Outer Limits 4x4 Board

have a chev in my gq wagon. had a 50mm single core alloy rad with some aftermarket falcon thermos which seemed to run ok temp. Decided to fit my aussie desert cooler twin 27mm cores with triple bypasses and a perfect fit/seal alloy shroud with 2 big thermos on it. As a why not I have them here and it can only improve the towing capabilitys etc.
was absolutely shocking not long after the thermostat opened it was pissin out steam/coolant. bled it twice to make sure and no different. could hardly drive to the shops before it went over temp. I bought 2 diff pressure caps tried them both and the same prob. the 2nd time the top and bottom hoses were " sucking in ". fitted old setup again with just tap water as no coolant avail and it is running perfect.
should i replace water pump under the theory of it couldnt push the coolant fast enough through the 2 core flowed rad .? we will be towing a van up the beach and trailer with another truck to cruiser park which is 30 mins up a steep hill so would love to be able to tow without issues.

has new thermostat as well if that helps and fans were hard wired so they just stay on if the eng is running. any suggestions would be appreciated.

Bottom hose "sucking in" is a MAJOR problem.... Most lower hoses have a coiled wire spring inside them to stop this....
No flow due to sucked in hose even for only a few seconds will cause a big temperature spike.
Also check the thermos are pushing air the right way.. Easy to get them backwards.

want33s wrote:Bottom hose "sucking in" is a MAJOR problem.... Most lower hoses have a coiled wire spring inside them to stop this....
No flow due to sucked in hose even for only a few seconds will cause a big temperature spike.
Also check the thermos are pushing air the right way.. Easy to get them backwards.

hey Jas, checked the air flow and it was right. will drop the rad and fans to the rad shop to get the rad checked. will probably get a new waterpump anyway but will see ask rad man if i should go normal or high flow pump. may even get the exhaust man to bend me some pipe for the lower hose and just have a joiner hose at each end. the lower hose has 2 different size at the ends which makes it fun.

Are you sure you removed any plugs they may have installed in the radiator upper and outlets prior to fitting it up. (basic question but has to be asked...)

To get the radiator hose to suck in means something big time is not right. Time to go back a few steps.

Can you leave everything as is except for putting the old radiator back, then try swapping out the thermostat (unlikely that it is). Basically go back and do one thing at a time until you work out where the problem component is.

Putting another water pump isn't going to help if it runs OK and keeps the engine normally cool on the old setup. (kind of proves that the pump is not the issue). Throwing more new parts at it isn't going to fix the part that is faulty in the new setup.

There IS something fishy with the new components you are trying to install, concentrate on this.

thanks damkia input is very much appreciated. the rad came out of my td42t and we ( my engineer mate, i just drank and watched ) cut the end tanks off as the diesel in and out are on the wrong sides. he made new end tanks and put the flow plates in, had it pressure tested , then whacked it in with the fans fitted. the fans came off a mates worked 5.7 lt gq ute and he never had a problem. they dont seem to draw as much as the cheaper fans though which is wierd.

the hoses were sucked in when i drove it round the back to cool it down, didnt notice them the first time though.
same brand new thermostat for both setups.
might have to put big rad in with smaller fans and see what happens. like you say 1 step at a time. just annoying as i built this as a torque based eng for towing and overheating will kill that idea. thought i was the smartest man alive with all the good bits for the cooling system. obviously not.

Purplebus, have a close look at the orientation of the diverter plates in the end tanks compared to the inlet and outlet pipes. If they are put in the wrong way you end up with a radiator effectively 1/3rd the size of what it actually is. This will cause a massive restriction and may be the cause of the bottom hose sucking in.
The sketch below gives a better idea of just how they should be positioned.
If you are unsure of just how they are positioned take off the top hose and poke a piece of wire down the end tank, it should be approx 1/3rd the way down the tank. If it's 2/3rds down the tank then you know they are positioned wrong.
Regards Andrew.

thanks awill4x4 Paul has done a few rads and it is definately the top picture. it is just frustrating not knowing what the drama is. we checked it before we fitted it as you can see the marks in the alloy where the plates were fitted. Paul is a superstar with the welder. thanx again for the suggestion.

I'm running a efi Holden 355 stroker in a g/u wagon & using the alloy rad & shroud & the viscous fan from 4.5 petrol & it draws shit loads of air. We pull our 16" boat to rainbow beach from toowoomba & towed my son ba falcon back from Sydney no problems. You say your mates themo fans don't draw as good as the cheap one maybe check that out 1st & maybe look at ef falcon themos me myself think viscous is the way to go. Best of luck purplebus :

Im interested in your outcome.

I sent back 4 radiators and asked for my money back from these guys. In my experience it wouldnt surprise me if he left his car keys inside your radiator.

CanberraMav wrote:Im interested in your outcome.

I sent back 4 radiators and asked for my money back from these guys. In my experience it wouldnt surprise me if he left his car keys inside your radiator.

I have one of these rads sitting in my back shed where it belongs, as in not in my car.

any chance of blocked cores in the tank swap?

seems weird that its that bad at cooling, and the bottom hose sucking in.


have you tried flowing a hose through it to see how well fluid will run through the rad?

x2 on it not being likely to be the water pump, its sucking the water faster than it seems to be flowing hence the bottom pipe.

thehanko wrote:any chance of blocked cores in the tank swap?

seems weird that its that bad at cooling, and the bottom hose sucking in.


have you tried flowing a hose through it to see how well fluid will run through the rad?

x2 on it not being likely to be the water pump, its sucking the water faster than it seems to be flowing hence the bottom pipe.

