GT500 Cooling Fan Upgrade?

[BrianH87]

Has anyone tried to install the 20+ GT500 cooling fan on their regular Gen 3 Mustang GT / Mach 1 / GT350? It looks massive and I'm sure it would be a huge benefit for SC Mustangs and track mustangs. I like the fact that it has a ton of flaps to allow maximum airflow at highway speeds. Just based on the location of the mounting holes, it looks like it could fit our cars. Anyone have any insight?

Sponsored

 

[luc]

Fan only help at low speed,less than 40 mph or so, so basically only helping in a traffic situation
So no benefits for a track car

 

[BrianH87]

Fan only help at low speed,less than 40 mph or so, so basically only helping in a traffic situation
So no benefits for a track car

The fan itself only helps in traffic, yes. But with all those flaps on the GT500 housing, it surely moves more air at speed than the standard GT. It would have to considering the heat load on the GT500.

 

[Scootsmcgreggor]

Or for cheaper you can dremel your stock fan. This combined with removing the last 25% coolant I had in the system improved my max CHT on track 10*F.

 

[EFI]

So no benefits for a track car

This only benefits a track car or one that does high speed pulls. For street driving, it probably won't make much of a difference.

OP I'm going to try the same thing as Scoots mentioned, to just cut out around the existing flaps and open up those areas. Something similar to this:

 

[Cobra Jet]

The purpose of any electric fan shroud is so that the shroud contains the air flow and directs it over the radiator core. If using a pull or push fan with shroud, that shroud directs the airflow from the fan over the core.

Cutting out the fan shroud is defeating the cooling purpose of the fan and directing air flow around the core, rather than concentrated on it and through it. When the shroud is removed or all opened up - air flow is not directed to just the core, it's flowing everywhere. It's also now insufficient cooling if the intent is to keep the rad core as cool as possible.

While the thought and intent to cut away the shroud may seem good (laughable weight savings??), it's not going to help to keep the rad core cooler at all. This can also be detrimental in traffic because as the core gets hotter, there's no shroud to keep and maximize the fan airflow concentrated to just the rad core.

You can literally loose almost 50% core cooling efficiency because a missing shroud is no longer covering or directing fan airflow over the core surface.

 

[Scootsmcgreggor]

The purpose of any electric fan shroud is so that the shroud contains the air flow and directs it over the radiator core. If using a pull or push fan with shroud, that shroud directs the airflow from the fan over the core.

Cutting out the fan shroud is defeating the cooling purpose of the fan and directing air flow around the core, rather than concentrated on it and through it. When the shroud is removed or all opened up - air flow is not directed to just the core, it's flowing everywhere. It's also now insufficient cooling if the intent is to keep the rad core as cool as possible.

While the thought and intent to cut away the shroud may seem good (laughable weight savings??), it's not going to help to keep the rad core cooler at all. This can also be detrimental in traffic because as the core gets hotter, there's no shroud to keep and maximize the fan airflow concentrated to just the rad core.

You can literally loose almost 50% core cooling efficiency because a missing shroud is no longer covering or directing fan airflow over the core surface.

It all depends on vehicle speed. At lower speeds in traffic yes a shroud helps a lot. At higher speeds on track it increases pressure behind the radiator, reducing flow through the radiator.

 

[Cobra Jet]

It all depends on vehicle speed. At lower speeds in traffic yes a shroud helps a lot. At higher speeds on track it increases pressure behind the radiator, reducing flow through the radiator.

Sure - while a good point, 90% of the folks on sites like this one don't go to the track - or let's say a track where there's maintained high speed/rpm for a duration where that type of shroud delete would be beneficial.

Many on here see what others are doing for mods - and think "hey, I'll do that too" but don't realize that for a daily driver, gutting a fan shroud isn't of any benefit at all.

The GT500 electric fan shroud is specifically designed with the flaps that are activated at speed - to reduce the pressure as designed. Even the aftermarket SPAL dual electric fan set up I have on my 94 Cobra has the integrated flaps - that again, when at certain speed will open as designed.

If a daily driver or non-dedicated track car owner wants a setup that isn't going to defeat the purpose of cooling the rad core - then the GT500 design is more than sufficient - or as stated, an aftermarket setup with integrated flaps. A gutted shroud is the worse possible "mod" for a vehicle that is daily driven or one that won't see any track time.

Just putting it out there... every vehicle is used in a certain manner and just because another person did ABC mod on XYZ forum, doesn't mean all mods are beneficial to every vehicle...

 

[Scootsmcgreggor]

Sure - while a good point, 90% of the folks on sites like this one don't go to the track - or let's say a track where there's maintained high speed/rpm for a duration where that type of shroud delete would be beneficial.

