nosebleedZ Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Jacob, glad to hear it's cooled down for you buddy! To answer jc regarding my fan preferences, I do believe overall that the "correct" electric fan setup is more superior all around to a stock fan & fan clutch, but I believe oz started a new thread on this, so I will continue to explain there............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftover z Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 I had the same overheating problem. My stock fan seemed fine. Radiator started leaking, so put a new one in. It helped alittle, but still running around 200-210. Put in a new 180 thermostat from Carquest. No help. After reading some other threads, I put in a Nissan thermostat. Bingo. Now I run 180 to 185 in 90 degree weather in slow traffic. The cheapo thermostats are hit & miss. For a few bucks extra, factory thermostats is the only way to go IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted February 6, 2010 Share Posted February 6, 2010 Tony, where do you get to drive, in SoCal, at speeds in excess of 85 mph continuously to find out that your cooling system isn't keeping up? Driving to Phoenix on I-10 across the desert through Palm Springs going 82 will not have me being the fastest rabbit in the pack by a long shot. Cross the border where the speed limit goes to 75, and you can bump the tick a couple of notches and the DPS will maybe flick their lights at you from under the overpass they are parked, but they will wait for the 'truly stupid'... The Palm Springs Incline is used by MANY OEMs during the summer for evaluation of the Hot Weather Performance of their vehicles. Similarly driving to Vegas 85 would make me a moving roadblock... The stretch through Death Valley from Baker, up into the Valley, then in a loop around back to Vegas is also another "hot weather proving ground" for OEMs, and it's within a hours drive from the house as well. Anywhere north on US395 behind the mountians through Trona and into Death Valley will be lightly policed and wide open...AND HOT! You can literally go naked in the middle of the road pissing in the wind and stand a great chance nobody but the spy photogs for the car rags will ever see you or snap your photo (er.....) Please note that in these particular circuits, driving a LEGAL speeds will get the car HOT! There is a reason OEM's come here, it can have thermal layering through the radiator in excess of 180 degrees on a 110F Ambient day, and going across some of the valleys 120F ambient is not unheard of, I have seen Infrared Gun shots in excess of 140 in some places, and don't even want to kneel down to take a thermal layer reading. I hang a thermocouple out the window at speed and try to get it about halfway down the door away from the car in open air for a temperature reading. Once you hit West Texas, the legal POSTED speed limit is 80... I can and have driven from Tawas Michigan to my house, a distance of just a hair under 2500 miles in a total elapsed time of less than 30 hours. Significantly shy of 30 hours DRIVING time. Hell, significantly shy of 30 hours total ELAPSED time! And my WIFE was driving the overnight stint! Started at 4PM Tawas Time after my wife's cousin's high school graduation party in Alabaster Michigan, drove to St Louis, Oklahoma City and stopped for Dinner at the Big Texan in Amarillo. Continued on due to gearbox trouble to Flagstaff AZ---where I awoke in the morning to find my wife doing a high speed draft on AZ DPS. Turned south to Phoenix when ominous sounds from the gearbox were emanating, and made it into the driveway around 7pm the next day, California Time. In that time frame, we stopped to eat at Amarillo for a solid hour there (considered the big texan, but had eaten nibbles in St Louis so wasn't up to it...) and other than that drove at speed on the freeway from tank fillup to tank drain (about 2 hours straight) and then a 20 minute pit stop for driver change or other 'necessary' evacuations. I don't know many endurance racers with Z Cars that run that high an average speed for that long! And that was TOWING AN 800# TRAILER WITH THREE PEOPLE IN THE CAR! Some people say I'm 'extreme' but I don't think so, this is what the OEM designed the vehicle to do...and it does it. Many of the 'improvements' people make to the car....AREN'T! You can do it too! Head out to Brisbane or Adelaide in February... that should be a reasonable accomodation for testing. Bring water... Oh, and the year prior I took a slightly different route through Las Cruces (2545 miles) and start to finish total elapsed time was 36 hours. I drove that one myself, with my kid a co-pilot. We visited Roswell... Anybody up for a mano-a-mano cannonball? I've been out of training for a couple of years now...but I'm sure I can get back into form really quick! