Doing a little electric fan experimentation. My buddy picked this up for me during his latest salvage yard trip. It's a Ford unit, no the venerable Taurus/sn95 fan but the next generation. Am still looking for a good way to control it so no driving numbers but I did start it up with the AC on and let it idle it's way to 194*. Wired up the fan to the battery and the temps dropped to 190. So it's adequate at idle. If it doesn't push enough air I'm going to switch to the Taurus fan as it's known winner.

Had to trim off the peripheral mounting bits to leave just the fan itself.
Bottom of the factory shroud needed to be trimmed some so that the fan could recess some. Otherwise it was to close to engine

Still had to cut a hole in plastic that interfered with water pump shaft.

 

looks good! I have a Ron Francis AR99 running my dual FTI fan setup. It's a really good piece of kit. High quality. Wires labeled tons of features. I would recommend a Ron Francis controller.

 

Where are you getting your temp signal?
My initial plan was to just use an adjustable Parts store controller but none of them are stout enough to handle the 70 staring amps of these oem fans. Dakota digital was my higher end kit I was looking at but I was really hoping to do the entire swap for less than $100

 

Use the controller to trigger a heavy solenoid (normally open, until triggered) :

4 Post Solenoid
Wire controller to signal the solenoid to close the circuit and activate the fan. You can get a generic 150amp for about 12 bucks, name brand, like Cole Hersee, for about 20 bucks. Put a fuse on the heavy wiring to protect the fan wiring.

 

it has a sensor you bolt to the engine, mine is behind the alternator. They have good customer service, email them and see what they have.

I was driving so here is a bit better response. I found the flex a lite controller to be cheaply made. The Ron Francis AR99 is in a whole different category. I needed one to control dual fans, the second fan comes in 10 degrees after the first. Really, an unnecessary function, but I thought it was cool. It also has a function that keeps it on two minutes after shutting the car off, and one that senses power surges from the fans so as not to overload your system.

That said, they have a lot of different solutions and do a lot of controllers for muscle cars etc. They responded quickly to emails, and were very helpful.

I have a thread with pic titled flex a lite fan, 180 thermostat and Evans coolant. Albeit I only stuck with the Evans coolant, but that is a long story which you can read in that thread if you are truly bored. I installed the controller on the abs ecu bracket.

 

Looks good! About to try this with a 95 mustang fan. Still trying to find a controller as well. There is a Derale controller Part Number 16795 that I've been looking at also.

 

Personally, if this doesn't work out, I'm going with the Mk. VIII fan. The Taurus/sn95 mustang fan is good but for the same money you can get the baddest kid on the block.

Also, for a controller, at some point im going to get into a Dakota electric controller. The Ron Francis looks like a nice unit bit the Dakota will plug into the obdII port and get info from the computer. That way I don't have to add any extra seensors

 

Very cool! Pun intended.

I ran a Taurus fan in my old Jeep, did phenomenal job. In that application, I used a cheeseball thermostat that just went through the radiator to get a reading (like what the OP mentioned) and it worked great. I think the reason why is due to the massive relay like was posted above I used as well.

This may make the list of things to do as my temp got to 201 today for a couple minutes when idling with both the front and rear AC rolling. I suppose it's time to get the condenser fan working...

 

When I installed my Mustang fan I just used a cheapo controller from Jegs I think. Came out to around the tune of $30 or $35. It's the kind you stick through the radiator fins and it was adjustable, but I think you can get the same kind with the thread in sensor. You'd just need an in-line piece to thread it into.

 

That's what I picked up from the parts store today. Will take it for a spin tomorrow and see how it reacts. Even if it works ok, this will only be a temporary controller. I don't trust a $20 piece that relies on a flimsy liquid filled tube to operate.