Spal fans vs. Stock fans

[norths03]

I have a 50-trim turbo and the thick Koyo radiator. Because of these I have to run a slim fan on the drivers side. In my quest to stop overheating with the AC on I'm doing several things (ducting, radiator mix with more distilled water, etc). One of the items I'm considering is replacing the passenger side slim fan with something that may be able to move more CFM. I've done a few hours of research on here and there are conflicting reports of what fans do what. The two things I've read over and over is either go with the stock fans if they fit or go with a SPAL.

The fans currently installed are 12" Mr. Gaskets which flow about 1400 CFM in free air (so it would be a bit less through a radiator).

My question is, would a SPAL 12" (1451 CFM through a radiator) or SPAL 13" (1710 CFM through a radiator) outperform a stock fan on the passenger side?

 

[boost97gst]

I doubt even a SPAL would outperform the stock passenger side fan. No way....

 

[untouchablecc]

I run a 14in fan on the front passenger side from Advance auto and a 12in on the front drivers side acting as a pusher just for added comfort. Not one problem.

 

[DSM Vice]

I run a 14in fan on the front passenger side from Advance auto and a 12in on the front drivers side acting as a pusher just for added comfort. Not one problem.

FMIC? Factory radiator? How much HP are you making? What do you use the car for (DD, drag, track)? All these affect whether any given fan can handle your engine setup or not.

 

[norths03]

FMIC? Factory radiator? How much HP are you making? What do you use the car for (DD, drag, track)? All these affect whether any given fan can handle your engine setup or not.

Griffin 20x10x3 old school FMIC.
Koyo R2024 thicker than stock Raidator.
Not sure on HP but maybe 400ish. It pulled an 11.97 in the 1/4 but closer to sea level.

This is a daily driver that will see some road track time once I get the overheating issue resolved and upgrade the brakes. I've almost got all the boost leaks fixed with the help of some great locals here in the Denver area. I'm considering a leak down test as well just to make sure the head gasket is working properly.

I tried to modify a stock fan to fit on the passenger side but it wouldn't with the intercooler piping and thicker radiator. Since that was a fail I ordered the SPAL 14" (1846 CFM pulling) which I should be able to fit in on the passenger side with the 12" fan on the driver side assuming the intercooler piping off the turbo allows it. I'll have it tomorrow sometime and will hopefully be able to wire and test shortly after. In stop and go today I was running 215ish which I know is okay but certainly not ideal.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

not to thread jack... but im running the AC fan in place of the main fan and i have a 12" fan on the way, you think that would be sufficient? HX40 doesnt allow the big honker fan, also im running the koyo rad.

 

[boost97gst]

If you run a downfiring turbo you can trim the shroud on the stock passenger fan to clear the turbo. With the j-pipe turbos(16g 14b etc) i dont think itd work, but the big turbos should fit. I trimmed the shit out of my pass fan, i mean even dremeled the blades down, but thats only cause my wg actuator. Soon as i go external i think i wont have to trim the fan at all.
Woops, im assuming people are running stock manis, aftermarket mani would make a difference i suppose.

 

[phunny]

Yes spal fans out perform stock fans easily.

 

[boost97gst]

^^^^ no kidding? Ive heard so many wisemen say otherwise. I did not know that. But ive never owned a spal or flow tested an oem to compare so im going on hearsay. How did you find out spals outflow oems if i might ask?

 

[Chrispy0530]

^^^^ no kidding? Ive heard so many wisemen say otherwise. I did not know that. But ive never owned a spal or flow tested an oem to compare so im going on hearsay. How did you find out spals outflow oems if i might ask?

+1 On this. I'm running an OEM fans on both sides as well. I wouldn't be surprised if it outflows the condenser fan (would love to see some proof), but the stock main fan? That's a pretty big fan. Interested though .

 

[____Kurt____]

If you need fans than you are not going fast enough, jk. I have heard that Spal fans are CFM rated through a radiator, not in open air. I would like to see some hard facts as to stock vs spal.

 

[norths03]

Well I'm writing this message from the side of the road as I've overheated and have to let her cool down. I drove up to the mountains and the intake temps dropped to 60 degrees which means ambient temps were in the 50's. Even with these cooler temps my coolant temps stayed above 220. I shut her down when I noticed the temps had jumped to 240. I'm starting to think a fan won't fix whatever is going on here. The new SPAL should be here tomorrow night so I guess well see once I get to install it.

