Today I attempted to swap my mechanical fan out for the electric radiator fans from a 94-97 Nissan Altima. Both the 240sx and the Altima use the KA24DE engine but the being that the Altima is a front wheel drive car the engine is mounted transversely and it uses dual electrical fans. It would seem only logical then to swap them into the rear wheel drive 240sx for electric fans with an OEM look.
Once I had rewired the stock harness to use with one of the Altima fans and Wired a temperature controlled switch to take care of the other it was time to slide the fans in place. I trimmed the fan shroud, put the fans on the radiator, and plugged them in. Then I let the car warm up and adjusted the switch, two hours into the project and things couldn’t be going smoother.
Then came the test drive. I pulled out of the driveway and didn’t even make it to the stop sign at the end of the road when CLUNK! BANG! and other loud, scary grinding noises came from under the hood. From what I could tell one of the fan supports had disintegrated and all hell broke lose from there.
Back to the drawing board driveway, Altima fans back out. I decided to try and just run the AC fan from my car wired with the temperature switch and see if that alone could keep the car cool enough in the Florida summer. Luckily after beating on it a bit the car seem to run fine and the stock temp gauge doesn’t look any hotter than before. Yay!
the car also feels so much better without the mechanical clutch fan’s extra rotational mass. The engine feels like it wants to rev now and actually feels lighter. Four hours, a lot of sweat, and a little blood and I’m happy.
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