Thread: Aluminum Rad vs Water Wetter

Not sure exactly what you mean. Ask in my project thread (linked in my signature) and be a little more specific about what you'd like to know and I'd be happy to answer. I'd rather not thread jack Vadim.

Again Vadim do both



^I wasn't going to hi-jack his thread, I'll send you a pm........ I didn't need any help.

I have 1200cfm slim fans, they kick on full speed at 210*F . I rather not overwork the fans unless I have to (by keeping them on all the time).

I like more permanent solutions, like Turbo vs NOS, aluminum rad vs water wetter.

But since New rad's are expensive, I will use Water Wetter and run for couple weeks to see how it does, if warm up times and cooling is not good enough then I will get the aluminum rad.

Whats so good about Nismo thermostat? I have the most expensive thermostat from Autozone, so might be a time to switch it out.

No worries on thread jacking, my dad thought my intercooler was a new radiator anyway... but that's before I told him I went turbo

Nismo Thermostat 4 cyl (2.0 & 2.4), Opens at 62C(143.6F), Nissan OE thermostat opens at 76.5C(169.7F).

^The price is not bad. I will be running one on my turbo project.

^The nismo thermostat is better because it opens at opens at 62C(143.6F), and the Nissan OEM thermostat opens at 76.5C(169.7F). I'm not sure if the diameter of the opening is larger than the OEM or not. I'll have to look that up on the old forum, or maybe someone can tell us here.

the a/c will cause cooling issues. this is why my turbo car has none. I also noticed that it caused issues with my ve car until I wrapped my fuji header. Even my ve car runs a aftermarket radiator. Still I will end up with a nismo thermostat in that car too. I don't like how warm the ve car gets with the a/c on.

For what it's worth, my S13 (with SR20) has:

Koyo aluminum (GIANT) radiator
Nismo thermostat
Big oil pan (extra quart capacity, you'd be surprised how much help it is)
Water Wetter

It won't warm up in the winter unless there's cardboard blocking part of the radiator. In the summer, it works great, but understand - sitting with the car idling, there is NO airflow over the radiator, and there's an even chance there's a car in front of you shooting hot exhaust at the front of your car too.

Since your car is turbo'd, I'd do both the radiator and the water wetter, and I'd consider the thermostat. One other thing to think about - a fan controller. There are several on the market, and many will work with both the factory fans and the factory water temperature sensor. The advantage is that you can set the fans to come on at a lower temperature than they would when controlled by the ECU.

Something to consider.

I am running a NX replacement from rockauto.com. It came with the 1.6L inlet and outlet size so I bought the 1.6L hose and slid it over the outlets, then slid the 2.0L hose over them and I havn't had an issue. I also removed the AC and that helps a lot.

Full aluminum radiator, about 1 1/16" thick, slim fans, and water wetter is what I use.

The Nismo Thermo is only for racing aplications. If you run it in your street car your car will never warm up. If its cold enough outside your car will just sit at 145degs all day which is not good. The OEM thermostat is 170 like they already said. With a Koyo, two 12 slims, and 50/50 coolant water my car wont go above 170 on the highway and takes about 5 minutes to warm up. But it warms up. These people saying there car just doesnt warm up have a stuck open themo and need to replace it. Either that or they are measuring the temp of the water coming out of the radiator and not the head. The whole point of the thermostat is to get the car up to whatever temperature it opens up at at least. This is why people like me can run Koyos and slim fans (running all the time), and water wetter/water in the winter. Itll take the car about 5 minutes of driving to get even a little warm. But itll get warm and stay there...

Get as much cooling stuff as you can. Cause on a 100deg day if your **** isnt up to par then its going to run hot and that no bueno. On a 100deg day my car sits at 180deg unless im in traffic which is where I like my car to be at all times. From there if I hit boost itll warm up in teh summer but itll steady out at about 200deg's on a 100deg day pushing the car HARD continuously which is what i want.

Also dudeman, my fans always came on when I hit the A/C button. I took out the AC and just used the button to turn the fans on when I wanted them on to cool the car quicker. Yours dont do that?

those of us with a water cooled turbos get extra strain on the cooling system from the turbo. this is why I run the nismo thermostat. my car warms up to 180 even in 20-30deg weather.

low ports and high ports have diffrent times that the fans kick on ,

I have a Koyo OEM replacement ,full bottle of waterwetter with purified water mix, my fans kick on at 210 deg, my car runs between 190-200 on cooler nights and hot days im between 205-215 deg an i live in south florida

I am also running a OEM nissan thermostat.

My car has run at these temps for over 5 yrs and only issue i ever had was when my OEM radiator gave up 2 yrs ago and replaced it with the OEM koyo