did fine today. i let is sit idling for extended periods as well as my usual driving. stayed at 188 degrees. played with it a bit and it will hold down to 157ish (that is as low as my water pump will turn down to), but 188 is my target and it had no problem with that. moves around in 185-188 range. i'm sure it would be fine holding temps to whatever the stat will allow. (my electric water pump is my stat)
only got up to 70, though. may have to turn it to a lower temp setting when it gets warmer, but i kind of doubt it.
i will leave it running on the cheesy little supplied controller unless an issue arises with it. the controller is just so small and compact that its hard to put total faith in it. but time will tell.

 

Any updates with mpg?

What's your ambient temp?

 

I have used these electric fans many times in the past mostly for track cars. They are light and robust and have never let me down (famous last words) I thought they may be of interest to some.

SPAL Automotive USA

 

Up to 80 today
They're working perfectly and that little controller seems be working great.
I have both the water and the fans dialed in at 88° and I am plus or -1°

 

That's pretty cool - my aux fan crapped out on me last spring and I decided to just lightly modify a 16" low profile electric fan and install it in there instead, it's been working great. It probably flows enough CFM to function entirely as a radiator fan in an emergency however the distance from the condenser to the radiator probably kills efficiency.

I've wanted to take out the clutch fan for a while (I've done many electric fan mods in the past) - my old M3 was super easy as you swap out the factory temp sensor which has a hi/lo wire output with a 10 degree ish lower one. Those wires go to factory relays that operate the aux fan, you can just put relays on each and connect to the fan as a high current hi/lo and you're done. The new efan plus the crazy factory aux fan flowed an amazing amount of air.

On the Disco I'm not sure how I'd do the sensor. I'd rather buy an on/off screw-in sender but I didn't have much luck looking before, all of the temps for on and off were incorrect.

I have the new design tstat in there with a new waterpump and new hoses (radiator, heater, and expansion tank) so the fan is my only weak link.

There's nothing special about this kit though, especially if it doesn't include a shroud etc.. definitely not for the $$$.

I've put a few e fans on hot rods and used a Derale adjustable system with included thread-in sensor. At $50 retail it's actually a bargain considering you need a relay and a temp probe anyways and they're both included. Turn-on temp is from 150-240 and turn off is 10 degrees below that. I guess if you had a 180 tstat you could set fans for 185 (so they dont ever turn on during highway driving etc) but if tstat is working, what if it didn't let temps ever get to the 175 deg turn-off point? Would I need to set it to 10 degrees above the tstat target temp?

I guess you'd be able to tune the system with a scan tool and live data. But yeah do that and a $100 nice efan and you're all set for $150. Unless you need to install a metal T to thread in the probe (I'm so used to carb intake manifolds with extra plugs in them for the customer hot rods that I didn't even think that far for the Disco).

Next problem - with the bypass cooling system, there isn't a good place to put a thread-in sensor. Personally I'd probably want one in the heater hose output from the motor, since even in a bypassed state WITH tstat closed (when water essentially isn't moving through radiator and barely over tstat) you still get accurate water temp coming out of engine since the heater is the only thing always moving.

 

I have a thermostatic switch in the plumbing. in case I ever have a controller issue, I can swap the leads. 185 on 175 off

 

Hey Dusty, did you ever get an MPG reading?

 

Will do this week

 

I am definitely going to do this when I change my radiator. Thanks for being the info Dusty.

 

Hey Dusty,

Any updates? I am going to do a new radiator soon and want to see if this is a wortwhile upgrade at the same time.