www.samsonfab.com

[Samson]

This page was originally hosted on my other site, but since I'm expanding my offroad fabrication business, I decided to move it over here to my new site.

This post is to help out Tacoma owners who may be thinking of installing Flex-a-Lite's dual-12-inch electric fan. My truck is a 2001 Tacoma extracab 4wd with the 3.4 liter V6 and 5 speed transmission. I bought it in February 2001. I'm running BFG 265/75/16 all-terrains and I have the supercharger and TRD headers and TRD exhaust installed. I've been quite satisfied with the vehicle thus far, but I'm always looking for a little more horsepower.



I had an 85 2wd Toyota truck with the bulletproof 22R engine that ran for nearly 200,000 hard miles and one thing that really helped that trucks performance, particularly on the freeway, was a $79 Hayden electric fan from Kragen.

At freeway speeds no fan is necessary because more air is being forced through the radiator than a standard engine-driven fan can pull. Therefore, if you remove the fan you pick up throttle response, a little horsepower, and fuel economy. I tried a universal single 16-inch Flex-a-Lite fan on my Tacoma in early 2001. It moved plenty of air but did not have a shroud made for the Tacoma and really did not cover enough of the radiator. Once, when pulling a 3500 lb boat up a long grade at 80 MPH in 110 degree desert weather, with the A/C on full blast I suddenly ran afoul of some slower vehicles and had to slow down to 30 MPH. By the time I got to the top of the grade, even with the A/C off, the truck was starting to get hot and I had to pull over to let it cool down. That's when I decided to reinstall the stock fan until Flex-a-Lite developed a solution specifically for the Tacoma.

The fan I installed is not truly a Tacoma-specific unit but you can make it work out well. Summit Racing sells the fan and the controller with thick nylon mounts, as a generic application, for about 208 dollars. It's part number FLX-210. Flex-a-Lite also offer FLX-675, which is the exact same fan and same controller but with aluminum mounts for 350 bucks! I figured I'd just fabricate my own mounts and save the difference.

When my fan arrived, I was surprised to see that it came with four universal thick nylon mounts. Just to relieve the suspense, I'll tell you straight up that the FLX-210 mounts work perfectly and make for a very strong and sturdy installation.

Here's a step-by step method for installing the fan and controller on the 3.4 liter 2001 Tacoma. This may work for other model year Tacomas of other engine sizes. I'm not sure.

By all means, wait until the vehicle is cool before doing any of this. Otherwise, you could burn yourself on hot engine parts or hot coolant.

First, remove the stock fan by removing the four nuts that hold it onto the hub. Use a 12mm socket. The fan will slide forward and towards the driver's side of the truck. Set it aside. Save those four nuts, you'll need them DO NOT REPLACE THEM ON THE HUB STUDS AT THIS TIME!!!! Next, remove the four bolts in the four corners of the stock shroud. I think those require a 10mm socket. To remove the shroud without banging up your radiator, you have to undo the forward bolt holding the bar that secures the battery. This bar also holds the coolant reservoir in place.



Once the bar is removed, the reservoir slides easily up and out of the way and the shroud can be removed by rotating it 90 degrees towards the passenger side and lifting it out. Replace the reservoir and re-secure the battery.

Now it's time to replace the nuts on the fan pulley. But to do so, you MUST add some washers to the pulley studs, since the studs are not threaded all the way to the pulley itself. To try to force the nuts all the way down would be disastrous. Used three thin flat washers and a lockwasher on each of the four studs. Torque them down snug but do not overdo it. Those studs are pretty small and could snap if you torque them too hard. It's a good idea to use the same washers on all four studs, just to keep things balanced.



Now you're ready to attach the temperature probe and mount the control box.

Back in 2001, the thermostat probe supplied by Flex-A-Lite had to be placed inside the radiator hose, which necessitated draining the coolant and a new worm-type hose clamp. However, they have now come out with a new fan controller and thermostat. This new probe is secured against the radiator. This is a much better design and saves a lot of time and trouble when doing the fan install.

I bolted the box under the battery. There are a series of holes in the wheel well and you can through-bolt the box to two of these holes with ease. Mount it with the electrical connections up and the thermo-sensor down.

Now you're ready to mount the fan.

The kit comes with six nylon mounts like these:



They have three bolt insertion points, or "spans". Using a hacksaw and a vise,



cut them down to look like these:



Note that two of the mounts have one span cut off, one has two spans cut off, and one has just more than two spans cut off. The shortest mount goes on the upper driver's side, next to the coolant reservoir. It's shorter than the others to ensure that it doesn't rub and wear through the reservoir itself. The next shorter mount goes on the passenger side top, and the two remaining fit on the bottom of the shroud. If the bottom mounts aren't cut, they will contact the truck frame and will not be able to rotate into the proper position. The layout and alignment of the mounts on the fan looks like this:



I recommend you buy some washers and nuts to secure the mounts to the fan. I used flat washers on both ends of the bolt, and a nylon-centered locknut on the inside of the fan shroud. I also purchased four inch-an-a-half long 6 mm bolts to hold the mounts to the radiator. You could use the original bolts, but I liked the idea of through-bolting the mounts to the radiator, and then adding a washer, lockwasher and nut on the far side. Sure, it's overkill, but you can never have too much overkill. Or, you can face the bolts the other way to create studs on which to hang the fan mounts. This would simplify the installation and make it easier for one person to do the job. This is a picture of the upper driver's side mount, shortened to clear the coolant reservoir, with the additional hardware in place.



From this picture you can see how the radiator mounting bolt should be oriented in the lower brackets.



The whole assembly fits on the radiator in a fairly specific orientation, so I recommend mounting the brackets to the fan and tightening them down, then loose-mounting the mounts to the radiator, aligning everything, and then tightening down and adding the aforementioned hardware to make the assembly really secure. Then make your electrical connections as per the instruction sheet and you're done. Here's two shots of the finished installation:



and



When I finished my install, on the first start I found that the truck initially idled much lower, at 250 RPMs! I think the computer was getting used to having less drag and was trying to compensate. After a few seconds normal idle was restored.

Driving the truck felt like throttle response was quicker, and it appeared that the supercharger boost would come on sooner, with less throttle required. The truck now has an even greater propensity for wheelspin.

My driving is so varied and I've done so many modifications since, that it's really impossible to get any meaningful fuel economy data. But all in all, I think that in terms of dollar-per-HP, this is one of the best mods you can do.

I hope this information is helpful. If you'd rather not tackle the job yourself, I'm available to do these installations in the San Diego area. You can reach me at sam@samsonfab.com .