[Fatzook]

Gwagensteve wrote:

DO NOT ditch your mechanical fan and put a thermo on the car. It is almost guaranteed to overheat. The people who have done this and have had success are the rare and lucky ones.

Steve.

[Rusho]

Gwagensteve wrote:

You're overthinking it. Put a vitara fan on it. It won't overheat. I'll almost bet my left knacker on it.

You can mess with gauges, radiator etc, but put a sierra fan up against a vitara fan and you can immediately see how much more air the vitara fan can (and does) pull. They are also a much tighter fit in the shroud so they work far more effectively.

DO NOT ditch your mechanical fan and put a thermo on the car. It is almost guaranteed to overheat. The people who have done this and have had success are the rare and lucky ones.

Steve.

I have had success 3 times with thermo only. Once I didn't even have a thermo control unit, just switched the fan on whennit was needed. Different people different outcomes I guess.

[Fatzook]

I think when relying on a thermo only, it pays to buy the best one you can afford. I always use SPAL's and they have never let me down. Other brands that USED to be good like D***** C**** are just chinese rubbish now, and fail as much as any of the $40 fans do.

Although I must add that even a thermo benifits from having a shroud.

[lumpy_zook]

went from having 4 china fans (two a side) on my race car, constantly overheating, because i was a cheap ass and trying to band aid the issue..

ditched them all and bought a el falcon fan assembly from the wreckers, 110 with guarantee. made it fit with a little bit of cutting, screwed on to the mounts on the radiator, cloth tape to seal all the sides in, never had a overheating issue again.

mabey do this, but cut the shroud in the center and use one fan? cheap option, and will work perfectly as long as it sealed off perfect.

[Gwagensteve]

I'll add that my own car uses thermos, but I run two factory primary Camry fans on a Camry radiator. In short, I'm using a radiator designed to have headroom in a 2.0 litre car (with a tiny grille opening) to cool a 660cc engine, and I've upgraded the fan performance beyond a stock camry. I've also tried a factory magna thermo on a stock 1.3 radiator in the same car and it didn't cut it, and I've built a 660 car with a stock 1.3 radiator and a well shrouded 14" Davies, Craig fan, run by the stock cappucino fan control circuit, and it overheated, despite the fact stock 660cc sierras in Japan run a 14" thermo.

It's indicative that A) not all thermos, are equal B) not all thermo instllations are equal, C) there's more to it than it appears and D) Vitara mechanical viscous fans rock.

I am aware that thermos can work, but most people won't spend the time and money to properly set them up. As a result, it's certainly not a guaranteed solution - it's likely to be another potential problem to be solved.

That's not the case with bolting on a vitara fan.

Steve.

[Fatzook]

Fit one of these





Thats $600 worth of fans there

[SuziBlu]

[SuziBlu]

Fatzook wrote:

Fit one of these





Thats $600 worth of fans there

Fats, this is what I was looking at, if I can fit it, I recon as it should be the go.

Thoughts.

[Fatzook]

too wide

The sierra rails are 595 appart at the front. So even if you went from inner guard to inner guard you would be at less than 700 wide. And this would foul on the steering box and shaft well before you got to 700 wide.

[SuziBlu]

Bugger, I have been looking for info on the one you show pictured, cannot find it, any info please.

[Fatzook]

Yeah the one in the pic is a twin pass rear mount unit. Far too wide for the front of a sierra

PWR are on the Goldcoast. VERY expensive, but their stuff seems to work well. They don't list a sierra radiator, but they do make them to order. My mate has one.

PWR

ADRAD

ARE

Aussie Desert coolers

[SuziBlu]

I read up about Aussie Desert Coolers, seems to be a fantastic radiator.

Rang them and asked if they had off the shelf sierra radiators, not listed sadly.

They will make me one, $800 to a grand. ouch

[canberramav]

Suziblu

Your mentioned radiator supplier produce complete rubbish. I can tell you from experience.

[daisy]

an alternative is an alfa 33 radiator.. Ive fitted mine with success and the temp guage has never passed 1/4 when floggin my car in low range and on highway.

[Fatzook]

daisy wrote:

an alternative is an alfa 33 radiator.. Ive fitted mine with success and the temp guage has never passed 1/4 when floggin my car in low range and on highway.

Pics Tom?

And how much was it? Are the outlets in the right places?

[daisy]

Only older photos mate... bottom hose in wrong spot.. had to make a crossoverpipe to get to the engine. and uses a holden camira expansion tank - made my own clips for the two spal fans that sit there.

sits on a piece of 75x50x5 angle that goesa across behind headlight buckets

[daisy]

oh and i think it was 320 dollars... - will have to check... and spal fans - 80 each i think.

edit...

looking back on the price above... prolly extreme compared to whats available that could have done the cooling job etc... the purpose of doin this alfa radiator conversion was so i could mount my winch right underneath it with zero protusion.. (winch sits flush at end of chassis rail)

[Fatzook]

Jesus! Thats the shortest radiator I've ever seen! I thought it was your oil cooler!

10" fans?

[daisy]

i think they might be... or 11 inch.. i'll have to check as we supply them at work.

[vl2dy4]

Crunched wrote:

Wait, your temp normally sits at 1/4 and when you're thrashing it it gets to 1/2 and sometimes 3/4 on the gauge and you call that overheating? I wouldn't worry about it. Give the radiator a service for good measure, replace the thermostat and then stress less.

Yeah when it hit 3/4 it blew all the coolant out of the radiator, I'm really friggin worried about it coz i dont want my zook to fark up on my 20ks from the nearest servo.

Thanks

Conrad

[zooky08]

vl2dy4 wrote:

Crunched wrote:

Wait, your temp normally sits at 1/4 and when you're thrashing it it gets to 1/2 and sometimes 3/4 on the gauge and you call that overheating? I wouldn't worry about it. Give the radiator a service for good measure, replace the thermostat and then stress less.

Yeah when it hit 3/4 it blew all the coolant out of the radiator, I'm really friggin worried about it coz i dont want my zook to fark up on my 20ks from the nearest servo.

Thanks

Conrad

your gauge is reading wrong i reckon

[mnemonix]

SuziBlu wrote:

Fats, this is what I was looking at, if I can fit it, I recon as it should be the go.

Thoughts.

I use a custom radiator built to my specs from this seller.

Triple core 500x500mm to fit between passenger side chassis rail and vitara PS box.
With a big Spal pusher thermo mounted in front (for better engine clearance).
ECU triggers the thermo at 70degrees and it never fluctuates more than a couple of degrees once it hits temp.

My particular radiator is top notch, but I've seen others they've made that are piss poor quality.

[vl2dy4]

royce wrote:

I am guessing you have next to no experience driving in soft sand dont you

when an engine that is normally well behaved gets hot its its way of telling you to back off a bit, dont become one of them tards that flogs the crap out of something unecessarily and complains it needs to be rebuilt every 3 weeks

[shakes]

SuziBlu wrote:

I recon as the little 1.3 needs all the help it can get,

That is probably the only reason I would go to using thermo's reliabilty issues aside. On the datsun's I've had it was an easy way to free up some much needed horsepower.