Electric Fan
The engine/belt driven fan on the AE86 is an unnecessary work load for the engine. Though power gains wouldn't be worth mentioning, removing it will do wonders for the 4AGE's throttle response.
The fan you use must be electrical and must be narrow enough to fit between the radiator and the pulley where the OEM fan was originally mounted. I found a perfect fan in a 1981 Datsun 310 (two door hatchback). I honestly have yet to see any OEM fan which is narrower than the one from this car, and I'm doubtful I ever will...but it would be cool if someone could prove me wrong!
Wiring:
You have many different options when it comes to running power to your fan. You can have it on whenever the engine is running, you can have it triggered by a manual switch you install somewhere in the cabin of the car, or you can rig it up to work once the coolant hits a certain temperature.
Personally I've found the 4AGE's cooling system to be quite efficient, so I make use of a manual switch to trigger the fan, and that only seems to be on a warm day while the car is in traffic or in slow moving city driving. Most of the time, the car runs without any problems without the cooling fan.
I have another article on this site about using the water inlet from other old Toyota's which house a coolant temperature switch to trigger an electric fan. Basically the idea is to use the same system that FWD Toyota's use, while using Toyota parts (so you know you can't go wrong!). You can read about it, HERE
Directions for the Datsun 310 fan:
- The fan will have an arm running off one side diagonally away from the fan housing, you'll need to cut it off and basically make it look like the first pic on the left. If you take a close look at the bottom of the fan, you'll see it's been hacked (I did it in mechanics class, and time was more critical than quality)
- Once the arm is cut, the fan will sit in/on the little ledge which protrudes from the bottom of the AE86 radiator (engine side)
- There are two holes on top of the radiator for 10mm bolts. One of the holes from the fan housing will match up perfectly with the hole in the radiator. An extension plate will have to be measured and drilled so the second hole in the fan housing may be attached to the other hole in the radiator (far right pic)
- Once the two bolts are put in place, the fan is now installed, the ledge at the bottom of the radiator will keep the fan from moving
Here's some (bad) pics of the final finished and installed product...
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