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozconnection Posted February 6, 2010 Share Posted February 6, 2010 Great tour guide Tony! Later today I'll get the map out and follow your route. That'll be interesting. During Febuary down under, the toughest (read hottest) trip is across the Hay plains in central western New South Wales. Been there done that and won until travelling along at about 125km/h (75mph) with the air on, the belt calls it a day and smacks itself on the underside of the bonnet with a convincing thud. I was with a mate of mine and we'd thought we must've run over a crow or something because of the thuds and 'flappy' noises it made on destruction. We pulled over and popped the bonnet to find not a feather in sight...only strands of chord and rubber everwhere!! So after that to the next service centre where we could get a replacement belt for the A/C, we drove with outside temps hovering at around 45 degrees Celcius, and inside the car, with the windows wide open...it was even bloody hotter! The moral to this story is the Datsun can take it! We on the other hand are much more fragile and from that time onwards I never leave home for a trip in summer time without a trio of fan, steer and air belts! And lots of water!! Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted February 7, 2010 Share Posted February 7, 2010 On the trip to ABQ one year, working 'sweeper' in the Moby Van (White Chevy G30 Mobile Machine Shop.) I come across a belt laying in the middle of the road, ON FIRE. Make the call over the CB 'EVERYBODY CHECK YOUR ENGINE GAUGES!' Nobody reports anything, as we all ditched at the nearest exit to do a quick underhood check. I look at my wife's 260 (The Blue Turd) and see nothing out of hte ordinary. LAter at the convention our alternator goes away (solder melted off the back of the diodes...) Whilst in there, i notice I'm missing the AIR Injection Pulley Belt. And there are also pins that have machined themselves through the back of the AIR Pump. Seems it just seized, and then the belt got upset and burst into flames as it fell off the car underneath (no splash pan!) It was a distinctive belt the size of the water pump, laying there in the middle lane of the roadway, putting up a small trail of rubber fire smoke... I wish I had a video, I can see it today in my mind's eye! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aarang Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Sorry for going off track, but does anyone have the Nissan p/n for the 72deg C (160 deg F) thermostat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Sorry for going off track, but does anyone have the Nissan p/n for the 72deg C (160 deg F) thermostat? My ploy and M.O. is this: Hey Mr. Counterman, I need the NAPA Heavy Duty Equivalent for a 1963 Chevrolet Byscane 350CID V8 with a 160 degree thermostat. Then, punch a 2mm weep hole for bleeding the air out of the system like the Nissan has, and you're in like Flynn even in East Rumpskrog, NJ (or even more remote Sheepslover, MT!) Trying to get 'import parts' from local distributors can sometimes be a drag. Luckily the venerable Small Block Chevy shares our Nissan 54mm Thermostat configuration. And if you own a 240Z with a two-bolt flange.... you know all those Chevy O-Ringed Thermostat Housings, and cool billet pieces? Yep, they fit juuuuust fine on your Nissan lower housing! I'm amazed more people don't know this little tidbit, and revel in my own crappulence when I have the opportunity to repeat it and drone on endlessly like this.... Thanks aarang! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aarang Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Thanks Tony for the info. I am trying to stay away from the store brand thermostats and stick with a genuine Nissan product. I have had bad luck with the Stant brand of thermostats as well. I might try one of the Mr Gasket high flow thermostats and build a spacer for the thermo housing like JeffP did. My car never overheats ( I have two 12" fans with a shroud on the stock ZX radiator), but I am unhappy with the temperature swings my car has. I do not have the thermostat bypass to the inlet of the pump currently. I have a 180deg Nissan thermostat in it currently with a hole drilled in it for the bypass. I was wanting to try the 160 Deg with the proper Nissan configured bypass to see if it would help with the temp swings and the slight detonation problems I am having. I have read through all the cooling mod threads and am tryng to come up with a solution for my cooling "problems" without actually reverting to the 5/6 cooling mod. I may still have to do it in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WEBEZEEed Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Tony D, 1963 is just a lllllittle bit early for the 350 C.I.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 I was drinking heavily in the Lounge... It should say '327'... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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