Thread: Radiator hose size issue

96 200sx se-r

So, I bought a new radiator to replace the original because it has become brittle. I bought a replacement deal off of Ebay - so when I received it and was about to put it in I realized that the inlet and outlet was smaller than my radiator hoses. So I message them - to make a long story short - they said that air conditioning cars have a different radiator.. blah blah... and they sent me the right one. Except when I got it, the only difference is that the core is thicker > it has the same inlet and outlet diameter. To my knowledge the hoses have never been changed. Are there different hose diameters? The radiator fits and now I have one thicker than my original, but short on adapting my hoses or getting smaller ones - its really just something nice to look at. Any help would be nice.

the 1.6 cars have smaller hoses, they sent a 1.6 rad

I really thought that was the case. What can I with a 1.6 radiator... lol

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I really thought that was the case. What can I do with a 1.6 radiator... lol

well some people have made them work. but its not right, no matter what way you cut it

Yeah. I'm not very thrilled about putting it there. But as the seller hasn't replied to my last email, I am thinking that I am stuck with it. Like I was saying, the second one they sent is a larger radiator... but with smaller inlet/outlet sizes - I figure coolant flow will be cut down... a lot. Any ideas of how to get 1.6 radiator to fit... I mean.. what am I going to have to do to for hoses?

You can get a piece of hose the size of the smaller inlet/outlet and lay the larger hose on top of that. It will fit and shouldn't leak, but its not great.

I've been thinking that may be my only choice... but I don't think a piece of hose will work. The 1.6 diameter is 1" to 1 1/8th ish and the 2.0 is 1 3/4" ish - haven't actually measured them accurately. I figure average hose is somewhere around 3/16ths thick... and that ain't making up the difference.

Okay. So I bought a piece of silicone hose that did the trick. So, to put a 1.6 radiator into a se-r you need a piece of hose that has an inside diameter of 25mm and an outside diameter of 35mm. I have some extra if anyone needs it. So far it hasn't leaked, and because I got a 1.6 radiator with air conditioning, I now have a larger core. Total cost is around $50 bux. I can give the ebay item numbers if needed. Thanks for the help, and I hope this helps someone.

Thanks for posting this, my NX has had a 1.6 radiator since I got it several years ago with the layered hose fix. I noticed it a long time ago, but I've never had cooling issues. The hose started leaking and I didn't want to take it off to measure with calipers then put it back on just to drive to the store and pick up the sizes to re-ghetto-rig it. Thanks

Your welcome, I figured it was something that probably happens a lot.