As you know, I recently installed an aftermarket 16" fan in my TJ. It's functional and working as designed, yet I cannot help wanting to make it work even better. It's only real drawback centers around the through-the-radiator-core mounting system used with aftermarket fans like these; the result is that air is only pulled through some of the core rather than all of it. Naturally, I'd like to mount this electric fan to a shroud that covers the entire core, thus improving the efficiency of the setup.
My first thought was to hack up the MarkVIII fan I am not using--after all, I already own it. But that is an 18" fan, and the hole in the shroud is too large for this 16" fan. My next idea was to cut off the perimeter (that mounts to the radiator) of my OEM shroud, then attach a large flat sheet of aluminum or whatever to it, cut a hole, and mount the fan to it. This would be all good and well, but I like the idea of hanging on to it in case I ever want/need to go back to a stock mechanical fan setup. Option #3 would be to build a custom shroud from scratch. It doesn't sound too difficult; just get a large sheet of aluminum, bend it in a few places, cut a hole in the middle, and presto--custom shroud.
And that's what made me wonder: has anybody here already done this? If so, I'm curious if you actually did the fabrication yourself, or who you farmed it out to. Does anyone have any experiences to share?
