Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey yall

My Suzy's radiator has finally given up on me..
It has cracked/rusted halfway around the top hose outlet and has blown water (nocoolant) all over the engine bay...
I drove 50kms like this. Hope she isnt cooked. It was never on redzone in gauge...

Now. Should i just replace my radiator with a stock original. It was working fine before the rusted outlet. (Metal caps)

Or should i see if i can upgrade. Vitara radiator or baleno radiator. I have vit powersteering going in at same time now.

I will have to check thermostat too if its blocked or not working. Its a standard baleno thermostat.

I am also using stock 1.3 fan on the motor.

Thanks for any input.

I run a vit radiator in my 1.3 and it seems to run abit cooler when off road.
But i would first check if you have the clearance to fit a vit radiator + vit p/w steer, also what is your current temp readings on and offroad.

If it hasn't got temperature issues atm i would recommend just sticking with the 1.3 radiator and maybe a shroud + termo fan

I think that was going to be one of the problems if i run a vit radiator. No room.

My current temp in all conditions is just below halfway on stock temp gauge.
Stock radiator. Little higher on sand. But not much.

well put it this way with a vit radiator its stung with a stock steering box - I'll measure the distance between the radiator and box tomorrow

Ok thanks. What type of radiator do you have etc also? swb/lwb/injected/v6/carb/manual/auto?.... many types i may be thinking

I am also using top half a sierra shroud as well. bottom half is gooone.

And now with the vit box if i go sierra again, i may also offset the sierra radiator to add to the complications of the vit box size ....

But im sure anything can be worked out in time. Just thought id ask to give me little idea. Thanks

i dont know what type of vit radiator it is. since it was in mine before i brought it.

just a thought if you flat mount the vit powersteer box it might give you enough room to run a vitara radiator, but you might have to cut a slot out of the wheel arch to make it work ... just a thought

Ok now thinking just going stocko sierra radiator. smaller, easy to work with etc. Possibly cheaper also.

dont jump in and do it yet see what some others have to say ... E.G someone with a vit powersteering

If you're after something special look for an alloy after market honda civic radiator and fab up some mounts. The thermo fan low range sells to fit their radiators is from an early civic so the radiator should be around the same size. I think the top outlet is on the passenger side though which suits me with my GTi motor.

Yeah im after nothing special..

I know my civic(98) had a stock small alloy radiator with the floating mounts etc. Very lightweight.

I dont want the trouble with a new type of radiator + themo.. Extra wiring etc..Change water piping from back of motor bla bla.

Do the later model sierras (plastictops) bolt in or do they have new float mounts?

G16A is what i can see written on mine and there is about 1 and half cm clearnace

ah ok. Yeah still thinking a simple stocko replacement.

Related question - interested how well other peoples radiators cool.

Put a new stock radiator in during my recent rebuild. Cooling system is all squeaky clean, new lines throughout including heater lines. Thermostat is new and tests fine. Have AC with automatic thermofan (smallish) and a full engine fan shroud.

I get heaps of heat soak even on relatively cool (25-30*) days. As in, it normally sits at about 1/5 on the gauge, but if I stop at lights it pretty much immediately climbs to about 1/4. Stays at that for about 5 mins and then starts climbing from there.

The first time I noticed it was a 30* day when I was in Sprint Autoparts for 15 mins and left the Zook idling outside with AC running to keep my wife cool. Got back to it and noticed AC was blowing hot air and temp gauge was at 4/5, so turned it off immediately and gave it 5 mins to cool before starting it again.

Not sure this is quite normal for a clean cooling system?

Mines a 1.6 mpfi and stock reasonable cond 1.3 rad.

got the stock vit a/c fan in front of the rad and stock engine fan inside shroud.

Mine sits on 82-90deg all the time pretty much. only heavy sand work it will go up in temp to 110 max then i let it kool and hit the a/c fan on also for thermo action.

Moph wrote:Related question - interested how well other peoples radiators cool.

Put a new stock radiator in during my recent rebuild. Cooling system is all squeaky clean, new lines throughout including heater lines. Thermostat is new and tests fine. Have AC with automatic thermofan (smallish) and a full engine fan shroud.

I get heaps of heat soak even on relatively cool (25-30*) days. As in, it normally sits at about 1/5 on the gauge, but if I stop at lights it pretty much immediately climbs to about 1/4. Stays at that for about 5 mins and then starts climbing from there.

The first time I noticed it was a 30* day when I was in Sprint Autoparts for 15 mins and left the Zook idling outside with AC running to keep my wife cool. Got back to it and noticed AC was blowing hot air and temp gauge was at 4/5, so turned it off immediately and gave it 5 mins to cool before starting it again.

Not sure this is quite normal for a clean cooling system?

mine can sit running (at temp) for around 20min b4 i need to switch the thermo on...

thats a old shagged motor with a bad radiator... but this is a coily with the bigger one!

I had a 1L radiator in the NT with the 1.3 going it run pretty well with the thermo fan and what not, the radiator was getting old and had very little fins left so I upgraded to a 1.3 radiator which is a little bigger, found it to be tight fit with the power steering and the filler sitting on the opposite side. Though you cant go past the standard set-up keeping in mind the whole system is running well flushed system new radiator hoses and thermostat. Im running a thermo fan now with mine but I would much rather just have a engine fan less electrics to deal with and the extra drain on the battery when I could be running a fridge or something else instead.

