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| http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/engine/aluminum06/ | Short Cuts | ||||
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By: Matthew Beccue - 7/2006
Installing an Aluminum Radiator w/SPAL Programmable Fan
Introduction
When I got my jeep, it had been in a front end collision and the stock fan shroud was never put back in place after the repairs. The all brass radiator in my jeep was getting tired and the mounting bracket on the core had broken off again after being re-soldered twice before. When I finally got the means, I got a new radiator, SPAL electric fan, CNC brackets for the fan, and SPAL digital fan controller from Bryan at alumrad.com.
Radiator Kit Contents
The radiator is a single 1 3/8" core aluminum Visteon radiator. It has plastic upper and lower tanks with bolts that hold on the mounting brackets. It is a direct bolt in replacement for YJ's and TJ's. The fan is a 16" 2070 CFM. The fan is held on by CNC machined aluminum brackets that come preinstalled. The SPAL fan controller is a digital controller that will look at the voltage output from a temperature sender and turn the fan on low (50%) or high (100%) depending on how hot the engine is. It is also programmable so you can set the low and high temps at whatever you want. The SPAL controller also comes with all the necessary hardware for the install. My kit also came with an inline temperature sensor and housing. This was found to be not as effective as directly hooking into the gauge sender and is not necessary.
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| New aluminum radiator with fan and CNC brackets. The SPAL controller, wiring kit, and install manual. | |
Radiator Removal and Installation
In order to get the radiator out you need to get the fan and fan shroud out first. Loosen the serpentine belt, so that the water pump pulley won't get shoved into a weird angle when you remove the fan. Once the belt is loose, remove the nuts holding the fan in place and break it loose. It helps if you use a set of vice grips on the shaft of the fan to hold it as you break the nuts loose. On some models of wrangler, the coolant over flow bottle and/or power steering reservoir and the front axle breather line are mounted to the shroud/bracket, just remove them from the shroud/bracket and tuck them out of the way for now. Unbolt the shroud and pull the fan off the studs. Remove the shroud and fan at the same time. Reinstall the nuts back onto the water pump pulley studs and torque them down, there is just enough of the centering post to get some vice grips on to keep it from turning.
On most radiators, there is a drain petcock on the bottom left. Once it is empty remove the upper and lower radiator hose from the radiator. On automatics there are 2 transmission cooler lines that need to be removed from the bottom core as well. There are 6 bolts that hold the radiator on. Remove the upper 4 and just loosen the bottom 2. The bottom 2 holes are slotted, so you can just lift the radiator out.
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| The radiator drain petcock. There is a slot on the bracket for the radiator so you don't have to support its weight as you remove/install it. | |
Install the new radiator by sliding it onto the bottom 2 bolts and installing the top 4 bolts and tightening them down. Install the upper and lower radiator hoses and transmission cooler lines. On wranglers with bolts holding accessories onto the old mounting bracket, the holes on the new radiator should be in the right place to just bolt them back in place. You may have to share a bolt hole with the aluminum support for the fan. On jeeps where the fan shroud had slots for the coolant over flow to mount to, you can do a couple of things. You can cut the old fan shroud and use the cut piece as the mount, zip tie it to the new mount, relocate it, buy an aftermarket overflow tank, ETC... If it were my jeep, I would just cut the old fan shroud up and use it as a mount, with the electric fan, you won't need the shroud anymore. Luckily my YJ didn't have the preformed tabs. It has a bolted on power steering reservoir that bolted perfectly up to the new radiator mounting bracket.
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| The new radiator and fan installed. Some jeeps have this bracket as part of the fan shroud. Just cut the old shroud on the dotted line and bolt it back onto the new radiator mount. | |
SPAL Installation
The SPAL controller is water proof and can be mounted inside or outside the jeep. I chose to mount mine directly above the battery to the firewall. There are 6 wires to connect to make it work, or 7 if you want a manual on.
The SPAL directions say to mount directly to the battery terminals for both power and ground. Cut the power and ground to length, splice the fuse holder in line, and add eye crimps. Remove the main nuts on the battery terminals, hook the power and ground in and tighten the nuts back down.
