Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Ok, my r32 gtst is overheating like a cat on heat now, and i just went down to a radiator specialist. turns out the clutch fan can freely move when the engine is turned off, so he reckons its stuffed. It still does spin though when the car is on, but it obviously isnt getting enough airflow.

The problem is now, trying to find a working replacement clutch fan. its bloody hard finding one for a rb20. do the rb26 or rb25 ones fit up ok? would i just need the hub?

The other option i could go is a thermofan i spose, but im worried about hooking up a controller. dunno what to do about all this :P

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/130870-clutch-fan-problems/
Share on other sites

are you for real..

take it to someone who's heard of a clutch fan!!!

when cold, the fan is driven by a viscous coupling so it spins, but not with any force. it will move a nominal amount of air through the radiator but if the car heats up the clutch should lock, and then the fan is driven directly proportional to engine revs (you should probably be able to hear it, although the difference is less with more modern cars. My R31 sounded like a falcadore when the fan kicked in, R33s are much quieter owing to better technology in the shape of the fan blades).

If your car is overheating these are the possibilities:

1) Shagged water pump

2) Blocked thermostat

3) Blocked radiator

4) Clutch fan not locking up properly.

Does it overheat on cruise or just when stationary?

it overheats on cruise.

when i brang it down to the rad guy this morning, the system was pretty warm/hot. the needle on my temp gauge was halfway up.

i had the engine replaced 3 months ago by mercury after a *ahem incident*, and it overheated on day 1 i got it back. took it back to them, had it pressure tested and it came back fine. they put it down to a bubble in the system. then for 2 more months it only overheated once more, so i put it down to a bubble in the system too (i bled and flushed it after it the 2nd time).

However the last 2 weeks its just been getting worse and worse, where its at the stage now whenever i go for a 20+ min drive it will overheat and i have to turn the heater on full to keep it at normal temps :mad:

also i just rang around some places, 1 wrecker wants $175 for a clutch fan hub, and moorooka nissan said there are no hubs in australia, but can get one from japan for $423 :stupid: not really sure if the 2nd hand price is fair or not

another question...is the sr20 hub a direct replacement, or a rb25/26?

Edited by flagger
1) Shagged water pump

2) Blocked thermostat

3) Blocked radiator

4) Clutch fan not locking up properly.

I would be looking at Option numbers 2 or 3 first before changing the clutchfan.

If you have no idea how old the radiator is, and it looks a little tired, chances are it's due for a cleanout. Take it to a decent radiator place and have them do a proper cleanout and flush on it, none of this jam a hose through it and hope its ok :laugh:

Otherwise, its possible you have a sticky thermostat, which could explain why its only overheating every now and then. Occasionally frees up and runs fine, but sticks most of the time...

Possibly then look at clutch fan...

Does it only overheat when stationary or at speeds below say 60, once on the highway it cools down? Suspect clutch fans, and blocked radiators seem to show similiar symptoms, so can be hard to judge.

it doesnt overheat when idle. usually overheats when i load the engine up, say by boosting or going up a hill for a short while. ie. last tuesday night, i was going down ipswich motorway, temp was fine, then i gunned it in fourth for about 20 seconds, and the temp guage was 3/4 the way up. when i pulled over, the coolant was boiling :laugh:

thing is im getting a kit put on this monday, so i wont be getting the car back till tuesday. so i cant do much till later in the week. i guess ill get a radiator place to rod clean it out and replace the thermostat. would radiator places carry the right thermostat for a rb20det?

cheers for the help so far

Edited by flagger

i agree ^

I replaced the clutch fan hub on my car with a craig davies hub i bought from Sprint auto. It had on the box Skyline r32, r33 and vl holden (rb30et) It cost $130 @ trade price. Just a heads up incase...Flush the rad (including heater box core) + system, replace thermostat and cap, bleed system. If that fails replace clutch...let us know how u go:)

well ive already flushed and treated the system (including core). what im gonna do is drop it into a radiator place sometime this week, get them to rod clean the radiator and change the thermostat and see how it goes. if theres still probs then its time for a new hub.

good to know the rb30 and rb25 hub fits on fine too :rofl:

flagger, I am not really certain if the part numbers are identical nor the temps they both open at but I know that they both fit.

If you like I can find out for certain tomorrow, as I do have a contact at Nissan who will suss it out for me. From memory though, the rb30 thermostat opens at 76.5 degrees or there abouts. No difference in thermostat as far as i am aware between rb30e and rb30et, so i could not see a problem running the 30 thermo on a 20 etc.

No worries, will post up tomorrow with some more information.

edit* just done some quick searching on these forums and it appears rb30 and rb20 thermostats are identical heat range, being 76.5 degrees.

