Migs' Dreams of Drifting...

Wiring an electric fan in an AE86 (auto turn-on)

A HUGE thanks goes to "Narfy" from Dori-Kaze for passing on the info about the AE92 GT-S water inlet.

After some investigating (since AE92 GT-S's aren't all that common), I discovered that AE82 inlets will also work. This is very good because AE82's are extremely common!

This info can be used in conjunction with my "Electric fan install" info

Here is the run down...

AE86's are equipped with an engine mounted, mechanically driven cooling fan from the factory. Therefore, if you remove that fan in favor of an electric unit, you have to come up with some way to power it.

The water inlet/thermostat housing from an AE82 (84-87 FWD Corolla w/4AC) and the AE92 GT-S fits the AE86 GT-S, and as such provides an in-line OEM thermo-switch to activate any installed electric fan. The AE86 water inlet doesn't have a thermoswitch because...well...it wouldn't need one since the fan that came with the car is driven by the engine.

By using the AE82/AE92 inlet, your electric fan will turn on and off automatically depending on the temperature of your coolant, and without the need to install some finicky aftermarket switch that could end up leaking due to flaws in their designs.

Please note!!

You will also need the rubber thermostat gasket seen in the below diagrams as # 16325 in order to use either inlet on an AE86.

The Toyota P/N for the AE92 GT-S water inlet is: 16321-16030 as pictured below:

The Toyota P/N for the AE82 (FWD 84-87 Corolla w/4AC) water inlet is: 16321-15010 as pictured below:

Wiring - Making use of the water inlet

If you end up using the OEM thermoswitch, it will require the use of one or two relays since the unit is N.C. (normally closed). I have NO IDEA how to wire up two relays at the moment, since I've never taken the time to even look into it, but I know it works as I've seen working with an AE86 in the recent past.

Another option is to track down another thermoswitch that is N.O. (normally open) so you can avoid the use of relays. There's a rumor that a switch from a late model Hyundai will work, but I have no idea what model, and what year.

My good friend Marco (Cos from Club4AG) did some investigating of his own after I told him about the Hyundai switch. After looking through some parts catalogues, he found that a thermoswitch made by Niehoff (P/N TS25961) is a switch with two leads (vs. the OEM Toyota unit that only has one) which makes the wiring much more simplistic. He tells me the switch activates to turn the fan on at around 198F, and sells for about $20 US. He's already using it in his AE86, and it works great! More info to come...

Any more info you can add? Let me know!

-Migs

-Migs

02/18/2006