Many on here see what others are doing for mods - and think "hey, I'll do that too" but don't realize that for a daily driver, gutting a fan shroud isn't of any benefit at all.

The GT500 electric fan shroud is specifically designed with the flaps that are activated at speed - to reduce the pressure as designed. Even the aftermarket dual electric fan set up I have on my 94 Cobra has the integrated flaps - that again, when at certain speed will open as designed.

If a daily driver or non-dedicated track car owner wants a setup that isn't going to defeat the purpose of cooling the rad core - then the GT500 design is more than sufficient - or as stated, an aftermarket setup with integrated flaps. A gutted shroud is the worse possible "mod" for a vehicle that is daily driven or one that won't see any track time.

Just putting it out there... every vehicle is used in a certain manner and just because another person did ABC mod on XYZ forum, doesn't mean all mods are beneficial to every vehicle...

Absolutely.

 

[Decible]

Sure - while a good point, 90% of the folks on sites like this one don't go to the track - or let's say a track where there's maintained high speed/rpm for a duration where that type of shroud delete would be beneficial.

Many on here see what others are doing for mods - and think "hey, I'll do that too" but don't realize that for a daily driver, gutting a fan shroud isn't of any benefit at all.

The GT500 electric fan shroud is specifically designed with the flaps that are activated at speed - to reduce the pressure as designed. Even the aftermarket dual electric fan set up I have on my 94 Cobra has the integrated flaps - that again, when at certain speed will open as designed.

If a daily driver or non-dedicated track car owner wants a setup that isn't going to defeat the purpose of cooling the rad core - then the GT500 design is more than sufficient - or as stated, an aftermarket setup with integrated flaps. A gutted shroud is the worse possible "mod" for a vehicle that is daily driven or one that won't see any track time.

Just putting it out there... every vehicle is used in a certain manner and just because another person did ABC mod on XYZ forum, doesn't mean all mods are beneficial to every vehicle...

This is very on pointe. I like the idea of the GT500 fan as it’s a factory designed part for a very high performance engine. Keep in mind though the GT500 has two radiator cores for cooling that beast as well whereas GT/Mach/350 just have the one core. I think the fan and a larger aftermarket core like the Shelby and a few others along with the 500 fan could be beneficial for how we all may use are cars. It would cover some road tack use/drag and daily pretty well.

 

[MrXXX0]

The purpose of any electric fan shroud is so that the shroud contains the air flow and directs it over the radiator core. If using a pull or push fan with shroud, that shroud directs the airflow from the fan over the core.

Cutting out the fan shroud is defeating the cooling purpose of the fan and directing air flow around the core, rather than concentrated on it and through it. When the shroud is removed or all opened up - air flow is not directed to just the core, it's flowing everywhere. It's also now insufficient cooling if the intent is to keep the rad core as cool as possible.

While the thought and intent to cut away the shroud may seem good (laughable weight savings??), it's not going to help to keep the rad core cooler at all. This can also be detrimental in traffic because as the core gets hotter, there's no shroud to keep and maximize the fan airflow concentrated to just the rad core.

You can literally loose almost 50% core cooling efficiency because a missing shroud is no longer covering or directing fan airflow over the core surface.

Absolutely right. A buddy of mine had a supercharged Challenger and was doing some mods to the front bumper and grille. We ended up going drag racing the next weekend so instead of placing all the grilles and such back in place he just installed the bumper cover with all the openings wide open. The air flow had no direction and was just going everywhere and he ended up over heating and dumping coolant everywhere in the tech line after the 20 min drive up to the track. Some just think more air is better but it's really how that air is channeled for proper cooling on and off track.

 

[BrianH87]

So after doing some more research, I'm not sure if this would even work. It's about $600+ and not in stock anywhere. It's still up in the air whether or not it would even fit. I also cannot tell if this is a 2 speed fan or variable speed. The stock GT fans run either together on low speed (series connected through relays) or together on high speed (parallel through relays). I could still make this work either way, but I'm not sure how "factory" it would end up.

 

[Cobra Jet]

So after doing some more research, I'm not sure if this would even work. It's about $600+ and not in stock anywhere. It's still up in the air whether or not it would even fit. I also cannot tell if this is a 2 speed fan or variable speed. The stock GT fans run either together on low speed (series connected through relays) or together on high speed (parallel through relays). I could still make this work either way, but I'm not sure how "factory" it would end up.

Have you been able to find any flow (CFM) data during your research?

 

[BrianH87]

Have you been able to find any flow (CFM) data during your research?

Unfortunately I have not. Info seems to be very difficult to come by on the GT500.

Sponsored