The electric fan controller, Advance Auto Parts Imperial/Hayden part # 226204

I walked down all the rows of Ford cars looking for a Mark VIII to get the fan from, as I've heard its the absolute best one out there. I was on the last row of Ford cars when I passed a Taurus with a 3.8 liter engine (another desirable choice...my 2nd choice if I couldnt find a Lincoln), and the fan was already removed for me.

1998 Thunderbird. This pic shows the depth of the electric fan into the engine bay, and kind of what to look for when walking by one. This t-bird had the 3.8 liter engine.

Theres a 1994 t-bird next to it with 30k miles more than the 1998. I took the newer one with less miles, but there is another one up for grabs right next to it.

All the stuff I have amassed so far for the swap, and the Taurus fan. 16 inches. Hard to see but I promise. Its 16 inches.

Taurus fan: 22 inches across

Taurus fan: 17 inches vertical

Taurus fan: About 5 inches deep

T-bird fan. Also 22 inches across, and since its square, its about 22 inches vertical

T-bird fan: About 5 inches deep.

All my stuff. A new quality pair of wire cutters/strippers/crimpers from Grainger, project box, grommets, solder, fuses, random diodes, 300 amp continuous duty relay, fan controller.

T-bird fan 18 inches across

Remove the 4 fan bolts...

It might take some persuasion depending on how long its been on, but mine came off easy, only been on there a year.

Thread the fan bolts back in. These also hold the outer water pump pulley on.

T-bird fan held in place. There is very little room, 1-2 mm between the motor and the pulleys...not gonna work.

Top down view, you can see its too deep to fit. This is most likely due to the extremely large radiator I have compared to stock.

Taurus fan fits perfectly. Not sure why there is a difference, When I measured the thickness of the fan/shroud/motor they both seemed to be 5 inches. This is a major difference though.

I held it to the drivers side of the radiator, I'm not sure it really matters where on the radiator the fan actually is located. Anyway its slightly offset, and there is plenty of room.

Held in the middle of the radiator, it's close but no interference. I guess I dont know how to use a tape measure.

Not content to use the smaller Taurus fan, I decided to cut a little bit of the shroud off the T-bird fan. It had about 1 inch between the fan and the edges of the fan shroud, so cutting about a half inch seemed to be ok.

Flush with the drivers side of the radiator, there is now enough clearance to mount it, and allow for some normal engine movement.

Cut the mounting tab off the side of it. The tab was pushing the fan off the radiator a bit allowing for a gap, and thus the fan was closer to the motor. Cut the tab off and that side of the fan got a little closer to the radiator and further away from the motor, giving a little more clearance than the previous picture showed.

This is a blue/white wire to either the EEC or Fuel Pump relay.
It is the most convenient tie-in I could find for the fan controller.

This is the yellow wire from the fan controller that ties into the IGN ON blue/white wire by the FP/EEC relay.
The glare on the meter is hard to see, but the key is on and its showing 12V, so this part of the circuit is working.

This is where the project box is going. I'm leaving it open until I tweak everything and confirm eerything works correctly.

I didnt have any heat shrink this big so I had to resort to electrical tape. This is the splice into the fan connector pigtail.

The 300 amp continuous duty solenoid. Way overkill, and hindsight and some more research shows I could probably use the 40 amp fuse that the fan controller has built in. The fan draws @ 33 amps. However if I go to a dual Taurus fan setup I'll need this. So I'll just keep it for now.

Temperature probe installed right next to the inlet coolant hose. Its a nice tight fit, I cant imagine it will wiggle loose over time, but if it does I'll just move it. I might even move it closer to the middle of the radiator so there is a lag time and it doesnt come on just because of a temperature spike from a high engine load.

This is the tie-in for the green AC ON wire to the fan controller. This tells the fan to come on every time the AC compressor kicks in.

This is where I routed the wires for the fan. Gonna put split hose on it when I get around to it.

Bottom up view of the routing of my fan wires.

Dual Taurus fans mounted. This took some shroud cutting, and the are about as close to each other as possible. 34.5 inches end to end.

Using cardboard to make a template to cut the shroud of the dual fans around the radiator hoses etc.

layed over the fans I can see where I have to cut.

It took alot of test fitting and trimming and more test fitting. About an hour of this and I had a good fit.

My wiring job. Not sure I like it, not waterproof enough but its good for now until I do a massive rewiring job and add in my Thunderbird fuse box to all my accessories.

A simple 1 inch wide piece of aluminum I bent to follow the countours of the fan shrouds. This is stuck into the bottom of the core support where a lip comes up so it cant move back toward the engine. Tension is from the bolt on the top that attaches it to the radiator lip. One bolt and the fan assembly comes out. Not sure how I like this yet, I think it needs more support.