# Sticky  A new, cheap electric fan option for S13s!



## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

As the title says, I just installed the SE-R fans in my 240, and I have to say that fitment was perfect (no trimming required)! This is by far the cheapest route if you want to switch to electric fans.


Things needed for this project:

1) Two SE-R fans
2) Two long 12-gauge wires (one for power and one for ground).
3) Whole lot of zip-ties.
4) 30-amp inline fuse.
5) Toggle switch to manually control when the fans come on.



*In the process of wiring the ground wire and power wire to the battery:*













*I took one of the plugs of the SE-R fans to power both of them, and then used that one unit to head towards the switch:*












*30-amp fuse to be on the safe side:*












*How I zip-tied the two fans together, and then zip-tied them to the radiator fill-neck. Also note that all hoses and wires above the fans were zip-tied together to clean up the area a bit:*












*The bottom of the fans, unattached. I didn't feel the need to fastem them down as I didn't notice them moving around. I will try to fasten the bottom down later anyway:*












*Another part of the fan zip-tied to the radiator:*












*The toggle switch that powers the fans. This is the best I could do with figuring out where to place the switch:*












*How the engine bay looks after closing it all up:*


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## zellx2004 (Sep 30, 2004)

Your engine bay is dirty....LOL I"m just messin with ya. Nice Idea with the Se-r fans. Do you have and specs on the fans? Like how much they flow?


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## OPIUM (Aug 18, 2002)

yeah that's alot cheaper than my setup I'm sure. I paid $276 for my F.A.L. fans


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## trmn8r (Apr 16, 2005)

what se-r are those fans from?


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

The fans are from the B13 '91-'94 SE-Rs (my specialty). I don't remember the CFM of the SE-R fans, but I do remember that their flow rate is better than the Flexalites. A lot of S14 240 people go with Altima fans ('93-'97), which also are just as good as the SE-R ones, but they need to be trimmed to make them fit in an S13. I just chose the SE-R fans because that's what I had laying in my garage, and they just happened to fit perfectly without any trimming of any sort. So if you want another cheap option, these bad boys should be up there in the list of best bang-for-the-buck items in terms of mods.


And regarding the engine bay's cleanliness, man, driving in Ohio is a pain. Because this car is a DD car, I have to drive it in all sorts of weather. So all the shit from the salt to whatever else gets clogged up there. I just hope the bad rust won't come back, because I just had the car cleaned up (new paint job, rust removal etc.). I guess I'll have to live with it if the rust does come back. Oh well...


I changed the title of the thread, and I'll make this a sticky if you guys think this option is worth it.


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## trmn8r (Apr 16, 2005)

Harris said:


> The fans are from the B13 '91-'94 SE-Rs (my specialty). I don't remember the CFM of the SE-R fans, but I do remember that their flow rate is better than the Flexalites. A lot of S14 240 people go with Altima fans ('93-'97), which also are just as good as the SE-R ones, but they need to be trimmed to make them fit in an S13. I just chose the SE-R fans because that's what I had laying in my garage, and they just happened to fit perfectly without any trimming of any sort. So if you want another cheap option, these bad boys should be up there in the list of best bang-for-the-buck items in terms of mods.
> 
> 
> And regarding the engine bay's cleanliness, man, driving in Ohio is a pain. Because this car is a DD car, I have to drive it in all sorts of weather. So all the shit from the salt to whatever else gets clogged up there. I just hope the bad rust won't come back, because I just had the car cleaned up (new paint job, rust removal etc.). I guess I'll have to live with it if the rust does come back. Oh well...
> ...


im definately getting those fans today.


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## ittamaticstatic (Nov 5, 2003)

Nice fit. I had to cut some altima fans.


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## bridrive55 (Aug 26, 2004)

Nice post. Great plan to use Taurus fans or fans from other transverse domestics due to affordability/availability, but the big part is the wiring. Simple circuit with a switch. Good post.
I see you stole my avatar, Harris.


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## Terran200sx (Dec 30, 2004)

That's a bit of a sketchy wiring job, i think one of these would be a little better for the job.


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## Joel (Jun 11, 2003)

Yeah no offense but your wiring is a bit dodgy 
You dont need to earth back to the battery terminal, just use a short wire to the car body. Also a high current relay with a low current switch is better than a single high current switch.
You should also be able to simply push a number of bolts through the radiator fins and use a wide washer on the other side to secure the fans

Did you wire the fans in series or parallel?

They look like they fit nicely!


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## zellx2004 (Sep 30, 2004)

From an amateur electrician, I think you did a fine job with the wiring. Single switch is probably the most easy route to do. I have a question for Joel.. what kind of relay would you use, and what wires would you run to it?


