Have seen many places here the accolades of replacing mechanical clutch cooling fan with high volume electrical fan. Just bought one yesterday (Imperial). Got to thinking about real vs. percieved benefit. Please clear me up. If the primary purpose of a cooling fan is to cool down the radiator fluid. Then there is no benefit to replacing mechanical with better cooling electrical. The thermostat controls fixing the temperature at 196 F. So it will open/close to maintain that temperature. If the primary purpose is to cool the engine block and accessories, then I see a direct improvement over the mechanical clutch fan(especially at low speeds i.e. idle). Also, claims have been made that there is a 2 - 3 HP gain by replacing mechanical with electrical. I disagree with this. Nothing is free. Either you draw engine power away from torque losses of turning a mechanical fan off the engine, or you draw engine power away from drawing more load off the alternator. If you don't think using all electricals (lights, fans, ....) draws power, open the hood and watch the RPM drop when you turn everything on. The only other benefit to increasing cooling under the hood could be in terms of the a/c evaporator working better with higher rate of air drawn thru it. But I have never really had a problem with cool air.

So.....with all that. Please justify spending $60 - 70 bucks and the time to cross over to a electrical fan.

TIA