So i have a 93 civic hatch with a d16z6 swap in it. It has a half rad and a slim fan on it. Theres no place for the temperature sensor on the rad so the guy i bought it from has it wired up to the ignition so the fan runs all the time. The car wont reach operating temp no matter how far im driving. It gets up barely past the cold line in traffic then as soon as i get moving again its buried on cold again. a friend said just to wire the fan up to a switch, is that ok to do ?

 

Why is it wired up that way? Stop with the hack wiring. Best to revert it to stock and go from there. First thing is to find out of the thermostat is installed and working.

 

he said its because the half rad doesnt have the place to put the temperature sensor on it like the stock one does so the fan wont ever turn on

 

i can think of 2 options...

1. if you happen to have the temp sensor, i think you can strap it to one of the radiator hoses, should work well enough that way....

2. instead of having to wired to the ignition, set it up on a switch and just turn it on while idling in traffic or when you see the temp get too high

 

You prob have a bad thermostat its prob stuck open causing the cold condition. Your thermostat is there to get the car up to warm operating temperature.. Then when the coolant gets hot it slowly opens up and allows cold coolant to flow through.. So it really shouldnt matter if your fan is always running (you should just get a stock rad from the junkyard and wire it correctly like stated above).

 

Not 100% about d16z6 but...

There should be a relay in the under hood fuse box (the smaller looking one of 3 towards the firewall), the rad fan should get its power from this relay. The relay gets kicked on by a temp sensor in the thermostat housing. The relay-trigger/sensor circuit gets it's power through a fuse in the under dash fuse box (#13 7.5 amp?) thats wired into the ignition switch.

If you are going to replace the sensor with a manual switch, replace the sensor, not the relay. The relay is there for a reason.

The only reason to wire it direct would be as an emergency system in case the primary system failed.

 

i wired it up to a switch, ive yet to have to turn it on anyway

 

Hope we don't see you in a Car-B-Q on the side of the road

You'd be amazed at the flames that leap up from shorted wire insulation.

 

Have none of you realized that there is NO fan switch on the rad?

The temp switch is on the engine(half or full). Even if the motor is swapped the temp switch is the same for all D series engines, and pretty much any B series and H series i've even worked on, so all the stock wiring should be there and plug into the stock fan.

If your slim fan has a hard wire pig tail(just 2 wires w/o plug) then cut the stock plug off the fan harness and hardwire it to your slim fan.

 

The thermostat housing is indeed located on the engine block, not the radiator.