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

Joel said:


> Did you wire the fans in series or parallel?




I had them run in series. I should have mentioned this, but I'm not anywhere near close to good at wiring or electrical stuff (I'm very good at mechanical work). This is more than proven by the work that you see in the pics. So I think I did well enough work to make this setup functional. Somewhere down the line, I'll be enlisting the help of friends who are better at this than me. 





Joel said:


> They look like they fit nicely!



Yes indeed! Being that you're in Australia, you can probably get the fans off of an NX (that's what I think they're called in Europe).


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## Dustin (Dec 14, 2003)

seems like a good plan, but i would probably just leave the toggle on at all times, unless it's not run off of the ignition on circuit, because if it's tapping power straight from the battery, or another terminal that is independant of the ignition, it would have to be turned on and off each time you start the car, but why would you not want to have a fan running? just when you're cruising at high speeds?


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## Terran200sx (Dec 30, 2004)

Here, because that high voltage switch is dangerous, i drew this up. It might not be totally right because it's been a long time. But it should help.


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## Joel (Jun 11, 2003)

Yeah thats what Im talking about. The relay size depends on the current draw of the fans. If they work with the 30A fuse then a 30A relay is required. 
This one is 20A so a bigger version is required, but it gives you an idea.

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/438f9ccb059a64642743c0a87f9c0771/Product/View/P8035

And for those that have limited electrical knowledge, terrans diagram shows the fans in parallel. Series would have the neg of the first fan attached to the positive of the second. Parallel would bring the speed of each fan up but also raise the total circuit current draw.


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## Terran200sx (Dec 30, 2004)

Joel said:


> Yeah thats what Im talking about. The relay size depends on the current draw of the fans. If they work with the 30A fuse then a 30A relay is required.
> This one is 20A so a bigger version is required, but it gives you an idea.
> 
> http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/438f9ccb059a64642743c0a87f9c0771/Product/View/P8035
> ...


Yeah i forgot the fuse in there cause i'm cool like that, that's living on the wild side. Although in theory your fuse would be where the ING. On area is, and you'd have another one before the relay.


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

Dustin said:


> seems like a good plan, but i would probably just leave the toggle on at all times, unless it's not run off of the ignition on circuit, because if it's tapping power straight from the battery, or another terminal that is independant of the ignition, it would have to be turned on and off each time you start the car, but why would you not want to have a fan running? just when you're cruising at high speeds?




An electric fan in a car is not on all the time. It turns on when the coolant temperature goes up to a certain point and turns off when it has cooled down to a certain point (some turn on at 208* and off at around 180-ish*). Also, they turn on usually when the car is stationary or travelling at slow speed.


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## kaptainkrolllio (Aug 8, 2005)

A friend of mine got some Stanza fans from a junkyard for 25 some odd dollars, so that's another option. He also got this relay from Autozone that you sitck in your radiator and it turns the fans on at whatever temperature he sets it at. He spent like $50 on the whole thing and it cools his redtop fine. Unfortunately, I don't know specifically what the relay was called.


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

How bad of a safety issue is it with the way I'm running the fans? That's what I'd like answered from you wiring gurus.


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## Terran200sx (Dec 30, 2004)

Harris said:


> How bad of a safety issue is it with the way I'm running the fans? That's what I'd like answered from you wiring gurus.


How good's your memory? Seriously though, you don't _really_ want to be overcooling or undercooling your engine, in the long run it's cheaper to wire them correctly and not have to worry about it. That highvoltages switch is fairly dangerous, i knew a kid who had some POS wal-fart fogs that were wireed like that, and the switch melted to his dash one night. Same reason they don't put Ammeters in cars anymore, too much voltage in one place. That and it's going ot be a real pain to have to think about those fans every single time you turn your car on.


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## ittamaticstatic (Nov 5, 2003)

Terran's right about overcooling and undercooling the engine, plus the constant high amp draw is whats dangerous. I'm going to hook you up though and show you a safer way. All you need is what you've used your old harness from your stock electric single fan, a 30amp relay, some wire connectors for the relay, and a test light. 

1st unwire the fans
2nd cut the harness from the old fan and crimp or solder the wires to the battery side fan.
3rd connect the old harnesses back together and now that fan only turns on when the A/C is on.










4th Now to wire the relay. With your test light find a wire that is hot when the ignition is on and not on when it's not. I would look under the dash. Clip a wire on to that to run to the relay # 85 
5th Disconnect the negative battery cable, we won't need anynore power till the end.
6th Find a good spot between the battery and the hot (ignition on) wire to mount your relay
7th Run a ground wire from #86 to ground.
8th You run your 30amp in line fuse wire to the relay from the battery to #30 on the relay 
9th you run the power wire from the other fan to #87 on the relay
10th You ground that fans ground wire.








