Product Review: Ramcharger's Dual Fan

[6=8]

Happy!

I replaced my 16 year old stocker with the ramchargers dual fans. Very impressed! (I flipped the lower fan bracket around, and mounted a single L-bracket that was wide enough to cover the 2 fan mounts at the top, and cut off the 4 mounting ears on the fan)

After converting to 134a, the A/C system had a dificult time maintaining cool air at idle. After installing the fans, the A/C blows cold all the time, regardless of engine speed. Tested it out this weekend... Driving around with 104 deg. outside temps, the GN ran COOLER with the A/C on, never going over 190 even with a few hard runs.

Plulled it into my driveway and just sat there for a few minutes... temp dropped to 185.

Like stated before, one of the best mods I have made, and among the cheapest too! I flipped through Jegs/Summit... some of those dual fans run in the $200-300 range?!?!?

 

[fireberd350]

i have a question...could I buy just the fan and have it ran manually from a switch rather than ECM controlled...i ask this b/c my hotair had a mechanical fan and I do not feel like running the wiring/relay for the ECM controlled cooling($79) so can i just buy the fans only and hard wire them and just keep them on all the time or would that be too much of an electric drain?

 

[325DR]

When the lo-speed fan switch kicks on, does one fan turn on or both? If they both turn on then they operate at a slower speed than hi-speed I assume? Or does low-speed not work anymore?

 

[Otto J]

Hotair guy, It can be run off a switch no problem, But i would use a relay with battery power to supply it.
On a stock GN if you buy the Ramchargers harness it still retains low and high speed operation, I have a fast system and just wired it full speed when on
Otto

 

[Buick Beginner]

Just 2 more cents

I have the RC dual fans and an ATR FMIC which basically takes up the entire space behind the grill. I recently took the car out out on the "Tampa Traffic Torture Test" and here are my findings. In typical stop and go traffic I'm at 165 to 175 A/C wide open. On the road with at least 25 mph of air flow I'm at 162 to 165 A/C wide open. Stuck in the McDonalds drive through for 15 minutes idling in gear, I was at 185 to 195, A/C wide open. I was out between 12 noon and 2 pm, the temp was 92 with the heat index at over 100 degrees, I'm running Distilled water and RMI 25 only, I have a 1 row aluminum radiator with plastic end tanks, it's an aftermarket replacement for the 307 V-8 regal with air, ($115). The radiator is stand alone with no tranny cooler and no oil cooler, they are both seperate. On a side note I'd like to repost some info I put up a few weeks back, here goes:

I recently received my Ramcharger fans and after trimming the ears and fabricating mounting brackets, I have it installed. It looks, fits and runs wonderfully. I did not order the plug and play adaptor because of the fact that I was told by Ramchargers that the fans would run on high speed all the time as opposed to a high and low speed with the stock fan. I hooked up the wiring using the stock fan's resistor in order to have two speed fan operation. I have a high speed fan switch inside the car and a low speed fan switch inside the car which I had put in a year ago. The switches are self explanatory, each has an LED light indicating when the fan is running regardless of whether or not the switch is thrown (in other words, when the low speed fan kicks on by itself, the light comes on). Now, these are my observations: (1) when the ECM kicks on the low speed fan, both fans do come on and at low speed through the resistor; (2) if I hit the high speed fan switch, it turns the fans on high speed; (3) if I have the high speed switch on and kick the low speed switch on, the fans run at a higher speed than just with the high speed switch on, in essence making a "third" speed. With that in mind, I removed the factory fan resistor and ran the low speed wiring directly into the fan with the high speed wiring. So the way it looks is as follows: green wire on RC fan to high speed in Buick; yellow wire on RC fan to low speed in Buick; blacks both to ground. And here is the way it works: if the ECM triggers the low speed fan, both fans come on pulling a good amount of CFM's. But, whenever the air conditioning kicks on or I hit the high speed fan switch, the RPMs and CFMs increase noticeably on the fans. I said all that to say this: the way it is looking right now, I have a two speed fan set up without a resistor. Will someone please tell me that I am crazy and I don't know what I am talking about, because for all intents and purposes, the fans do run two speeds without a resistor.

I know it may sound crazy, but it's true. - BB

Since then I've found a witness to confirm that I'm not crazy.

- BB

 

[6=8]

Firebird350:

You can purchase the fan with or without a harness (The GN harness is a separate $12 deal)

If you get the fan with the harness, it looks like it comes with relays, and a switch pre-wired for manual operation. At $139, it is still a steal.

For GN's, you buy the fan without the harness and purchase the GN adapter to plug into the factory wiring... Plug and Play.

As stated by Buick Beginner, you still have a High/Low option on this fan setup, but there is not much difference. There are 4 wires comming off the fans - 2 grounds and a yellow and a green wire.

(The grounds are not common, so technically, you could rig it up to run the fans independently by switching the ground circuits.)

The yellow and green wires, when they are both supplied with 12v will spin both fans faster than when only the yellow or green wire are connected. I tried this on the bench... and did not notice much of a difference.

