[K3CLT]

My 65 283 Malibu has the SPAL 11" twin fans. This is what I see. When I bought the car and was driving home it was running around 185-195 on the road at speed. In traffic or stopped it would go to 220. I never heard the fans running. When I got it home I found that the coolant sensor located in the front of the intake was broken on top. I got another one from the parts store. The cooling issue continued. What I did notice is that if I pull the wire from the sensor and ground it I get both fans running. When I let the temp go up I get only one fan running. I see another sensor in the right head but am not sure how this plays into the mix. Does anyone have a copy of the instructions for these fans. I did call SPAL and they gave me a part number and sent me to Summit to get the part. I noticed that the description of the part says its a 3/8" thread which I think is the one for in the head. I tried grounding the center contact on that one and nothing happened.
Hoping someone has the schematic for these fans.
Thanks Chuck

 

[jeffs68]

 

[DUTCH MAX HEADWORK]

The sensor in the head is probably for your temp gauge or idiot light. Green wire runs to it in the stock wiring harness. When you ground it out, your temp gauge pegged or your idiot light illuminated. After-market gauges wire color is a crapshoot. Trace the wire and see fit leads into the engine harness/cab or the relays for the fans.

You can run one or 2 temp senders and you can also trigger manually. A/c cars usually run 1 fan when the a/c clutch engages. There are many ways to hook these up.

Some guys hook up each fan on a separate system. "for safety".

Can you send some pictures of what you have going on.... wiring-wise.

 

[fauxrs]

My 65 283 Malibu has the SPAL 11" twin fans. This is what I see. When I bought the car and was driving home it was running around 185-195 on the road at speed. In traffic or stopped it would go to 220. I never heard the fans running. When I got it home I found that the coolant sensor located in the front of the intake was broken on top. I got another one from the parts store. The cooling issue continued. What I did notice is that if I pull the wire from the sensor and ground it I get both fans running. When I let the temp go up I get only one fan running. I see another sensor in the right head but am not sure how this plays into the mix. Does anyone have a copy of the instructions for these fans. I did call SPAL and they gave me a part number and sent me to Summit to get the part. I noticed that the description of the part says its a 3/8" thread which I think is the one for in the head. I tried grounding the center contact on that one and nothing happened.
Hoping someone has the schematic for these fans.
Thanks Chuck

Another thing to keep in mind, I hope I can describe this well enough without diagrams.

Your 65 should have a downflow radiator, i.e. the tanks are on the top and bottom of the radiator, this differs from later rads which are crossflow, having tanks on either side of the core.

When running dual fans on a downflow radiator, its important to realize that if only one of the two fans are operating then only half of the radiator is getting increased airflow and some hot coolant will pass vertically down the side of the radiator that has no operating fan, this allows hot coolant to shortcut and re-enter the engine without fully cooling.

On a crossflow radiator this isn't as important because no matter which of the two fans are operating all of the coolant will flow through the increased airflow section of the radiator.

What this means is on a downflow, for the greatest efficiency, dual electric fans should be both operating at the same time. For this reason I prefer dual 2-speed fans on downflow radiators.

If you do a search on Ford Contour fans, you will find a oem solution that provides 2-speed fans that fit right on these earlier downflow radiators. I run the same setup on my big block 66 camino and am setting it up for my LS powered '67.

 

[K3CLT]

I think I have it figured out. The sensor located on the side of the engine controls the temp gauge. The sensor I replaced in the intake controls the fans. I replaced that one thinking it controlled the gauge. Tomorrow I will switch them around and see if it works. I put the new fan sensor in the block and all it did was peg the temp gauge. I'll fix it tomorrow

 

[K3CLT]

My 65 283 Malibu has the SPAL 11" twin fans. This is what I see. When I bought the car and was driving home it was running around 185-195 on the road at speed. In traffic or stopped it would go to 220. I never heard the fans running. When I got it home I found that the coolant sensor located in the front of the intake was broken on top. I got another one from the parts store. The cooling issue continued. What I did notice is that if I pull the wire from the sensor and ground it I get both fans running. When I let the temp go up I get only one fan running. I see another sensor in the right head but am not sure how this plays into the mix. Does anyone have a copy of the instructions for these fans. I did call SPAL and they gave me a part number and sent me to Summit to get the part. I noticed that the description of the part says its a 3/8" thread which I think is the one for in the head. I tried grounding the center contact on that one and nothing happened.
Hoping someone has the schematic for these fans.
Thanks Chuck

Well I got my fans working. The sensor on the side of the engine was for the temp gauge. I installed a SPAL 195 degree sensor in the intake and the fans (2) cane on around 200 Degrees Thanks for all the suggestions and help.

 

[hydro462]

Why not pick up a nice clutch fan..

 

[DUTCH MAX HEADWORK]

Why not pick up a nice clutch fan..

.......and hang it on the wall if the electrics are doing the job.

Note, this comment was made by a staunch supporter of the stock cooling system.😃

 

[Stokerboats]

I'm using this on my 66 with dual 11" Spal Fans

Electric Fan Controller; Adjustable 150-240 degree range; Thread-in probe sensor | #69598

Turn your electric fan into a thermostat controlled fan! PROFORM's premium adjustable fan controller make this easy! The thread-in probe can be installed directly into the water jacket of the intake manifold, engine block, or cylinder head. Fan activation is adjustable between 150 and 240...

www.proformparts.com

 

[lucifershammer]

.......and hang it on the wall if the electrics are doing the job.

Note, this comment was made by a staunch supporter of the stock cooling system.😃

I agree. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

From another supporter of the stock cooling system.

 

[DUTCH MAX HEADWORK]

If you are using a single relay at least carry a spare and some spare fuses for the system. The initial inflow rush current on the single relay systems burns or welds the relay contacts. Also keep an eye on the relay holder and the wires running out of it. They too suffer from overheating or melting from the same initial inflow current when the fans start up. A better setup used 2 relays to split the high inflow current.

I'm half talking out of the backside here as I'm not 100% aware of your current system. But when things go south, maybe you will remember this post and beware of possible upgrades to bullet proof the system.

 

[Stokerboats]

FWIW, I've used that proform piece with my fans for roughly 5 years without a failure. Perhaps two are better but I'm fairly cheap PLUS it's more wires.

 

[shovelrick]

I've had my fuse holder melt with the 30 amp fuse that came with the Derale kit still good, I think I had it mounted too close to the rad so I moved it to the other side of the battery, put a 25 amp fuse in and 0 problems since, I do think I'm upgrading to the Proform adj. unit though since it sounds like a very good upgrade specially here in Fl.