Adding 87-88 Electric Fans to 86TC

Has anyone added the dual electric fans from an 87-88 TC to an earlier TC? It has been well over 100 degrees here in my town and my TC does get pretty warm in stop and go traffic. I have access to a 87-88 turbo coupe parts car and it does still have the electric fans. I can confirm that my stock electric fan on the 86 comes on so the IRCM is working properly.

I'm sure the fans would mount up fine, problem is not sure about the fan controller since you only have one fan and the 87-88 dual fans are controlled independently from each other. If you wire them up to come on together with the use of a relay to handle the higher amps, that would work ok. May want a larger than stock alternator though?

One fan should be sufficient though... perhaps a nice aluminum 2 core radiator would work out better? Note that some (most?) 2 core aluminum radiators have a larger core diameter than the cores in most 3 row radiators. Total core diameter of the 3 core would be larger but certainly not by 33%. The improved airflow through 2 cores is a good tradeoff versus the 3 core.

Anyhow, I have a two core aluminum in a 87 turbo coupe that handled the 117* heat here in vegas this past week without even getting to the 1/2 on the temp gauge. The gauge does indeed work as at times in the winter the fans don't come on until it gets near the top of the normal range if the car isn't moving and the auto climate control isn't on to cycle the AC compressor/fan.

I agree with VegasSS about putting in a higher amp alternator if going with the 87-88 dual fan setup. Most of us use a 130 A 3G from a late 80s Mustang 5.0 V8 if going with a dual fan setup. The stock 86 TC alternator is a whopping 65 Amp unit. Each electric fan has an inrush current of 40+ Amps while spinning up, and around 20 Amps while running.

There is a tech article somewhere around here about installing a 130 A 3G alternator in a TC.

You could use the stock 86 fan controller for the primary fan (passenger side fan) and an aftermarket fan controller for the aux fan (driver side fan) set to turn on when coolant temp hits 225 deg F or so. I suggest you not just wire the 2 fans in parallel due to the excessive current drain from running both fans when only one is needed 95% of the time.

Thank you for the replies! I was planning on converting my alternator to a 3G even before the electric fan idea. As for the radiator, in the future I will for sure be putting a 2 row radiator in the car. I like the idea of using stock 86 fan controller for the primary fan and an aftermarket fan controller for the auxiliary fan. I think I will go about it that way!

Thank you for the replies! I was planning on converting my alternator to a 3G even before the electric fan idea. As for the radiator, in the future I will for sure be putting a 2 row radiator in the car. I like the idea of using stock 86 fan controller for the primary fan and an aftermarket fan controller for the auxiliary fan. I think I will go about it that way!

To further expound on this:

Don’t forget that the second cooling fan, according to Ford’s shop manual, only comes on when a) the coolant reaches around 225 degrees Fahrenheit; and/or b) the A/C high pressure side refrigerant reaches 350 pounds (if I recall correctly). Both of which are likely to occur when you get even a little above 100 or even the mid 90s, depending on relative humidity.

So don’t just look at the coolant temperature being the reason to have two fans. And, as Jeff said, running both fans all the time would be a waste, like driving with the parking brake on.