I did not buy the adapter and wired it up by soldering the old fan connector to the new fan: Both grounds from the fan to the single ground pin, and green to high/yellow to low. This has allowed me, in theory, to retain a semi-high and high speed operation, assuming that when the factory wiring engages the high speed relay that it also engages the low speed relay. (So I may, in fact, only run the fans semi-fast.)

If I were to do this again, I would have just purchased the adpater and been done with it. (Run high speed no matter what supplied the fan) The difference is not worth the hastle.

My advice is to get the adapter. I looked for the OEM fan connector to use new parts on this install... No luck.

 

[tlturbo]

So what is the difference between the Adaptor and the Harness??

I have a GN and want to run both fans on high all the time (Florida ya know)

Thanks - Terry

 

[6=8]

Sorry, they have 3 options on this fan:

1. Fan, no harness
2. Fan, with stand alone (Manual low/high/off only) harness (Relays, switch, 12V/Gnd)
3. GN Adapter (Plugs in where the stock one did)

SO, I recommend getting the fan, no harness and the GN Adapter plug. $80 + $23

The GN adpter they sell will run the fan on high whenever the high/low relay sends a signal... Sounds like what you want tlturbo!

 

[fireberd350]

looks like i want option #2...the fan and have it hard wired for me to select low--high--off....you got the part number for that harness w/ the relay and the switch? thanks for all the info, Steve

 

[ijames]

The GN adpter they sell will run the fan on high whenever the high/low relay sends a signal... Sounds like what you want tlturbo!

Not unless they have finally added the third wire to the GN adaptor. If the adaptor only uses two of the three pins on the GN side, it will only run the fans when the low speed relay is turned on by the ecm. It will NOT run the fans when the high speed or delay relays turn on. You need to pull one of the pins out of the socket on your original fan, and cut the wire leaving a 1-2" pigtail. Put it into the middle pin hole of the adaptor harness. Strip a 1/4" or so off of one or both red wires on the adaptor, strip the end of the pigtail, wrap pigtail around red wires, solder well, paint with liquid electrical tape. NOW the fans will run whenever any of the three relays, low, high, delay, turn on.

 

[TurboJim]

Originally posted by Geoff87
The temp remained at a steady 160-162 degrees!! I also drove the car 50+ miles mostly on the freeway with the same or lower temp results!

The real test however, will be during HEAVY traffic on another hot day!

A BIG thumbs up for the dual fan thus far!

I told you all. One of the best bang for the buck deals. My car, same scenario plus a front mount. 173* in traffic with the AC on. W/O the AC, fan on to fan off ~1 minute (169 to 160)

 

[TRDirks]

SMC Mounting

BADDGUY6

Can you mount the SMC bottle in the same location?

No, What I did was to make an "L" bracket that bolts to the top of the frame rail and then the bottle bolts to the bracket. The stock I used was @ 1/4" thick and 1" wide and may seem like overkill but it is sturdy enough that you dont need any extra bracing. Let me know if you want some pics and I'll snap em' this weekend.

 

[Mike Licht]

Our fans have two speeds in the motor. With our GN adapter they will run at the highest speed when the low speed relay is engaged. This provided the best around town cooling.
Mike

 

[MSDGN]

Where do you see GN adapter($12) on the Ramchargers site?...I see a "Direct Plug In Fan Harness for Turbo Buick" for $22.95...

 

[6=8]

Sorry Mike!

Your right... The adapter is $23 (I edited my previous post and changed $12 to $23)

 

[BADDGUY6]

Re: SMC Mounting

Originally posted by TRDirks
BADDGUY6


No, What I did was to make an "L" bracket that bolts to the top of the frame rail and then the bottle bolts to the bracket. The stock I used was @ 1/4" thick and 1" wide and may seem like overkill but it is sturdy enough that you dont need any extra bracing. Let me know if you want some pics and I'll snap em' this weekend.

Timothy,

Can you please send pics: BADDGUY6@hawaii.rr.com
Thanks,
Guy

 

[Big Mike]

I recieved my parts from Ramchargers today!Thanks for all the shredded paper! LOL. I will be putting it in on the weekend.Thanks for all the great info guys on the wiring and install tips! Should be less painfull.A quick question...I was thinking of using a spare rear defogger switch as a timer switch so I can just hit the button after a pass down the 1320 and help it cool down.Does anyone use a timer?
Thanks
Mike

 

[Big Mike]

Thanks Gene.
I been to Thunder Bay (flew in on a float plane ,Wow.that was different! And drove to Winn.for a shot put meet.LOOONG DRIVE)
Gene, if you can just explain on the mods ,that would help me soo much! email me or post.Thanks EH! LOL
THanks again
Mike Kuruc

 

[Turtle TR]

I like'em I use the wiring harness with the two-way switch.

 

[Big Mike]

Installed the RC fan today and made the s shaped brackets.Great fit,cut the ears off also.
Problem...I had the car running in the garage ,turned the ac on and waited for it to get hot.The fan went on(high speed I guess ) and the temp was at 165 on the scan master.I shut the car off and thefans were still running.15 minutes later they were still running? Temp was at 140 and the fan was still running.I just used the addapter to the stock fan harness.Did I miss something.Shoud I go and get the old middle plug wire and soilder it to the RC(addapter harness) red wire .Is there something that I missed .Please help!
Mike