My Grand Cherokee e-fan conversion..very little gun content

[yqtszhj]

I love those figure out a way besides how it was made fixes. Too cool.

[Bills1873]

Good install and superb pics, as usual! Installed electric fans on my 2002 6.0l chevy truck a year ago. Mega good results! A/C works better, transmission cooler when towing, worth every penny and install time! The beast will thank you Greg!

[kenemoore]

Electric fan for your driving habits makes a lot of sense, max cooling regardless of engine rpms.

[ct9kahrtoter]

You done McGyver proud buddy. Overheating vehicles has always been one of my biggest worries. Just paranoid about it.
Never had any major issues to cause this trauma, just always a concern for me.

I put an Accu Gauge in my van I believe at Wynn's recommendation, I sometimes think I was better off not knowing. Now as it climbs a few degrees I get to worrying.

I'm used to the old 180 degree thermostats and my mechanic told me the van has a 195 OEM so that gave me 15 degrees less to worry about.

On the road trip a couple weeks ago and last year too it climbed to 210 on a few climbs. He said nothing to worry about but I worried anyhow ya know.

Me too, the same way, but I got seriously stranded in a blizzard once....years ago.

[gb6491]

Greg - You're just a talented individual.

I'd love to see you, Alfonse, and Harrylee get together and brainstorm in your workshop sometime.

It'd make the Manhattan Project look like a daycare center....

That could be very scary .... to much talent unleashed at once!

Thank you, but shoot, I'm a technician..a dabbler. Those boys (and some others here) are the brains....getting them together might be scary, but it sure would be interesting to see what they come up with.

I love those figure out a way besides how it was made fixes. Too cool.

Me too; in my case, I think it's the hill billy blood. Thanks!

Good install and superb pics, as usual! Installed electric fans on my 2002 6.0l chevy truck a year ago. Mega good results! A/C works better, transmission cooler when towing, worth every penny and install time! The beast will thank you Greg!

Thanks and I appreciate knowing that your install is working out for you....the more assurance the better.

Electric fan for your driving habits makes a lot of sense, max cooling regardless of engine rpms.

I do believe you are correct boss

Regards,
Greg

[Armybrat]

Interesting improvement you did there. You're probably good to go for another 200,000.

My 2000 Cherokee Sport (bought it new in October 1999) has only had the usual maintenance so far, plus a recent brake job. It is perfect for driving around town, as it is pretty compact (7" shorter than the little Saturn SL sedans) and has a tight turning circle. It has almost 95,000 on the clock.

Did have to replace the headliner a couple of years ago. Only drawback is the 2WD. Wish it had the 4WD, but it can still climb in & out of the creek ford (18" of water) with no sweat.
Wife doesn't want to go on long road trips in it any more, as the short wheelbase ride is uncomfortable for her back nowadays. Used to drive it down to South Padre Island with no complaints.

[gb6491]

Interesting improvement you did there. You're probably good to go for another 200,000.

My 2000 Cherokee Sport (bought it new in October 1999) has only had the usual maintenance so far, plus a recent brake job. It is perfect for driving around town, as it is pretty compact (7" shorter than the little Saturn SL sedans) and has a tight turning circle. It has almost 95,000 on the clock.

Did have to replace the headliner a couple of years ago. Only drawback is the 2WD. Wish it had the 4WD, but it can still climb in & out of the creek ford (18" of water) with no sweat.
Wife doesn't want to go on long road trips in it any more, as the short wheelbase ride is uncomfortable for her back nowadays. Used to drive it down to South Padre Island with no complaints.

I wouldn't mind that
I like the Cherokee. I went on a lot of hunting trips with a buddy who had one 1988-1993 time frame. It was a four banger, but always got us where we wanted to go. We have a 1994 Country, but it's setup for mostly off pavement. It usually stays in 2wd with 4x4 being mostly used for deep, loose sand.
They are pretty rugged, I read about a police department finally retiring their Cherokees with 300000 on them: http://www.allpar.com/squads/police-cars/cherokee.html
Regards,
Greg

[AIRret]

I'm WAY too impressed.
The last time I worked on my cars they didn't have electronic ignitions!!! AND, all I did was change the oil, oil filter, antifreeze, and rotate the tires.
I'm a neophyte!

