Originally Posted by
Sneakin Deacon
glad ya got it worked out, just curious though why you used a potentiometer for the fan? i could see you using it if you wanted to control the fan speed, but other then that i dont know...did you like mount it inside your cabin so you could start/stop the fan manually?
if you want something that will be easier on you and not run your fan the entire time, search "Fan Switch" on Summitracing.com. they are pretty cheap, 25-50 dollars for a decent setup and setup within an hour or so for an electrically inclined person. or you could also wire a relay inline with the fan, and pull the 12V signal from something that is hot when the key is on, but itll still run the fan all the time while you drive. just some suggestions though.
I used a rheostat that has a probe into the radiator and I can adjust the temperature at which the fan turns on. It was a unit built for just that thing. The other option was to connect it into a circuit tied to the ignition. So it turns on at the temperature desired but it shuts off after the ignition is off. The way I have it now is based solely on the temperature. The fan keeps running until the tempature of the radiator is below the desired setting. Even if the ignition is off the fan keeps running until it cools the radiator below that temperature.
The other unit I had used the ignition as a control source. It was suppose to detect when the ignition was off and turn the fan off when the ignition was off regardless of the temperature. But it was suppose to be powered by a second connection to the battery. Obviously I had some feedback amperage back into that "control" line which blew out my ECM.
I'm not saying the other way wouldn't work and that it wouldn't be ok with a fuse in between but I feel better the way it is now knowing I've had problems with that in the past.
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