Severe Duty Fan Clutch vs FoMoCo Factory

[Rob Adams]

Hi all,

I wanted to ask a couple of questions here to see if any of y'all could give me some guidance. month and a half ago AC compressor died in the 05...full failure...necropsy showed metal shavings/gunk in everything. Had to replace it to the tune of 2800 bucks. (new condenser/dryer, compressor, coils, etc) For years the AC suffered in slow/no speed situations so I thought maybe the plugged up/failing AC unit was to blame. Had even replaced the clutch with a ford factory viscous fan clutch but it didnt help. Fast forward to Southern oregon hot summers and the AC is suffering again even with a completely new system. Took it back and they told me that the fan clutch (which was barely a year old) was not kicking in soon enough even when the truck was sitting in the sun on a 100 deg day and the fan wasn't pulling enough air over the coils. They recommended that i put in a severe duty fan clutch (like cop SUV's use) or e-fan. I am still reeling from the ac replacement and can't afford the efan so I got a Hayden Severe Duty clutch and put it in...seems like it's definitely "engaged" more of the time now and pulls a lot more air thru...which makes the AC run better...but the truck is now quite a bit louder.

Do any of you all have experience with the Hayden Severe Duty? Does it seem like it's engaged more of the time? Should it be one of those things that I only put on in the summer and then swap out for the ford factory one in the winter? I don't think the ford one i bought was bad in just over a year, but it sure wasn't doing a great job in the super hot temps so I'm just not sure if it was working 100% right either. It passed the basic tests for a good clutch before I took it off....

Just don't know if leaving this severe duty one on all the time is going to really f my already bad gas mileage (mrs uses the expy for around town kid hauler).

 

[whtbronco]

I have no experience with that fan, though I have considered it as a replacement when the time comes for mine. The only down side I'm aware of is the additional drag on the engine and thus lower fuel economy and more noise, both of which you've noted. If it's really annoying you could swap it out based on the season. An e-fan might be the way to go if the noise is too annoying, you may find a dual fan setup that is quieter. The only time I seem to hear mine is at startup the clutch always engages briefly.

These fan blades sure do make some noise when the clutch is engaged.

 

[Rob Adams]

I have no experience with that fan, though I have considered it as a replacement when the time comes for mine. The only down side I'm aware of is the additional drag on the engine and thus lower fuel economy and more noise, both of which you've noted. If it's really annoying you could swap it out based on the season. An e-fan might be the way to go if the noise is too annoying, you may find a dual fan setup that is quieter. The only time I seem to hear mine is at startup the clutch always engages briefly.

These fan blades sure do make some noise when the clutch is engaged.

Yeah, the efan would be the ultimate solution, but right now im trying not to spend another 5-700 on the truck if I can help it. The fan clutch removal/replacement really doesn't take that long (20-30 mins) so I'm thinking maybe let the gas mileage suffer in the summer but get better cooling and then when the 90s-100s go away take the time to just put in the stock one. Kinda like rotating in winter tires/summer tires...Sucks that I might have to do that though.

 

[whtbronco]

Agreed it would kinda suck to swap the fan twice a year. The thing is it obviously should not be needed. I get plenty of cooling on mine even with the main grill completely covered. I made a cover 10+ years ago from coroplast. I use plastic wire ties to secure it to the grill and I have run it even in temps up to 90 degrees. Heck I towed a car on a trailer, about 5,500lbs, 350 miles with the temp around 80 degrees and still had plenty of cooling. Just suggesting that clearly something is not right, mine is mostly stock, factory original.

Ya know a replacement Motorcraft fan is $62 from RockAuto. Might be worth giving it a shot or trying to find a factory one at a junkyard. Mine has 268k miles on it now. Might work better than the Hayden without the increased draw all the time.

 

[Jb14]

I have had the same situation with the AC not cooling well when hot or sitting in place. I solved this for the most part (90% better) by having an e-pusher fan installed when I had my AC fixed some years back. I have some posts about my AC issues and the pusher fan.

Side comment: While driving at speed with the air consistently hitting the condenser the AC would get cool when stopped/slow the AC would not be as cool to not being effective at all, so installing the pusher fan eliminates the no air over condenser situation and AC works. I have had pusher for 5 years now.

 

[Rob Adams]

Yeah I think I'm going to have to do that. I pulled off the severe duty clutch after 2 weeks. It sure helped... But man did it rob power and fuel economy

 

[Jb14]

@Rob Adams a few antidotes from my experience. As mentioned I had the pusher installed by a mechanic (happens to specialize in AC). They had fans on hand that they use. The first fan installed had straight blades and was very very loud annoyingly loud. Just so happens that the relay they put in burnt out within a week. No problem the mechanic was great and fixed it without issue and have not had that issue since. But at the same time, I discussed with them how loud the fan was and inquired about a quieter fan. They did have a quieter version that was a curved blade design (side note I said I'd pay for the upgrade but they did at no additional cost)

The new fan is much quieter but still somewhat loud and at some point, I may check to see if I can find a quieter fan. The point is you may want to inquire about noise, and if I were to do it again I would pay an additional cost for an even quieter fan (that's just my personal preference others may be fine with the fan sound).

Another thing I did after the fact was to install a switch in the driver's side cabin that I can manually turn off the pusher if I don't want it on. It is installed to heat the sensor and turns on and off at will and quite frequently.

 

[Rob Adams]

Thanks for those tips... Definitely quiet is a good thing. Really the two biggest times I need the fan to be enabled this when we first get in the car and there's a huge amount of heat in it that the electric fan can help push more air across the coils so the car will get cooler faster. The second is when we're stopped at like drive-throughs or I'm sitting in the car waiting for somebody and I want to run the ac. I had always thought that I would wire it in the switch and only use it when I needed it versus having it be thermally controlled or tied into the AC being on. Like you said before in your other post when you're moving after you get some of the heat out of the car it's fine. It's just that low or no speed situations where the extra air across the coils would be useful.