Hey all you race car restorers and drivers... Wanna cash in on hidden horsepower? Simply install a Wide Open Throttle switch and relay.

When energized (w/the gas pedal floored), it cuts out the electric fan, A/C compressor, alternator, etc. Instant HP is delivered to the wheels.

The idea behind using an electric fan is to save gas. It never made sense to power a mechanical fan while the engine is cold. Today, modern cars use a WOT switch to get you off the rail road tracks, faster. Using it with a big V8 makes your engine feel more powerful.

As soon as you get your foot off the floorboard, everything returns to normal. - Dave

A buddy of mine has a '61 Impala with a pretty stout sbc stroker (cant remember the displacement). He was running 13.2's all day. Then suddenly, he went 12.8.

Why? The ONLY thing that changed was that his fan belt had snapped while heating up his slicks. He didnt know it until he got to the other end and the engine was getting too hot.

A neighbor of mine used to drag race in the 60's - 70's and has mentioned one of his "tricks" was to cut the fan belt. The goal was to do exactly what your friend did - hope it lasts through warm up and breaks during the run - no electric pumps or fans back then. At risk was disqualification if it broke and dropped out during warm up but not a problem if that happened down the track.

electric fan installed:

Late 90's Ford Contour dual fan w/ shroud.

I had to remove a bit of the shroud near the water pump pulley. It's a tight fit, due to the 460 engine wedged in there.

This electric fan fits the OEM radiator perfectly. I'm also using a Flex-a-Lite 31163 electronic fan controller. It's a bit more expensive than a cheap on/off fan controller, but it's very easy to hook up (especially when you are electrically-challenged).

LOVE IT!

On my "to do" list for 2013!!

How is this fan mounted??? I don't see bolts around the edges. And, what alternator are you using (how many amps output)?

Clean looking installation.

There are brackets hidden underneath to support the weight of the fan. Also, the top of the fan has a pretty stout "tab" (shown in the photo) that hooks onto the top of the radiator frame. Then I used those long plastic threaded doo-dads through the fins to snug the shroud up against the radiator.

The wires coming from the fan controller were covered with black 3/8" wire loom after I took the photo.

That scares me. I learned my lesson from electric fans; never subject the cores to any part of a vibrating fan. Instead, build a reinforcement 'frame' on the plastic housing and bolt it to your horse-collar (radiator support). You can see the speed nuts left over from where your fan was mounted on a car.

That's a good thing. Make sure you fuse the power wires for both motors. If you don't, the wires and relay contacts become the fuses.

the fan controller came complete with a nice-looking fuse housing. I mounted it where my battery used to be.

How did you get that controller working right? I was running the same controller with their dual fan setup, and after fighting it, redoing the wiring, thinking it's working correctly and almost melting down my 455 a few times, I gave up and am now running a dash toggle switch and two large 50 amp relays. I have bypassed that setup, the idea would be great if I could trust the silly thing.

Cheers
RustyNCA

Did you have the temp. sensor that reads the coolant temp. directly, or did you have the sensor that gets poked into the fins on the radiator?

I've got the sensor that mounts in the port on top of the water neck.

There's lots of write-ups on the internet where guys have used the Ford Contour dual fan with this FAL controller.

I have the one that goes into the rad. My problems didn't seem to be with it, but with the controller working sometimes and not at other times.

I don't know if it's a short inside the controller or what the problem is, but some days it would work great, others it would seem to be working, then about the time I am halfway across town, I see the car is starting to overheat. Pull over and yep, the fans aren't running, so I would have to by pass the controller to get the fans running. I would triple check the wiring, it's all good, and ironically the fans sometimes would be working again.

I called Flex-a-lite about it, all they told me, "You can purchase another one from us, we won't warranty it" Yeah, I want to purchase another one at $180 or whatever it was to replace the one that came with the whole setup I bought for $400 or $500.

My solution was to buy a relay for each fan, run those to a switch under the dash that lights up when it is on and working, and I now only have to worry about forgetting to flip the switch.

What frustrated me the most, I would go all through it, test it in the shop, have the car sit there and idle, watch it all work perfect, drive it around the block, yep, it's all still working. Then the wife would take the car out because, she loves driving it, and call me panicking because the **** thing is overheating again, after I told her I got it all fixed.

So I used the same setup I have been running on our 29 coupe which has yet to fail me

Sounds like you got a bad controller, thats for sure.

Hopefully I will have better luck...