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| I mounted the SPAL controller to the firewall directly above the battery. The white wire hooks to the purple wire coming from the temp gauge sender. | ||
The white wire is the signal wire. It should be hooked to the temperature sender for the gauge, not the computer. The computer temperature sender is the one on the thermostat housing and has 2 wire ran to it. The sender for the gauge is in the very back of the head to the right of the valve cover and only has 1 wire going to it. I found the computer was actually sending a voltage spike every once in a while confusing the SPAL controller. Cut the white wire to length then tap-splice the white wire to the purple wire.
The orange wire needs positive with the key on, it turns the SPAL controller on whenever the ignition is on. Since I planned on rigging a manual on switch, I decided to get positive for the orange wire inside the jeep. I chose to route the wire into the cab via the grommet for the speedo cable. Just about any white wire with a black tracer in the cab is key on positive on YJ's. I opened up the main wire loom next to the e-brake and got power from there.
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| The orange and blue wire can be routed in through the speedo cable grommet. Power can be splice from any white with a black tracer, it's easy to get from the main loom next to the e-brake. | |
If your jeep is equipped with AC you need to tap splice the blue wire into the wire coming out of the AC pump. That way whenever the pump is energized, the fan will turn on forcing cool air over the condenser. If you don't have AC you can bundle up that wire and tuck it away, or use it to rig a manual on switch. To rig a manual on switch, you just need to apply positive to the blue wire. I routed the blue wire to a switch on the dash. Then I tap-spliced power from the orange wire into a short section of wire to one side of my switch. Then I hooked the blue wire to the other side of my switch. Whenever the switch is turned on the blue wire gets positive and the fan turns on full blast. There is a gray wire on the SPAL that is designed for a low current relay. It is for using another fan for high mode that is activated by a relay. Whenever the SPAL box is turned on high, it sends positive out the gray wire. Since I am only running 1 fan, I just wound it up and put a zip tie on it and tucked it away.
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| You can splice off the orange wire for power for the manual on switch. I just reused the piece of wire trimmed off the blue wire to bring it to length. A normal 2 wire switch can be used, but mine was lighted so I needed a ground. | |
Programming the SPAL
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| The blue is about where a 180 thermostat runs at. Yellow is where low kicks in and red is where high kicks in. |
Programming the SPAL is very easy. Unplug the fan and start the jeep from cold. Let it warm up to your desired low temp and push and hold the low button until the yellow light blinks. I suggest you set the low speed temp a bit higher than your thermostat, that way the fan won't be on when you are running down the highway at 60 MPH. The thermostat opens just about where the needle stays during flat level cruising. Let it continue warming to your desired high temp then push and hold the high button until the red light blinks. I set mine at about 220 or about halfway between the 210 mark and the next mark. Turn off the jeep and plug your fan back in. The SPAL book says to allow then engine to cool then verify the fan is turning on where you want it. I was much to impatient for that. Once I had the controller programmed, I turned off my jeep plugged the fan in and restarted it. The fan kicked on high, cooled the engine until it kicked on low then turned off and started cycling.
Once you have it programmed right, the jeep should warm up to a bit above the thermostat then the fan should kick in low and cool it almost to the thermostat then turn off and just repeat itself until you get the jeep moving down the road. If you messed up the programming, just let the jeep cool and try again. Since I have a manual on switch I would just let the fan run on high until it was cooler than the thermostat and started over from there. It just has to be cooler than the temp you want the low setting to be at.
Conclusion
First I'd like to thank Bryan McCulloch at alumrad.com for all his help with this project. My Jeep never gets hot now. The day I finished the install I used my Jeep to help my brother move stuff from Oxnard to Frazier Park. I took out the back seat and seat bracket loaded it till I couldn't see out the back, then loaded our little trailer with a dresser, small couch, refrigerator, roll around tool box (with tools in it), desk, and a couple other little things. I drove up the back side of the grape vine on the 5 freeway with it almost 100 degrees outside in third gear pulling 3800 RPM the whole way up it. The jeep didn't even get to 210. The next day I drove miller jeep trail with it about 80 degrees out and it never got to 210 either. Before my jeep would be running about 230 on the steep sections because the mechanical fan could not suck enough air through the radiator at low RPM.
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