Part number for the rb20det unit from an R32 is 21200-42L05 apparently..

I can confirm a part number for the rb30 unit, i do have some in stock at work as far as i know. Can check a price for you and let you know.

Post back tomorrow

ok, just as a follow, i took my car in today to cairncross radiators at albion. turns out the radiator was 90% blocked. since they had already pulled out the old radiator and removed the endtanks, I just got them to install a new radiator (koyo 25mm alloy). Apparently ive been running without a thermostat as well, only the housing was there. they couldnt source the right thermo (they tried to fit a rb30 one in but couldnt), so im still currently thermostatless.

so i got it back, and gave it a bit of a thrash on the way home, and the stock temp gauge stayed in the centre (took a while to warm up of course). so it appears to be ok. dunno if i can be bothered sourcing a thermostat.

thanks for all your help guys. :D

Edited by flagger

u could be using more fuel if u dont run a thermostat.

*my own opinion*

Doesnt the ecu use the temp sensor to decide when the cars warmed up, and puts in less fuel??

*flame away* but thats my thoughts, as the car will take longer to warm up without the thermostat.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • There is a way, but it's not with the same cars. You need to find the same vintage of car, that we had. Realistically, that was an affordable car with aftermarket parts around. So what people need to find is a car that had a decent base in its day, and can be modified. They're looking for a car year make of 2010 to 2015 really... Aus could have done it if Holden didn't fold as V8 commodores were cheap, and if Ford didn't get expensive thanks to COVID, then you could cheaply play with FG Barras. Realistically, those are just a bit heavier, four door skylines. I'm sure the US and UK have similar cars they could find.
    • Haha I do that.. thats when it chirps..The bit point for me is almost non-existent. Otherwise I stall it. But yes, in terms of performance, the clutch is solid af.
    • Greg speaks wisdom. These dirty old Datsuns are only value when they are cheap. When they are not cheap, there is no value. Sounds contradictory, but it's true. We are now 20 years past the hey day of modifying cheap 90s JDM cars for small amounts of money. This is a different world. If you are rich and can afford not to care about what is effectively wasting money on an old Datto shitter, then I have no reason to argue against it. But if you are wanting to experience what we all experienced back in 2005 (and I bought my car last century!) then there is no way to do it.
    • Short answer: No. Medium answer: No, because you still need to conjure the things out of thin air to bolt them to a NA to make it a NA+T. Long Answer: No - The things you need to conjure - meaning a turbo, intercooling, manifolds, exhaust, intake/manifold/piping, clutch, injectors, fuel pump, AFM (?), ECU + Wiring (woo, N/A loom fun) have to come from somewhere. You could have many scavenged these things from an OEM car that someone had upgraded from and use some of these. This will be cost prohibitive now, especially so in the USA. You'd probably pay the same for newer, upgraded components that are better than old OEM stuff from 25-30 years ago. None of these big ticket items are re-usable for the N/A car. Why not buy new and upgrade while you're there? The only real consideration is turbo and fuel sizing and determining whether you want to stay within the bounds of the OEM engine or get into rebuild territory. These limits ARE lower with a N/A motor and especially N/A gearbox at the starting point. And if you're gonna upgrade those then you may as well consider having them built to begin with. Because everyone here knows you're never far from that next engine rebuild once you start making the power you want... The cars you see on the internet and SAU etc have been built over decades. If you're really clued in... you would sell your US car to somebody for what you paid for it. You would then scour AU JDM pages or SAU and buy a car like Dose's on this forum with your powerful American Dollar. This will save you so much money in the long term. Importing it could be tricky. Or it might not because USA. I have long said the only reason 90's Japanese stuff took off was because a) Japanese people had Japanese cars so that is what they used b) Australians could import these cars to Australia with very minimal changes and use them on the road here c) Neither country had well-priced access to US or EU Sports Cars. I don't believe the JDM scene would have taken off in Australia at all if we had EU priced EU BMW M offerings, or more especially the AUS V8 Scene would never have existed if we had the multitude of US cars like Camaros, Mustangs, Corvettes at the prices you folks do. After all - Do the math. I would say put a V8 in your R34 and that's the smart way forward. It is. I did it. I know this from my own experience. But at that point there's no reason to simply not buy a C5 or C6? It would be simpler and easier and cheaper and bette-
    • Reading all this... hurts lol. I have an ENR34 5MT and I paid an inflated USA price for the car alone, had to do tons of preventative maintenance past that, and so I'm over $30K USD into the car already and haven't even touched power.  I wanted to +t it. Not even trying to make GTR numbers, I'd be happy with 250hp.  Can I get away with paying much less to make that happen?
×
×
  • Create New...