Now reconnect your battery and turn the ignition key on. You should hear and see only the driver side fan running. Then turn on your A/C and see if the other fan turns on as well. This is all you need and works great!








Keep it clean and keep it smart.


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

Terran200sx said:


> How good's your memory? Seriously though, you don't _really_ want to be overcooling or undercooling your engine, in the long run it's cheaper to wire them correctly and not have to worry about it. That highvoltages switch is fairly dangerous, i knew a kid who had some POS wal-fart fogs that were wireed like that, and the switch melted to his dash one night. Same reason they don't put Ammeters in cars anymore, too much voltage in one place. That and it's going ot be a real pain to have to think about those fans every single time you turn your car on.



Thanks for your concern Terran. So far, I haven't forgotten to switch the fan on when deemed necessary. It's in the 20* F - 30* F temperature-range outside, which should more than keep the car around normal operating temperature. Right now, the only time I turn the fans on is when I'm sitting at a red light. Other than that, they stay off.


ittamaticstatic, therein lies the problem. The A/C doesn't work. If it did, I'd have gone that route already. I didn't do this without asking others around how they did it. And this is just a preliminary setup. During the spring, I'll be overhauling the whole engine bay. Instead of this kind of setup, I'll be going with a sensor (of sorts), that'll turn on the fans based on the temperature of the coolant. It'll turn on the fans at say 205*, and turn them off at around 180*. These sensors come with different sensitivities, depending on your needs. And I'll do the same thing as I did with the setup I already have, i.e., use a 30-amp fuse to keep it from burning the fan motors. So I'll be taking that route eventually.

This write-up was not really meant for someone to use as a permanent setup. My stock fan had taken a crap, and I needed a cooling solution ASAP, so this was the best available option for me at the moment. I'll sticky this just in case someone needs to have a primitive setup just to start with (but not use as a permanent option), and also to show credit to ittamaticstatic's post on one of the ways of doing in correctly.


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## Terran200sx (Dec 30, 2004)

Harris said:


> Thanks for your concern Terran. So far, I haven't forgotten to switch the fan on when deemed necessary. It's in the 20* F - 30* F temperature-wise outside, which should more than keep the car around normal operating temperature. Right now, the only time I turn the fans on is when I'm sitting at a red light. Other than that, they stay off.
> 
> 
> ittamaticstatic, therein lies the problem. The A/C doesn't work. If it did, I'd have gone that route already. I didn't do this without asking others around how they did it. And this is just a preliminary setup. During the spring, I'll be overhauling the whole engine bay. Instead of this kind of setup, I'll be going with a sensor (of sorts), that'll turn on the fans based on the temperature of the coolant. It'll turn on the fans at say 205*, and turn them off at around 180*. These sensors come with different sensitivities, depending on your needs. And I'll do the same thing as I did with the setup I already have, i.e., use a 30-amp fuse to keep it from burning the fan motors. So I'll be taking that route eventually.
> ...



As long as people are aware that it is *not *a perminant solution. The temp guages in the car arn't accuate enough to really tell you when to switch them on and off and it can do bad things to your motor in short order.


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## kaptainkrolllio (Aug 8, 2005)

I've actually heard of people with the stock KA running no fan and they didn't have any problems with overheating unless they left the car just sitting there.


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## Terran200sx (Dec 30, 2004)

yeah, in really cool climataes. but watch out for any traffic.


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## kellen_wynn (Jul 25, 2004)

Can anyone run a parts list for the electric fan set-up?


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

Re-read the posts and you'll see the parts list.


Effective reading is essential, my friend.


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## kellen_wynn (Jul 25, 2004)

I actually meant to PM you about a *detailed* parts list but it seems your system was flawed. So I replied with the hopes that someone would compile a definitive solution to the installation. Unfortunately, it seems from the dozen other electrical fan posts that this is a matter of preference. Great sticky though!

Parts ex.

1X 20 Amp #SWS-MAX20
3 ft. 18 gauge blue electrical wire
4X electrical butt connectors #SUM-890057 
etc, etc.

Here is a kick ass solution Greddy Multi Switch


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## ittamaticstatic (Nov 5, 2003)

A 30amp relay, 30amp fuse and 10 Gauge wire at least. A 40amp relay, 40amp fuse and 8 gauge wire would be ideal. I recommend soldering the wires and only using connectors on the relay. 

Also if you get the chance stop by your local junkyard and grab some nissan relays. I did and it cleans it up even more.


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## kellen_wynn (Jul 25, 2004)

I want to thank everyone for this sticky, it inspired me to try a electric fan set-up on Rusty. I did things a bit different though. I got some electric fans out of a 91 Sentra (GXE?) which came out in two separate fans/shrouds. They both fit the KA radiator with ease. The fan motors had 4 wires: blue, black, green, yellow. I used the blue for power and black as ground. 