[gb6491]

I'm WAY too impressed.
The last time I worked on my cars they didn't have electronic ignitions!!! AND, all I did was change the oil, oil filter, antifreeze, and rotate the tires.
I'm a neophyte!

Thanks MB! There's no need for you to work on cars....penal labor can take care of that
Regards,
Greg

[berettabone]

A friend of mine had a 1975 Cherokee. 360 V8........Quadra-Trac 4x4. He beat the heck out of it for years, and the only real issues were with the drive train. It did always run hot though. We used to call it the Rat Patrol vehicle. One night, we used it to chase down a rat, the biggest rat I've ever seen. Rivaled some people's dogs. We were down by the old brewery, where all the grain was stored. Want to find large rats? Go to the grain. I jumped in the drivers seat, because I wanted nothing to do with a giant rat. My buddy hopped out, I cornered the rat with the Cherokee, and the rat proceeded to jump at him repeatedly. Crazyness. I'm yelling at him to watch out, as he's trying to get it, but yet had to watch out for the giant leaping rat. He finally got a kick in, which must have been a good one, because it slowed the rat down and caused it's eventual demise. If you haven't figured it out yet, there was an awful lot of alcohol consumed that evening. Oh yes, I have many Cherokee memories..................

[gb6491]

LOL, love that story

[b4uqzme]

Years ago a buddy had a Comanche pickup with overheating problems. He asked me to come take a look. What I found was red gunk oozing all around the t-stat housing. Buddy told me he used a sealer instead of a gasket (probably because he crimped the gasket that came with the new t-stat). He showed me a can of stuff with a label reading: "seals everything". Well it obviously doesn't seal everything. We fixed it right. i made him replace some worn out hoses and clamps while we were at it. It ran for years after that. We hauled mountain bikes all over the place. I gave him an old aluminum cap and we used it for camping. Good truck that one. Not a bad buddy either.

Great work there Greg.

[gb6491]

Years ago a buddy had a Comanche pickup with overheating problems. He asked me to come take a look. What I found was red gunk oozing all around the t-stat housing. Buddy told me he used a sealer instead of a gasket (probably because he crimped the gasket that came with the new t-stat). He showed me a can of stuff with a label reading: "seals everything". Well it obviously doesn't seal everything. We fixed it right. i made him replace some worn out hoses and clamps while we were at it. It ran for years after that. We hauled mountain bikes all over the place. I gave him an old aluminum cap and we used it for camping. Good truck that one. Not a bad buddy either.

Great work there Greg.

Thanks and thank you for another excellent Jeep story

I wish they had never dropped the Comanche. I've seen where Fiat said there will be a Jeep pick up, but I've also seen where it has been pushed back to 2019:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars...r-pickup-info/

Regards,
Greg

[gb6491]

A small update:
I really like how the e-fan cools, but I had some trouble with the fan's high speed wiring. The fuse holder I used for the high side (30 amps) started to melt. Part of the issue seems to be the quality/type of holder I'm using. I think it has enough resistance to create hot spots where the fuse legs install (one leg of the fuse showed some heat damage). I also think the holders might have been mounted to close to the engine and headers.

Melted holder:

As a fix, I've moved the fuse holders away from the engine and tightened the fuse connections by squeezing the connectors in the holders nearly closed before inserting the fuses. Two of the holders (controller power and fan low) were good before, but I moved them behind the engine bay fuse box. I moved the fan high fuse holder to a spot where it is shielded by the battery. I made a simple bracket to secure it to a cold air conditioner line hoping that might help some with the heat (it was also a convenient place to mount it). So far, so good...the holder gets hot, but doesn't show any signs of melting



If this doesn't work long term, my back up plan is to try this:

Regards,
Greg

[yqtszhj]

I like that backup plan. How much would you say the AZ heat contributes to the higher temps causing melting under the hood.

I had this electronics instructor one time that was retired from the air force and he said that some of the materials made to deal with the heat and pressures of automobiles were comparable to military grade stuff. When I started having to do research for components for computers I found out how cooling dependant most things are.