Spal dual 11" fan installation with pictures!

[TR Custom Parts]

OK, was looking for a new project to mess around with and decided on trying some SPAL dual 11" fans for the GN. Running our Super Extreme front mount, working AC, trans cooler mounted between our aluminum radiator and the condensor. Noticed a 10-15 degree increase in temps since going to the FM, no surprise there and have been running the stock fan. Not really an a big issue with temps but wanted to see if I can get back to SLIC temps I had.

I got the SPAL fans off of ebay from a place in Iowa. Good shipping and price. Got the wiring harness with relays from Caspers. Ordered a couple sets of brackets from Summit but like most projects the course changed.

I used the aluminum brackets that go along the top and bottom of the fan units but didn't bother with the ones that go over the radiator core.

Put the GN up on the ramps and removed the stock unit. Do yourself a favor and throw a piece of cardboard against the radiator to prevent any damage to the core.

While looking at the lower stock metal bracket I decided to see if I could get that to work. I knew I would have to offset the fans to the drivers side on the radiator core as the pipe coming off the turbo to the intercooler was going to create clearance problems.

One important thing. The rubber flaps on the top and bottom of the shroud, make sure you have them so they open from the bottom. It is easy to mix up the top and bottom since everything looks the same EXCEPT for how the flaps open.

Bolted the stock lower bracket to the aluminum strap and ended up offsetting the bracket as seen in the pictures. Went thru the larger holes using fender washers on either side. The fans have rubber flaps on the top and bottom I guess this is to allow more air to pass at highway speeds???? These allow you access to the bolts to tighten them later on.

I loosely mounted the fans at the bottom and went up top to see what to do up there. Again, I used the aluminum strap that I bought from Summit but needed to come up with a way to attach things. Decided to make up 3 tabs to connect to the aluminum strap. Mocked everything up and made up 3 brackets that would attach to the fan thru the aluminum strap and then to the top part of the radiator. I made the brackets have a bit of offset to allow enough clearance to the radiator. The bottom bracket supports all the weight and the tabs up top basically just locate the top, not really any stress on them.

I put them on the fan assembly but didn't tighten all the way. Installed the assembly into the car and loosely tightened the lower bolts. Wanted to be able to move things around to make fitting easier once I got to the top tabs.

Now up top, the tabs are bolted on with the head of the bolt pointing towards the radiator core. Used 1 1/4" long 1/4" x 20 stainless bolts with washers and nyloc nuts. Positioned the tabs to the holes I drilled in the radiator top and tightened up the tabs. Then put the bolts thru radiator top. Used 1" long bolts there. Oh yeah, lower inside bolts I used 3/4" long bolts as anything longer lifts the rubber flaps up.

All clearances looked good so now was time to tackle the wiring harness. Decided to run everything down under the fans as I have seen cars done with the harness along the top and didn't like the way it looked. Biggest decision was how to mount the relays. Made a little bracket from aluminum and mounted up top on the passenger side, this allowed enough length for the power lead to reach the battery.

Put the whole unit in and bolted everything up and so far so good. One complaint about the Casper harness though, they want you to replace the positive battery bolt with a longer one they include BUT it won't work with the replacement positive cable they make with the nice cover on it to prevent accidental shorts. Decided to use the original bolt and slit the battery cable end to sneak the eye ring inside it. Cut a little slot in the cap and put it on and worked fine.

Before buttoning everything up I turned on the key and hit my manual fan switch and one fan fired right up, the 2nd fan has a delay so they both don't come on at the same time. 2nd one comes on 5 seconds later. This so a big strain isn't put on your charging system all at once.

Everything is going good at this point so something has to go wrong right? Went to put on my radiator top support cover and something isn't right! The tabs for the AC line brackets is hitting the top of the fans. They should probably should have been mounted about 1/2" lower I guess. I AM running a one-off top cover though so not sure how the stocker will work.

Sure as hell didn't feel like yanking everything back out again so got the old Dremel tool out with a plastic cutting bit and just made a couple of slots for the top cover to sit into, came out perfect. Had to trim off a bit on the bottom of the AC line brackets as well but you can't even see it.

Everything fits and happy with how the install went. Just have to throw my 4" MAF pipe back on and good to go. Supposed to be hot this weekend so should be able to get a good test of the units.

Will post all the pics I took and have to take some more with everything back together later. Hope this helps those who are hesitating to do this mod. Can't guarantee this will work on every intercooler out there but now DO know that it will work with the Super Extreme IC we sell.

ONE OTHER THING! The slide on nut thingys on the factory bracket......the "nut" part should go towards the front of the car, had them on wrong in a couple of the pics. Also, there are two different length bolts on the four used on the stock bracket. Use the shorter ones. These go thru the holes in the lower RADIATOR support into the factory bracket. Was going to drill new holes to center the factory bracket to the fans but the one on the drivers side had the steering box in the way of the drill so ended up going with the way it is seen in the pictures.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

More pics.

 

[just plain john]

Very nicely done Mark.

 

[2QUICK2B6]

you need to make a plug & play kit mark

 

[BandAid]

By far the best fans for our cars...in your last pic you can see the plastic lip down the center of the 2 fans and around the perimeter of the fram,,i used a dremmel and trimmed the lip fluss,the fans then fit more flush to the radiator...

 

[LS954]

That looks sweet i have the same IC and Radiator. Keep us posted on what the new temps are. Def should consider making a plug and play kit if the temps drop. Just curious as to what kind of mixture are you using in your radiator?

 

[sugarandopium]

you need to make a plug & play kit mark

+1

id buy one

 

[bad V6]

Looks good Mark, very similar to the way mine are mounted.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Finished install pics. Did some real world testing, in a bit of a heat wave here in the NE with 90's and high humidity. Yesterday drove to a cruise about 25 miles away from my house.