The fan (Main) nearest to the drivers side, had the power wire mushed into the fuel pump fuse and the ground wire bolted to the headlight ground.

The fan (Aux) nearest the passenger side was butt connected into what used to be my A/C?? fan plug. It was a plug that attached to my old secondary fan on the radiator. It had a brown/white wire and black wire. I spliced the black with the black and the brown/white with the blue. I assume that the black wire was ground and the brown/white was power.

After many hours and many snapped bolts, 2 total thats why its called Rusty, I turned the ignition on first. Bam! the main fan started right up. I let the car idle till it reached half way on the water temp. The aux fan hasn't come on yet so it makes me wonder if I wired it right. I turned on the A/C to see if it would but nada. I figure it the main fan is doing its job well for now.

I have yet to drive the car so we'll see how it holds up. Later this week I'm installing some gauges so we'll see what kind of temps the fans hold. I'll say this, removing that clutch fan actually lets you see your engine. Thanks for the write up guys.

Parts:
two 91 Sentra fans
long black zip ties 30 pack
8 meter 10ga wire (red)
1 assortment pack full of solderless connectors(8-22ga)


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## Trippen (Feb 21, 2006)

I have been looking at this post for some time...And am adding a few things for my setup....Since I live in TX and sometimes stuck in traffic for a long tim I am adding a 2nd relay a temp sensor for fan 2 and LED's that i am going to have in my dash for verifying fan 1 and fan 2 running. 

First fan will run constantly 
2nd fan will kick on when temp reaches(???) (not sure what to set this too any suggestions)
I will attach a wiring diagram.

Build parts list
2 Taurus Fans
2 12v 30/40a relays 
2 lights and screw in holders Light one to show fan 1 is working light 2 to show when 2nd fan engages
1 temp switch adjustable surface mount (mounting it to the center of the radiator should work but will be testing the temp ranges of the radiator..Any Suggestions)


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## surfer240sx (Dec 15, 2005)

i just finished my setup came out so clean i used taurus fans like trippin but no relays and just set it up with 2 toggle switches they work great and its alot quieter u dont realize how loud the fan clutch style fan is untill converted


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## Trippen (Feb 21, 2006)

How did they fit..mine just came today...I will be working on it next week. Either way ill post pics


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## surfer240sx (Dec 15, 2005)

Trippen said:


> How did they fit..mine just came today...I will be working on it next week. Either way ill post pics


i had to cut a little spot out for the radiator and flip them upside down i got it from a scrapyard it said 1990? i was hoping they would fit watever they were but if they were taurus fans wasnt a bad fit


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## Trippen (Feb 21, 2006)

Cool......Got mine on ebay .. taurus fans for sure....Looked up the number stamped on them...2000cfm per fan...well it will be tuesday befor i get a chance to instll them


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## surfer240sx (Dec 15, 2005)

its kind of involved hiding the wires, mounting the toggle switches... it was fun


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## Trippen (Feb 21, 2006)

Ok Finally done all the wires temp sensors and lights relays etc etc hooked up....Here are some pics enjoy.....

Blue light is Fan 1 normally running and Orange light is Fan 2 temp dependent 130deg it goes on so far.


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## bobby22_8 (Jul 24, 2006)

i used the fans off my 91 stanza they worked good with the sr swap o by the way good job!!!!!!!!


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## FatboyCG (Jun 1, 2006)

nice write up!


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## dakotaj (Nov 3, 2008)

i did the electric fan conversion when i looked and figured out that my belt fan was cracked and ready to give
,<br> i put a ten inch fan on the outside(puller) and 15inch from a old school chevy diesel (oh yea its cold) <br>
and it keeps running colder than it did before, along with my new exhaust intake and 93 octane it made the difference in a race with a 06 mustang, it went from about 6-7 cars to a car and a half in a quarter (still tore that ass in the 1/8th though)


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## ka24e89 (Jul 9, 2009)

*ser fan*

I just got a ser fan from a friend but only 1? U think I will be ok with just that n to wire it to the ignition with a ground to the chassis?


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## 91s13 (Jul 12, 2009)

think these would work for an r32 radiator? i plan on swapping in the vh45de (infinite q45 motor)...apparently the stock radiator is equipped but poorly to handle the heat from the v8....


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## shogun! (Nov 3, 2009)

Not the cheapest solution but very good and efficient.


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## MayaWilson (Mar 22, 2020)

Your engine bay is dirty....LOL I"m just messin with ya. Nice Idea with the Se-r fans. Do you have and specs on the fans? Like how much they flow?


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