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1.6L 8v Sierra conversion - radiator/steering q's

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:52 pm
by ZUKPOWER
Hi all,
Im currently putting a 1.6L 8v into my sierra and was wondering if anyone could post up some pics of how they mounted the vitara radiator.
Also, has anyone hooked up the vitara power steering using something other than a Tarago pitman arm as im having trouble sourcing one of these.

Cheers

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:03 pm
by Hybrid
With RUF and 2 inch springs the terago pitman gave me too much bump steer. I got the 2 inch drop pitman from calmini. Its specifically made for this application (converting a vitara ps box to a sierra drag link). Just check who calmini's australian suppliers are. They sent me a list of like 3 guys but I can't remember who I got it from. One thing to make sure of though is that your PS box mount is Mounted forward/rotated enough so that the end of the pitman clears the tie rod under compression (learnt that the hard way)

As for the radiator everyone reckons that you can use the stock sierra rad and fan with no drama. I bought a second sierra last inght that has a 1.6 carb engine/sierra rad in it and the owner didn't seem to have any problems with it over the last 2 years its been in.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:23 pm
by nicbeer
i run the stock sierra rad and vit fan and no dramas here.

i did mount the orig a/c fan iin front of the rad as a blow through also but dont use it much

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:59 pm
by ZUKPOWER
thanks for the help guys

does the calmini pitman have 2" more drop than a standard sierra pitman or is it the same? (ie. a standard sierra pitman has 2" drop) cause i saw these on the lowrangeoffroad.com website but wasn't sure if they'd work with my setup (SPOA and snake racing hi-steer kit :twisted: )

im gunna have a bit of a play around with my vitara radiator to see how much work is involved in fitting it. On a hot day the temp seemed to creep up a little high with the 1.3L so i would presume this would only worsen with a bigger engine, that and my sierra radiator has a big circular groove in it from where my fan was hitting when i broke an engine mount. I also have a shroud for the vitara one. If i get it to fit i'll post up some pics for anyone else whose interested.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 7:04 am
by Hybrid
The Calmini pitman is 2 inch dropped over the standard sierra pitman. One of the vitara radiators does supposedly fit in a stock sierra but when you add the extra width of the power steering box I'd be surprised if you could get it to line up with the engine driven fan.