Stretch of stoplight to stoplight and tried to time it so I would have to stop at all the ones possible to put the fans to the test. Was running with the AC on the whole time as well. Highest I hit was 190 degrees. Not too bad considering I have the front mount, AC condenser and a trans cooler all sandwiched before the radiator. I have the rubber panels in place to block off air flow so it all flows thru the radiator but it isn't really the best setup since air can leak by in various places. Might try one of the block off kits that Scot W sells.

I did notice at highway speeds that temps would climb a bit on long hills and wonder if the fans might actually hurt a bit since the shroud of the dual fans can block some of the air flow? All in all happy I did this.

One thing I did notice though. When the car is cold and I turn the AC on the fans keep cycling on and off. In other words, one fan will come on, then the 2nd and they both run for about 5 seconds and shut off. Then they start all over again. Shouldn't the fans run all the time when the AC is on? Might be another thread to start. BTW, I am using the Caspers harness with this setup. Only thing I have done otherwise for fan control is to remove the fan delay relay. Don't think that would affect anything??

The chrome radiator hold down plate you see is basically from a stillborn project was doing with one of my vendors. Out of 20 sent to the chrome shop only 2 came out nice enough for use. One went on my car and one went on the vendors! Will see if there is any progress on them.

Finshed install pics show my 4" MAF pipe setup with the Z06 MAF sensor and our cold air kit that goes thru the fenderwell. IC pipes are 3".

 

[DailyDrifter]

Mark the fans should run with the AC on. You should also put this in the "How to" or "Fab" section, with a wiring diagram. Good work.

 

[GNBRETT]

Looks pretty good.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Mark the fans should run with the AC on. You should also put this in the "How to" or "Fab" section, with a wiring diagram. Good work.

I am just wondering why the keep cycling on and off for 5 seconds at a time?? BTW, AC is ice cold and working as it should.

 

[DailyDrifter]

I am just wondering why the keep cycling on and off for 5 seconds at a time?? BTW, AC is ice cold and working as it should.

Your gonna have to get a diagram. Maybe when you put the fans in something got over looked. I dont have my wiring diagrms around right now so I couldnt even tell you where to start. Every car I've worked on (not buicks nessesarily) have always had the fans running during AC operation. Find out what contols the fans during AC operation and go from there. BTW does the AC compressor cycle on and off?

 

[salvageV6]

The fans run off the high side A/C pressure switch with the 3 wires on it.

Same area as the Hi/lo fan switch plug and play from Caspers goes into on the drivers side A/C line.

Fans can run on hi or lo due to the A/C high side pressure.

If the A/C cycles on and off or the high side pressures go hi and low the fans can and will cycle.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Got to do a few laps with the John Deere and when I finish up the lawn will take a look at things a bit closer. The Caspers wiring diagram is pretty much foolproof. Plug into the factory harness and a power feed to the positive battery terminal. That's it!

 

[agteacher]

Same here but with F body fans and harness from Caspers'

I am just wondering why the keep cycling on and off for 5 seconds at a time?? BTW, AC is ice cold and working as it should.

I am not sure if our car done this last summer(we have had the fan set-up on the car for couple of years) or not.

Our car does the same--"Cycling Fans"---. Put a set of AC gauges on and see when it(the fans) cuts on and off and watch the high side pressure as it relates to the "cycling" of the fans. Our AC blows Cold (39-49 degs...according the ambient tempt.) just our fans cycle .......like yours.
Our solution(till be can get it in the shop----right now, we are fix'n food plots for deer and other wildlife for local landowners ) was to "rig" a manual switch that is only use with the AC. The fan operates correctly with the thermostat (on at 175--off at 170).

 

[TR Custom Parts]

I am not sure if our car done this last summer(we have had the fan set-up on the car for couple of years) or not.

Our car does the same--"Cycling Fans"---. Put a set of AC gauges on and see when it(the fans) cuts on and off and watch the high side pressure as it relates to the "cycling" of the fans. Our AC blows Cold (39-49 degs...according the ambient tempt.) just our fans cycle .......like yours.
Our solution(till be can get it in the shop----right now, we are fix'n food plots for deer and other wildlife for local landowners ) was to "rig" a manual switch that is only use with the AC. The fan operates correctly with the thermostat (on at 175--off at 170).

Yup, that's what I was doing, using the manual switch for when the AC is on.

 

[GNRick]

I recently installed the spal fans but my freon is completely empty. Only one fan turns on. Will only one fan run with no freon?

 

[salvageV6]

The high speed temp. fan switch would turn the second one on, or activate whatever the high speed relay does in your car now, once the car hits 226 degrees or so. That's the stock trigger point for high speed unless the A/C is on.

I just changed mine out to the Hypertech. switch which activated high speed at 175 degrees and turns it off around 165/160.

You can run a hi/lo caspers switch and do it manually it's probably cheaper too.

 

[agteacher]

The high speed temp. fan switch would turn the second one on, or activate whatever the high speed relay does in your car now, once the car hits 226 degrees or so. That's the stock trigger point for high speed unless the A/C is on.

I just changed mine out to the Hypertech. switch which activated high speed at 175 degrees and turns it off around 165/160.

You can run a hi/lo caspers switch and do it manually it's probably cheaper too.

What would happen if the casper's harness "only" uses the low speed relay for controling the dual fans ( both fans operate together ) ???
Reason I ask----under orginal operation of dual fans( orginal used in ls1, dodge and other dual fan vehicles ), only one fan turns-on(normal) then the second fan turns-on when needed ( ac,high /overheat, ect). Then, when these conditions are not present--the second fan turns-off and only 1 fan remains on.
Maybe ALL wrong---jus' thinking outloud ????