 

[blizz99]

Did you try ducting? I sealed my fmic-radiator and it made a world of difference. I used to see temps around 220 degrees and after the ducting it doesn't go any higher than 195. I daily my car and have 2 eBay pusher and puller fans.

 

[perks563]

Care to detail how you sealed your fmic to radiator? I think I'm in the same spot and need to do that. Looking for ideas..

 

[blizz99]

I just used gorilla tape to see if it actually worked. Now that I know it does my friend will be making something for me out of aluminum.

 

[burkgonzo]

My FAL fan combo works great, use OEM fans if they fit. You can use a so so fan with proper ducting. I just have awesome fans on there now with terrible ducting .

 

[awddarrell]

Just a quick ? becuase i had a very similar problem what does your wide band read when you are driving?
Reason I ask is becuase I also had an alum. rad. and slim fans, they kicked on correctly and everything but when I was driving the car would over heat. couldnt figure out why. spent countless hours burping the cooling system, replaced the rad, replaced the fans put the stock rad and fans back in, took it to the dealership and left it there for over a month spend almost 1000$ trying to have someone figure out why it was over heating no mechanics could figure it out finally hooked up my WB and SAFC it was reading insanley lean while driving added some fuel and bam no more over heating, I see you have a WB and ECM link so maybe you might give that a check. The really good tuning guys might like to jump in here, I tried to have mine dialed in at around 11.2-11.5 hopefully those guys can concure or correct me?

 

[El Cuervo]

This is the deal. When it comes to aftermarket slim fans, SPAL is about as good as it gets."Again, when it comes to slim fans". They flow great for their size. Usually when people go slim aftermarket fans is because of the limited space and restrictions the we encounter when upgrading to a side to side FMIC, bigger turbo, external wastegate that take alot of space, different design exhaust manifold that sits the bigger turbo closer to the radiator, etc.
Well when this happens, some of us don't have a choice but to get slim fans.
Usually the most popular size and the biggest that we can install is a 12' fan. maybe some have gone bigger? I don't know, nor have I heard of. Maybe bigger in another brand that have a dual fans.
The SPAL 12' is suppose to be rated at 1360 cfms. Other brands could be less. Its a good fan, however, it does NOT flow more than the stock fans. The stock fans flow much more. The biggest advantage to this is the shroud that the fans are in. The shrouds on both stock fans are very well design and both cover the radiator perfactly without causing a restriction to the air flow coming from the outside and through the radiator.
Well, how do I know? Simple. Personal experience. I don't have a special machine to meassure CFMs or the like. I have been switching from running two 12' expensive SPAL fans (not FAL or FLEX LITE or other imitation) to running the stock fans. When I would overheat, I would stop the car and let the car idle with one SPAL fan. Well, It would take minutes. Somewhere around 8 minutes to bring the temperatures back down. I then swap to the stock fan again. I would overheat. Then Idle the car. It would take the stock fan about 1 to 2 minutes to bring the temp to normal.

My overheatig issues were caused by a metal headgasket that was there and other issues such as lack of proper shrouding. The SPAL fans weren't my issue at all. They did their job ok. They just didn't cool fast enough at stops or at slow traffic like the stock ones do.

So when possible, in my opinion, it's best to run with the stock fans. If not, then the SPAL fans are second best.

Hope this helps.

 

[norths03]

All great info. Thanks to everyone for passing it along. I know my ducting is removed from when the previous owner installed the FMIC. I have purchased the stock ducting from a junk yard and have a roll of Gorilla Tape. Since I live in the city with no garage I have to wait for a friend to be available to let me use their garage to build the duct work. A local shop quoted me $400+ to build the duct work so I'll be doing it myself with my $5 junkyard piece and $8 Gorilla Tape.

I will have to bring the laptop out to check the fuel once I install the SPAL fan. I was watching temps with a bluetooth OBD2 and my Android phone with the Torque App. It's a great setup for wanting to watch stats without having to lug around a laptop.

I tried modifying the stock passenger fan to fit but it didn't. I didn't go so far as to dremmel the blades of the fan but if this SPAL plus ducting isn't enough then maybe I'll go that route.