Overheat at Idle - what needs replacing?

[dridge11]

Mine is a plastic fan...according to the previous owner, the fan clutch that's in it was replaced about 10 years ago when it did the same thing to him.

[Shade133]

only thing an electric fan will do is give you a tad bit more HP, if any noticible at all.. and its a lot of work.. so its not really even worth it.

[steve91tt]

only thing an electric fan will do is give you a tad bit more HP, if any noticible at all.. and its a lot of work.. so its not really even worth it.

Electric fans also sound better than mechanical but I agree they aren't worth the bother as they generally don't cool as well, they have a huge power draw and if mounted directly to the rad can cause premature radiator failure due to vibration fatigue.

[Shade133]

YEP! i forgot the power draw, so if you think about it, you get rid of the drag from the clutch manual fan, add a electric fan, its going to cause drag by the alt whether it may be less then the belt driven one or not, its still not worth it!

im in phoenix, and ive been told by lots of people to not go electric because it wont cool as well.

[FastWoman]

Yeah, it's the fan clutch. It comes apart the way it looks like it should. Nothing blows up or pops apart into a shower of springs, so it's pretty easy. Once you get it open, clean out the old silicone oil thoroughly. You'll need to circulate some sort of cleaning solvent through it with the halves reassemebled. Then fill up the deeper half with 90 wt gear oil and reassemble. Done.

[wa5ngp]

Living in central Texas I had lots of vapor locking problems when the fan clutch got the least bit weak. I solved the problem with a metal flex fan eliminating the clutch. Have had it this way for 20+ years. It was a significant improvement for me and made the ac better at idle too.

Don