Props for the Onlyfans joke. Right up my alley of humor lol. That's wild they pull that much more current than the stockers. Excited to see if they make a big ol' difference in cooling when stopped. I'm toying around with the idea of upgrading my radiator and there's a couple fan upgrade kits available on the market. Would be cool to have a gnar fan setup that could bring CLTs down as soon as you pull into the pits after a hot lap or autoX run...

The wiring with the setup probably won't reach the Alternator if you put the Breakers on the firewall where I had them.
I had it setup to pull from the starter positive lead (yes, longer path from the alternator, but shorter from the battery).

Just had a poke around in PCLink and I'm surprised that they don't make the fan output option as PWM simple. MAXX and Haltech have it up front and simple.
Might be like Megasquirt where you have to build your own user table with the Fan PWM as the output and Coolant temp as the axis. But can't seem to find where to add a custom table without it being a CAN button table.

I was actually meaning to ask where you had pulled power from. I know some people use one of the studs in the fuse box/main relay area, but I have heard starter as well. I'll probably just do that since it was working for you.

PCLink has "GP PWM" Tables under Aux Outputs-> GP Outputs. So building a CLT vs Duty Cycle table in there with the output being the fan should do it. I did find a thread where someone mentioned doing idle up with PWM and I believe the suggestion was to build another table that was basically fan duty cycle vs Idle Valve duty cycle to keep the car happy regardless of fan duty cycle. I need to reread that though. I assume the car will still idle pretty well when the duty cycles are low, so I'll probably dial that in after doing some initial testing.

I'll try to remember to do a write up in the ECU section once I've got it working the way I want.

Fans are almost installed. I basically just need to figure out how I want to wire them into the ECU and then plumb everything back together.

The garage mascot, lil bun, showed up the other day while I was out in the garage. Our neighborhood has a pretty large wild rabbit population. I've taken to caring for a pair of them which basically just involves throwing a couple carrots out for them each day.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e802c49d5d.jpg



Most of the trimming on the fans was already done since Iron had a modified version of the same rad. I had to make some small changes due to the modifications he made to the radiator, but nothing major.



https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8a05d1d1e1.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f8046adabf.jpg


The fans are a pretty good fit, but they do overhang the rad a bit. I didn't end up sealing any of this, but might opt to put some foil tape down to increase the efficiency.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0ae9760bd5.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9bd99e31c7.jpg



Needed to fab up a mounting solution for the bottom, so I busted out the welder and got to work with some 1/8" aluminum angle.



https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...443ddf7d63.jpg



While I had the welder set up, I patched up a charge pipe that had been rubbing on a PS hose clamp. I knew this was an issue and had some rubber padding on it, but the padding shifted pretty often. In hind sight I should've just dented the pipe a bit to make some clearance, but now it's thin enough that I'd worry about it cracking. This is something I've got to figure out before the car gets back on the ground. Hard to see in the photo, but a good deal of the pipe is worn away.



https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...421706f329.jpg


While I was waiting for my welds to dry I cut some aluminum bar to make a little mount for the breakers. For now I decided to bolt the breakers to the bar and use a factory hole in the rear passenger side engine bay to mount it all up. That was going great until I overtightened a bolt and the breaker's mounting hold snapped. Thankfully there are 2 holes, so I changed which side got mounted to the bar and was more gentle when tightening these down. Power is being pulled from the starter stud.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...331634994d.jpg


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3bd8b5abd4.jpg


For whatever reason the welds didn't seem to set up properly. I assume I got my ratio wrong or something. I planned to throw rivets in regardless, so I assume the weld will dry eventually. I used a factory hole on the fan shroud, but realized I wasn't going to be able to get any tools on a bolt, so I used a slightly oversized bolt, ran the threads through the mount and used a nut to pull the head of the bolt into the plastic. Not what I had in mind, but I think it should hold up fine. The fan was supposed to sit on the angle, but due to mounting changes after I made the bracket, that wasn't in the cards.

In the bottom left you can see the OEM style mounting I did for the drivers side. I was actually just going to use the OEM brackets but I wanted to tailor the fit a bit.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6d07576fa3.jpg


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f31e3a62a3.jpg


Fitment is tight, but with a little wiggling she sits in there pretty nice.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...aed7919590.jpg


If I went back and did it again I'm sure I'd do a better job, but it seems pretty solid. I could hold the fans and lift the rad with only a couple bolts installed. The fans are a good deal heavier than OEM.

