Flex-A-Lite Black Magic Fan Install

Difficulty: Pretty Easy

Time: 2-3 hours

Discussion:

This is one of those little horsepower robbing things that you can eliminate. This job required removing the stock fan that runs off the engine and installing an electric fan. The HP gain is minimal but sufficient enough to consider doing the job.

Installation:

Removal of the fan shroud around the radiator is pretty simple. Getting the fan off can be a problem. The most often side effect of removing the fan is breaking one of the bolts that holds the fan and drive pulleys on. Some people use a large screwdriver and wedge it between two of the mounting bolts and use that for leverage. I used a slip wrench. Its exactly the same principle as an oil filter wrench except that it uses 1" wide canvas straps for gripping. A couple of sprays of WD-40 and the bolts were out.

I did not use the included mounting hardware that came with the fan. Instead I made my own by going to the local hardware store. I got the idea from this RX-7 owner’s page and I’d like to thank him for the suggestions on how to do the job!

There are a few electrical connections. One wire to a constant hot, one wire to an ignition switched, one to ground, and one to the AC relay so the fan will turn on in the AC is on.

An internal thermostat controls the fan and you just set it so that the fan comes on when the car reaches its normal temp.

Results:

Overall I’m very happy with the fan. The coolant temp NEVER goes above ¼ on the gage. Power increases are minimal, but you will notice the engine revs a little faster and you’ll see more power off the line.

For more details on this upgrade, I’d definitely recommend going to this page and reading all about it!