If your Sierra is standard 1.3 stick with the engine fan and shroud, just get a new radiator. My last WT sat in a pond bogged for 5 hours and I left it running the whole time to keep water going up the exhaust and possibly making it hard to start when we could finally get it out, the whole time it sat on 1/4 and that is in a Darwin wet season not exactly a cool day.

Thanks for your input guys. I will be going with a 2nd handy.. Or... they are fairly cheap (compared to hilux) brand new (200 odd) on "ebay"

on 40 degree days in the bush, with no wind and having 8 goes up a hill reving it of the gauge. My temp never moves and thats dirty never been cleaned using with tap water no coolant. yes the gauge is accurate
the rads of e-bay are thinner than the stock ones but have an alloy core

So they would be like a later model radiator?

Ok, Im still yet to get one.

Mine was running normal tap water too. Which i think didnt help on the old one. Rusted out..

isn't there a company that advertises in 4wd action that makes upgrade radiators for sierras?

Im sure there is. Anything can be an upgrade. Its just a matter of will it fit

Im going stocko. If i come to problems. Bigger..Or motor is fooked..

Just spent an hour fitting a stupid e-bay radiator to my w/t suzuki
DO NOT BUY ONE unless you like drilling holes and chopping mounts.
The plastic catch tray down the bottom of the rad needs to be removed completely as the rad is f**kin near on double the length of a stocker.
width of the rad is the same but the mounting brackets on the side of the rad are massive and none of the holes line up. Called them up and thats the part number they list for 81-96 sierras. Not happy spose to be an easy job b4 going on holiday. On the plus side flogged it in the sand for an hour revin it out then left it to idle and couldnt get the bastard over 1/4

Mike E wrote:isn't there a company that advertises in 4wd action that makes upgrade radiators for sierras?

Anymore info on this? I just scoured the latest issue and couldn't find it. I'm looking to spend a fair bit on cooling and want a new allow radiator.

I would just take your radaitor to a radiator shop and get them to assess the condition of it. It may just need a cleanout and a repair. Then I would find the rest of the fan shroud and refit it.

Low speed work is where your fan does its work ( like on the beach) and provides the cooling needed, at higher speeds the air flowing through the front of the car is what does the cooling

Remember a person who went to university and studied for four to five years then graduated then specailsed in heat transfer/ wind speed and fan mechanics then got a high paying job at Suzuki motor company, designed and tested the system which works perfectly on thousand and thousands of other vehicles exactly the same as yours so I think their is nothing wrong with the system design and doesn't need to be UPgraded.

mrRocky wrote:Just spent an hour fitting a stupid e-bay radiator to my w/t suzuki
. Called them up and thats the part number they list for 81-96 sierras.

1 litre had a smaller radiator it was 50 mm shorter than the 1.3. So I don't know how they got a part number for 81-96

And this alloy core stuff you guys are going on with is crap.

Alloy cores have plastic tanks. Period. unless you get custom made tanks tig welded on.

If it is black it has a brass core and brass tanks. The ebay ones are cheap crap. You can get a complete assembly from your local radaitor shop for not much more and the build quality is far greater.

My radiator was steel cap, steel fins.

Just replaced it with a plastic caps, alloy fins.

Works well.


The place i mainly go to had a coily radiator, they said it probly wont fit. Maybe thats what the ebay ones are? But i did not see it to compare.

Also with the stock radiator, i didnt move the radiator with the vit ps. Just spaced a mount over 25mm, and redrilled the plate bracket mount on the radiator to suit. Perfect Plenty of room to playaround...Except for all the ps lines etc

50 mm longer ? try 300mm longer plastic end tanks and alloy core
keeps it super cool tho. Would have sent it back but ran out of time
had to make it fit. Still $100 cheaper than a rad shop to supply, prob could make it nice and neat if you wanted to spend a few hours drilling and trimming the side brackets off a bit

bottom of the end tank sits just under the front bumper

I had a 3-core one in a Sierra once. It was apparently from Hiace, although I don't know the model, but I'm assuming an older one.

It was certainly thicker than standard, but not massively, and I dare say that would be of great assistance if you were doing lots of offroad stuff, particularly on sand, especially if you had an electric thermo fan.

The inlet/outlet seemed to be in the standard (Sierra) position too, which was handy!

i have spoken to a few about this problem..the best idea i heard was.
keep the 1.3 rad(reco or new)
remove the clutch fan from the engine
install a electric thermo fan,controlled from the top temp sw ,but have a defeat switch so you can turn the fan off in water crossings etc!and let it dry out.
you could also put a larger alternator in to cope with the extra load on the battery,but now you have no clutch fan bogging the engine down ,shouldnt be a problem!

zookeenie wrote:i have spoken to a few about this problem..the best idea i heard was.
keep the 1.3 rad(reco or new)
remove the clutch fan from the engine
install a electric thermo fan,controlled from the top temp sw ,but have a defeat switch so you can turn the fan off in water crossings etc!and let it dry out.
you could also put a larger alternator in to cope with the extra load on the battery,but now you have no clutch fan bogging the engine down ,shouldnt be a problem!

Thermo=Overheating.
Mechanical fan=Happy car.

I've swapped from a crappy 1.0 size mechanical fan to a thermo in my 660 car and it gets warm now. Likewise, eveny stock radiator equipped sierra Ive seen with a thermo in it has had cooling problems.

Its very hard to find a thermo that throws enough air to keep a sierra cool. There's a lot of science in these fans. the size and shape of a sierra radiator limits the fan to a single 14" and unless a very trick fan is used, they just won't do the job.

Steve.