Dramier Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 This is in my '76 280Z L28 fuel injected, 4 speed car. Long story short, noticed on the drive back from Thanksgiving that the temperature gauge got higher than normal but went back down. Didn't think much of it. Five days later, drive the car to work this morning, temp started pegging out and I pulled over and checked... sure enough radiator is venting along the seams. It's probably the original radiator or close to it, so not really surprised. I'm guessing that the thermostat is stuck and that's what led to the failure because the hose was stiff going in. So I hopped on MSA and checked on radiators and was surprised to see that the aluminum radiator under performance was cheaper than the stock unit. Normally upgrade parts are more expensive, which makes me wonder what the deal is here. I've searched the forums, but didn't find alot of information on anything other than electric fan issues, so I thought I would ask and see what is recommended at this point. Should I go to the aluminum radiator and do an electric fan conversion, or stick with the stock radiator and leave the clutch fan? Are there any problems/adjustments that will need to be made to the replacement radiators that I would need to order parts ahead of time for? Brackets, etc? Just want to make sure I can order everything at once and not run into any snags. In the future the car will be running a turbo on either the L28 block or a swapped in motor, so it will see higher horsepower but probably under 400, so need to keep that in mind that this radiator setup will need to be able to support that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skirkland1980 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 The high price of copperr and brass would explain the price difference and that direct replacements are getting hard to find. I swapped to a griffin radiator. I had to make brackets and fit hoses together for the bottom hose to make it work. To top hose is one of those universal flex hoses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Donovan_ Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 I have a new in box Aluminium radiator that I am not using. Was going to put it in mine but decided to just swap engine. If iterested just let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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