<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Trav_555 @ Jul 9 2008, 07:35 AM) </div>depends why your doing it
a good condition engine fan (with a proper shroud) will move alot more air than any electric fan will.
to use an electric one properly you really need to use a shroud as well, you will see the use of shrouds with electric fans on FWD cars.
having said that......i just wacked a 12" supercheap fan on my radiator (ke70 stocko 4k), straight on no shroud, and made a temperature control circuit that gets its temperature from the radiator. it is programmed to turn on at about 85deg, and turn off when it drops to 80.
the fan RARELY turns on. only time it turns on is in traffic, and its not on for very long.
as for any "performance" increase, i didn't notice anything...but i think my viscous coupling thing was pretty buggered, so my old fan might not have been doing anything anyway.
only real advantage i have seen from it, is the ability to force the fan on (i have an override switch on my dash) so if it gets really hot for some reason i can just keep the fan spinning. other advantage is that it has given alot more room in the engine bay for working on other things.
my recommendation if you going to buy one: go to wreckers, and get a fan AND shroud off a FWD car, and also get the temperature switch thing that you can screw into your water system some where, so it automatically turns off and on at the right time. should be pretty cheap for that. if your going for a engine conversion later on, grab yourself a complete radiator and fan out of a st162 celica or hyundai excel, so you can get some uber cooling action. both these radiators come with 2 fans i believe.
hope that helped....geez what a long post!