I think I'll run an unused wire from the ECU out to the PWM wire on the fans, mostly because of where the wire ended up. If the wire was closer to the OEM fan wiring then I'd probably use that, but I also don't want to hack up the factory wiring if I don't have to. I think ideally I'd find a used AC fan plug, but I don't want to cut mine up if I don't have to.

Aside from that I need to figure out that intercooler piping, fill the rad, attach the undertray, etc... Hopefully I'll be testing the fan today or tomorrow though.

I've been meaning to do a write up on PWM fans on the Link forum, but time escapes me. Hopefully I've caught you in time.

The NB1 ECU already has a PWM capable pin as the Fan output (Injector 8 - Aux). The NB2 ECU does not, but the EGR boost solenoid is available for that nearby on the stock harness (Ign 6). Anyhow, with your NB1 if you use the stock wire it will work.

As far as the config, setup a generic PWM output that outputs into your fan pin, and setup its input as a CAN Aux or Generic Output. Then in the Auxiliary Outputs > Engine Fan, use whichever settings you need, and set its output to the CAN Aux you tied to the PWM Output. Tara! All Cooling fan settings are now available to the PWM Output.

Example from a customer car with Flyin' Miata Stage 2 fan.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d05b1b2c69.png
Note that the FM fan works on reverse duty. 6% is full speed, 100% is stopped. <5% is also stopped. The Y axis is AC Request. We want the fan running a bit anytime the AC is on.

Also note the lockout speed of 200kph. yea not a joke. Those fans flow so much air it basically doesn't matter how fast he is going, it will cool more with it running than not. We tested it going over 100mph, engine was at 110C, turned the fan on and it plummeted the temps to 95C. Blew our minds.

Excellent, thanks for that info! I believe these fans are reverse polarity as well, but I'll need to play around a bit and confirm that. Yeah, I plan to let the fans run regardless of speed, I've always found that necessary.

Most likely I'll do the same as you've got. Duty cycle vs CLT with an increased duty cycle when AC is on. I might see if I can use a switch to add 20% duty cycle or something for autocross, but hopefully with these fans I won't need to worry about that as much (or at all ideally).

Happy to help. I think tapering the duty with CLT will do what you need with less complication than using a switch for autocross.

I used to have the switch override the fans to keep them running regardless of coolant temps. In hindsight, it probably reduced the overall flow due to driving the coolant down to thermostat temps, but I've still got the switch in the car. I'm sure I can find another purpose for it if it isn't necessary for the fans any longer.

You should have enough cabling there to go from the fans, to the far fender, then around to your current breaker location.
I had them mounted further up on the firewall. and had the wiring routed such. A further distance.

The fan relay is up behind where your horn is.... should just be able to pull the plug off the relay, and plug the spade connector into the signal.

Also, fan is not inverse PWM.
Here's how my settings were in MAXX. never had an issue at idle when i kicked fans on full speed, they ramp slow enough to not bog past the Idle closed loop.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7d846a5d4c.jpg

If you do decide to use the switch as a fan override, you can use a math-block as a pseudo bit-flag field instead of using multiple PWM tables. I do this for safeties and alternator control with them stage 1 FM fans that draw insane currents. Let me know and I can show you how.

Lol, I almost started crimping some wiring up this morning but stopped just before I got to that point. I had only thought about getting the signal from the fan plugs, but not the relay location. I'll just do that instead.

Side note, where did you ground the wires? I've got them grounded by the fuse box, but I'm not sure that it's a suitable location.

I did get the wires run through the fender. Good work on that, it tucks in really nicely behind everything.

I used the Wiper motor ground, that distribution box mount should be just fine as well. Long as it can carry ~60A (so no paint under the eyelet)

Also, in my fan settings, you can see i don't drive it in cold weather. at speed those settings would kick the fan on over 30mph even when dead cold.
0-10DC and 90-100DC are error states for the fan, won't turn on. 10 is slowest i could get it to kick on, 90 is fastest.

I went out this morning and got the signal wire hooked up and did a quick test. One of the fans kicked on. I had forgotten to plug the other one in fully, but after doing that, they were both running.

