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I've grabbed clutch fans from the junkyard for 15 bucks. Of course you can also grab electric fans there for the same price. Even if the price is a wash between the two, I don't see a real benefit to the electric fan. You still have to hook it up to a temperature switch or mickey mouse it with a toggle switch. Then you get to watch your temp needle swing up and down as you hear the fan cycle on and off. That in itself annoys me when I hear the fan on my fwd daily driver kick on/off at idle when the a/c or defrost is on.

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The benefit of going to an electric fan is you don't have the HP loss inherant with the mechanical units. If electric fans serve no benefit, then modern cars would still be running mechanical fans.

If you buy a quality setup, you will have the relays that will cycle the fans on or off when the temp is high or A/C is engaged. I put a trinary A/C switch so the fans will come on when they are really needed, not just when the A/C is on....

Also if you engine is worth a damn, you won't hear the fans when running. My fans are pretty loud and the only way I can tell they are running inside the car is looking at the ammeter and that's still a guess.

I agree with your point that if you have a working mechanical setup already, it may not be worth it to jump to elecric "just beacause you can" but for those of us who don't have the parts already or want to get rid of the of parasitic loss, it is a valid option.

Your temp needle will only swing up/down if you have a too-hi temp sender unit for the fans in. My fans kick on when the needle gets about 1/3rd up from the bottom and hold the temp about steady there...

A properly researched and planned electic setup will work just as good as a mechanical fan and save some HP. I also know there are PLENTY of people here and all over who would spend waaaay more than the $200-$300 it costs for the fans setup to get an effective increase of 15-20HP without otherwise adversely affecting the motor!

EDIT** The article above shows a peak 22 rwhp loss on a SBF. I could imagine this would be more significant on a higher power BB. I'd say for picking up 20+ rear wheel HP, yeah that's probably worth it for a lot of people....