When the tanks were off i rodded it with the exact size proddy thing to make sure it was all clean through the core. Just checked how well the water flows through the rad. The garden hose with the nozzle fitted on it seals perfectly in the inlet side. At full noise on the hose it flows fast enough to half fill the rad with water. Blocked the outlet with my hand so the rad filled with water while hose still going flat out and the water just rushes out as soon as i remove my hand. May remove the fans and make sure all the fins front to rear are flowing enough air as some have a small angle on them but not enough to inhibit that much air IMO. All rad hoses are brand new as well, the eng was pretty warm when the hoses sucked in and it was spewin a bit of steam/coolant out the overflow t-piece bit which may have contributed to hoses sucking in, maybe.

DADUDE -I had a factory GU td42t rad here that i thought about fitting but it is about 2'' wider than the area it needs to go in. If we cant fix the rad issue i will just cut and trim the skirts at the base and fit it. How did you go fitting the patrol clutch fan to the motor? Will have to investigate as mine is a inj 454 and there isnt a great deal of room between eng and the rad. Had to trim the fans to fit them in with the little rad and with the bigger rad have to take alt belt off and move the alt to slip the bigger fans in.

CANBERRAMAV AND STRUTH- you guys sound as unhappy as I am with their product. the rad when it was in my diesel was alright but i could tow a box trailer ok but if it had a 35 in the trailer the car would heat up. replaced everything in it except the rad as i though it was the ducks nuts. how wrong I was. unfortunately fitted the rad at the same time as a turbo,intercooler and new pump so never thought about the rad as an issue.

will post pics of rad in case i am missing something. uploading to p/bucket now.

the aussie desert cooler and big thermos the shroud fits perfect and seals with foam extremely well.



the thinner ally rad with the falcon thermos. these seal perfect on the rad with a rubber edge but leave approx 40-50 mm either side of shroud with exposed radiator. you can see where the fans have been trimmed to clear the pulley. also had to trim approx 25-30 mm off the front as well. the wiring was just a roughy y/day as i was experimenting.



the offending culprit. it draws air from a gu scoop right in front/above of air pod until we build a proper airbox snorkel set up. ideally would love a shaker style setup but no room for it.

Is there any space between the shroud and the radiator core (not too clear from picture)? If the shroud is hard up against the core then it effectively blocks off that part of the core from any air movement. "Path of least resistance" will mean it only pulls air from directly in front of the two fans. There should be at least 25mm between the shroud and the core to allow "plenum space".

DAMKIA wrote:[img]Is there any space between the shroud and the radiator core (not too clear from picture)? If the shroud is hard up against the core then it effectively blocks off that part of the core from any air movement. "Path of least resistance" will mean it only pulls air from directly in front of the two fans. There should be at least 25mm between the shroud and the core to allow "plenum space".

just checked it. there is about 35mm between shroud and core and there is about 45mm from the front edge of the blades to the shroud. would this be to much or is it ok.?

With mine it was always on the edge of overheating, stuck in traffic and I would need to switch the thermo on to assist the solid fan, even then it would overheat. I found myself always watching the temp guage. Then pop the bonnet and the engine bay would be like an oven even when it had only reached 90 degrees.

I changed it for a standard V6 Runner radiator with an extra core and inlet and outlet to match the V8, no shroud. It has been superb ever since, sits on 82 degrees as per the thermostat and only gets too hot for me (105 degrees) climbing long hills in lo range, so I rest it for a few minutes when this happens.

I will not put another aluminium radiator in one of my cars again.

Are you sure the radiator cap is seating properly and there's nothing wrong with the filler neck? Just a wild thought.

chimpboy wrote:Are you sure the radiator cap is seating properly and there's nothing wrong with the filler neck? Just a wild thought.

tried 2 different new caps and had to fix the overflow outlet as it had a small leak but we fixed that first. we considered cutting the neck off it and replacing it with an alloy patrol 1. the caps we used are from the rad shop and are the same pressure as a patrol but are a falcon neck from memory.

CanberraMav wrote:Im interested in your outcome.

I sent back 4 radiators and asked for my money back from these guys. In my experience it wouldnt surprise me if he left his car keys inside your radiator.

Sorry, is this the Desert Cooler brand radiators that aren't very good?

TheOtherLeft wrote:

CanberraMav wrote:Im interested in your outcome.

I sent back 4 radiators and asked for my money back from these guys. In my experience it wouldnt surprise me if he left his car keys inside your radiator.

Sorry, is this the Desert Cooler brand radiators that aren't very good?

not sure about the other left but mine is an aussie desert cooler. was told it was triple core, triple flow and when we cut tanks off it wasnt triple flowed or a 3 core. the bloke there said they never did a 3 core but their 2 core is as wide as a 3 core. WTF.

just heard back from the radiator shop and the aussie desert cooler is shagged. the pipes/tanks have expanded and squashed the fins and it is useless. ShortyIQ thing was no good from new but i perservered as it was new and thought it couldnt be that. this has cost me plenty time, stress, $$ over the years from 1 truck to the next. he has another 1 there of the same brand with the same problem. stay away from them they are a waste of your time and money. will carve shove it in the fins and send it back COD to them. so pissed off , would understand if i drove it hot constantly and didnt have the correct pressure rad caps and it built up huge pressure internally, but come on they are supposed to be a top notch rad.

not what i ordered and never worked. in my opinion do not buy an aussie desert cooler radiator. my $300 rad is better, will fit the big thermos to it now.

It's pretty hard to find a good word about them out there.

I've heard from a few different sources now , that people just wont touch the Aussie desert stuff . I was always under the impression that it was good .

Never heard any bad press with PWR rads though .

Cheers