So I took a longer lunch and got everything buttoned up. I still don't love the clearance on the charge piping, but I was able to fiddle with it enough to keep it from rubbing on the hose clamp.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f6fd89c3f2.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1499366fda.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d92b9c8cac.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2abc7625e7.jpg



Clearance is definitely tight, but everything has a bit of space. Most likely issue I see is the sway bar rubbing on the fan shroud, but I don't see that being much of an issue. Once everything was buttoned up I got the car back on the ground and bled the cooling system. Sure enough the fans cycled on and off as desired.

One thing I came across on the Link forums was that the IACV base position table can be changed over to a 3d table. What this allows is to use the fan's PWM duty cycle to increase the base IACV position, so the IACV can account for the increasing load as the fans ramp up. I'm not sure how well this will work, but I'm interested to see. Yet another example of the amazing flexibility on the G4x.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...25084d5429.png


I'll do a test drive later today and see how things go once we get some boost into it, but it seems like a promising upgrade so far.

Sorry if I’m missing some piece of information, but why not use the fan offset in the idle settings? It’ll do the same as your table now. Similarly for AC offset. I also tend to use the 3D table with idle target in one axis, and CLT or engine running time in another.

The thinking is that I can ramp the offset as the fans increase duty cycle. If I used the static fan offset in the idle settings then the offset would be the same if the fans were running at 10% or 100% duty cycle. Setup this way I believe the more the fans are loading up the system, the more the IACV will compensate. IE add 0% IACV duty cycle when the fans are off, 2.5% IACV duty cycle when the fans are at 50% and 5% IACV when the fans are at full blast.

I could be wrong on that. I'll definitely have to play around with it for a bit before I figure out exactly how I want to/need to implement things.

Trust in the Link, SimBa.

I see your line of thinking. I haven’t had to do that before, but let us know how it goes!

why not just put the bolts on the back of the pipe instead of the front... instant 1/4" more clearance.....

I'm not worried about the hose clamp clearance. IMO that's the best orientation for them so I can actually get a socket on them (assuming that's what you were talking about).

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...38828265ff.jpg

13.546 at 108.9 from the slow Simba
 

So far the fans seem to be a pretty massive help. I got out on Saturday morning to try and shake them down. It was cold and my favorite mountain to climb was overrun with soccer moms heading up for unknown reasons. Ski season is over, but there might've been hiking trails that were open or music. Regardless, I ended up going over to a small town which requires climbing a pretty sizable pass to get back to Boise. In the summer this has become a stressful climb, as the coolant temp would tick up slowly throughout it.

I'm not going to say it's fixed, but I was able to climb that pass, with AC on, and keep temps in check very easily yesterday. Granted, it was probably 10 C (~50 F) outside and the AC seemed to be cycling on and off, but I'm going to say it's encouraging if nothing else. Unfortunately I think I forgot to save that datalog, but from what I remember the fan duty cycle was hanging around 50% during that climb, so there's still a good deal of headroom there.

I ended up heading out to our local drag strip, Firebird Raceway, yesterday. My drag racing experience goes as far as some autocross Prosolo's, so it ended up being a pretty humbling experience. I was telling people I thought the car was possibly capable of 11's and was pretty confident it would run at least a mid to high 12. Well, two 13 second passes humbled me pretty quickly. Unfortunately it was opening day and apparently pretty busy, so we only got the 2 passes. It might've actually be a worse Dollar : Seat Time ratio that autocross, which is pretty rare.

On the upside, 4th gear stayed in place, flatshift worked for every gear, fueling/knock/temps looked clean and I got to hang out with some buddies.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f857a2cda8.png
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5c7bb944ad.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...951db5d655.jpg
My buddies pickup
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4eeaffcef8.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...895f0ecf24.jpg



Coolant hit something like 97 C on the first pass. I had lowered my warning light temp to make sure I had some headroom if something strange happened with the fans. I raised the duty cycle on them after that pass, and all was good on the second one.

Coolant peaked at 92 on the second pass, although the car had cooled down a bit before the run due to a track cleanup right before we ran. Fan duty peaked around 42% duty cycle.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7c327b66b2.png


I imagine I'll be back out for more at some point. I need to watch more of @sonofthehill's videos. So many little details that you don't realize until you're out there. I found it to be pretty fast paced for a newbie, but I'm sure that's true of most motorsport.

Maybe next time I won't show up with a full tank of gas and a big wing on the car, but it isn't called aerodynamic racing. The 110 MPH club sticker is calling my name though.