutdown. This is one of the hardest things on batteries with new cars.

I'd just leave it to shut down with the ignition, it wire in a switch so you can manually turn it off/on, that way you can shut the car off if need be and turn the fan on to cool it off (like if your stuck in really ridiculous traffic).

Wes.

I don't know how they work, but when it is really hot, the fan on my wife's Honda runs for a long time after she parks it in the garage. And I don't like it, but it always seems to crank fine later.

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Tom Parsons

I think the switch idea that Wes is talking about, is a good one. There is a guy at my local saturday night cruise, 56 BelAir 8-71 blown 420 lingenfelter motor, juiced with one of those timing kits.Anyway he has a little switch under the dash and if he gets cought in nasty traffic on the way to the cruise he'll click it on for like 10 minutes and shutit off when it cools off a bit. Quick and easy wiring he claimed plus you control it!

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Steve
64SS-327-4spd-sold to Original owner!
65 Malibu 283/PG!!!
http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/stevedmalibu.jpg
Team Chevelle Member #71

Hey Rod,
I had my fan wired to a thermostat when I first put it in so it would run with the ignition off and it was really tough on my battery and my alternator. I must have gone through about 5 alternators, granted not all of the blame is on the fan, but I am guessing the a lot of it is. When I wired it into my ignition, it worked well and the battery and alternator have lasted since. There should be a place on your fuse box to allow you to easily wire it to your ignition. I still have the thermostat on mine too. I am very pleased with the results. I hope this helps you out.

--Jerry--
68 Chevelle

As far as running for 10-15 minutes after shutting off the ignition -

A) I would think it would really be HARD on the battery - drawing 30A for 15 minutes seems like a lot. But then again, when you fire it up, a 100A Alternator is gonna "fill it up" again pretty quick.

B) But then again, I live near Death Valley, CA, and it is very warm. Some folks think it's hell during the summer. It's not, but you can see it from here.

The idea of cooking the oil after turning off the ignition seems that it would be a good idea to allow the fan to run, and override my feeling of killing a battery. I don't know how true that it, tho.

Is one of the factors of oil longevity, the cooking that it continually undergoes when a engine is shut off, and cooler air is not cooling the water is rushing through the jackets?

I can tell you that my Elky has a cooling problem. Either that - or my guage is off! I was sitting at a long light (5 minutes) the other day, and with the A/C on, the guage rose to 260, and stayed their for several until I started moving where it came down to 250, and stayed their for several minutes. When I got home, and I turned it off. I then turned the ignition to accessory, and allowed the cooling fan to stay on for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes, it was still on, but the gauge indicated that it was at 190, so I turned it off. The thermostatic relay on the fan is on at 190, off at 165.

On a normal day of cruising down the road with the a/c on, I am always at about 220-230 on the temp. The engine thermostat is a 185 unit.

>>>Rod<<<