Hey everyone, since I finished the turbo build. I went on and replaced the stock radiator and ac fans with slim fan units from www.slimfan.com. I noticed today coming home from school, driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic that my temps get HOT, on stoplights, it would slowly climb to 3/4 on the temperature gauge and it would get back down as the car is moving. Also the same story with the ac. On stoplights it would blow cool air but when moving it gets considerably colder.

Do you guys think it's because the fans I've bought are crappy? They're both brand new and are in the stock "puller" position. I am not leaking any coolant because it is always full when I check it. So a bad waterpump or blown HG arent the problem. I also checked the ac system with a sniffer and found no leaks.

Any inputs?

 

crappy fans. no shroud. or you possibly wired them up opposite also

 

yea the fans on that website look like the cheapo ones on ebay. I would go with spal. I tried one of those fans before and the fan blade fell off and the motor went out. Like stated above if the fan is mounted in the stock location than it should be pulling air so it will blow air onto the motor. Also you can try hooking up a relay switch so the power supplied to the fan is directly from the battery.

 

what radiator and what fans? did you get a full size or a half? you need something that moves cfm like FAL or a spal with a shroud

 

slim fans are ****. well, cheap ones are ****... if u get a flex-a-lite i bet your problems go away...

i ALWAYS try to use an OEM fan when ever possible.

i had a similar issue and i had to buy a more expensive slim fan, and add a heater core "2nd rad" with its own fan... hah

 

Flexalite's are much slower CFM wise over Fal and Spal... I'm actually replacing my 10" Flexalite with an Zirgo fan... 250 CFM difference! Although Flexalite does have one of the better CFM ratings for 10" fans (800 CFM) but the Zirgo I picked up is 1149 CFM as they have found a way to run a stonger fan motor in a small space...

But I will say I have nothing bad to say about Flexalite, just looking for every last bit of CFM I can squeeze out of my tiny engine bay! Oh and I never had an issue with my Spal 13" fan I had in my NA set up!

So to the OP, go with the largest fan you can squeeze in there!

 

is this a good time to point out flex-a-lite IS FAL?

 

Wiring is correct on both fans.

I'm not using any shrouds though, both are attached with the "mounting kit" aka special zipties that they come with.

I have a half-size oem civic radiator that came with the EM1.

So what do you guys recommend? I see three already, FAL, SPAL and flex-a-lite. Which of these are better buys for the money?

Also which model?There are quite a few ranging models with different cfms as price increases, what is sufficient?

 

Lol yes it would be! I guess I should be distinguishing which line of Fal's/flexalite i was talking about... I have the flexalite 108.

 

Just went over to Zirgo's website and they have a pretty affordable 12" for $70 that claims to do 1200+ CFMs.

Anyone use zirgos? I know alot of manufacturers just put up numbers without anything to back up

 

this is the guy you want

http://www.amazon.com/Flex-lite-125-...3188714&sr=8-1

 

Im rocking the the spal 13" fan on my half size radiator. It has around 1700 cfms if you get the one with the curve bend blades. I dont believe any other 12"-13" fan comes close to that. Also you state the wiring is correct. How is it ran.

 

A shroud will be key if your not using one. Without one you limit the actual CFM the fan can flow evenly over the whole radiator. I also noticed a huge difference in air flow when I installed a shroud. You could hear and feel the difference. It was alot more noticable then I figured it would be.

Also try and run the largest possible. I fit a 12" with a shroud and thats the best I could do with the downpipe in the way. If you can mount it and have the room I'd vote to go as big as possible.

Hope any of that helps

 

I just dont know about a $200 fan lol

 

Do you remember what model or where you got it from? Price?


The units come pre-installed with oem style plugs

 

How did you go about finding/fabricating a shroud?

 

I made one from scratch. I know not everyone can do that, but only way I could get it to all fit the way I wanted it. I know most aftermarket rads have shrouds you can buy for them.

IMO it's going to make the most difference out of your possible options. Also make sure your running the right coolant mix. Often people have it way backwards and it makes it worse then better. Don't run just water either.

 

There's this
http://www.slimfan.com/92_00_Honda_R...ondashroud.htm

But i wonder if I upgrade to better fans that running them without shrouds will still be ok. Theres so many high-hp cars running no shrouds...

 

I got mine from ebay. It doesnt have a factory plug. U just have to take the connector from the oem fan. Also you do have to run a relay to supply power from the battery for this fan. You wont come close to those cfms w/o doing so. This fan literally covers the whole radiator so no need to worry about a shroud. I have tried a few different fans and the spal 13" is by far the best.

 

OP i have same problem i am currently fixing. those cheap fans you bought could fit in the front maybe and pull the heat out the front while in slow driving. and all i could find for success was a shrouded rad with a good slim fan and also plenty of heat wrap and turbo blanket. GL.

 

You cannot pull the heat from the inside out. You want the fan to pull the cooler air from outside of the car through the radiator. On my turbo integra I bought 2 12" slim fans off ebay when I had the stock radiator. I never had a problem and temps stayed perfect. I'm still using one of those fans so it's been 2 years now and it hasn't fallen apart. Here in Texas we have 100 degree summers and I have had no problem with it. I'm sure they are not as good quality as these expensive ones but they are not junk.

 

Have you tried bleeding the cooling system?

 

No air in the system.

I'm going to try to wire it directly from the battery with a relay to get more amperage for the fans. Is there a write-up anywhere?

 

I will let you know this weekend about the Zirgo fan when I swap it for my Flexalite 108... But I won't notice a huge difference until the temps get up near 80+... Suppose to rain this weekend!

The one thing I like about Zirgo is you can swap out the Fan Motor if it's bad or if you want to upgrade from the basic motor to the slightly higher output motor of 150-350 CFM...

So I'll do a review once I get everything up and running... Probably Friday/Saturday...

 

Zirgo makes a 12" straigt blade that puts out 1248 CFM's and there 14" straight blade puts out 2175 CFM's!

Again I'll do a review on how I think the construction/quality compares to the Flexalite 108 10" fan I currently have... I've also owned the 13" Spal fan you have, so I can speak on that as well...