Aftermarket Alloy Radiator

[l0WRB]

hey guys, gonna be fitting ISC alloy radiator this week to my r33 gtst..

just wondering what do you guys who have fitted one, go about earthing the radiator out? is it needed?

[turael]

ahhh complicated subject, as in same cases earthing the radiator will cause more problems than it will solve. i know there was a big thread on this on NS, perhaps have a search on there.

it's a good idea to do it correctly though as i've heard of rads 'disappearing' in a few months after being installed!

[geraus]

Hey guys , I installed my ISC radiator! and it was pretty easy! what u need to do is take off your Fan aswell and put in the raidatoir with the fan shroud with the fan off at the same time! theres alot of fiddling around! Also if you got a stock air box.. the stock air thingy wont fit bcos of the metal on the side is a bit high.

When i installed mine. I didnt do any earthing.. whats the earthing for??

Edited September 23, 2009 by geraus

[turael]

its to prevent electrolysis (corrosion). if you don't do it right, your rad can literally disappear into the coolant.

here's the thread with all the info.

http://www.nissansilvia.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=371472

ps. never use tectaloy, use nulon longlife (or a genuine nissan/toyota/subaru coolant). i had a 2jz head eaten by tectaloy...

[TiTAN]

i love ns. someone tries to post something serious and the first comments are bagging out a spelling mistake.

[Wacky Dee]

hmmm fark ... changed to a 40mm aluminium radiator recently .. never knew about this stray currents stuff. Oh well at least I did use a Nulon coolant flush product and rinsed like 5 times with tap water before putting new coolant in.. so atleast hopefully I don't need to worry about old coolant reacting with the new Nulon coolant.

But I never did check for stray currents .. on NS the info posted says to run the engine to operating temps with radiator cap off and then chuck in the mutlimeter probe. But how the hell do you run it to operating temps without coolant coming out of radiator cap opening .. unpossible! Anyway, time to check for stray currents methinks..

[MrStabby]

i had a 2jz head eaten by tectaloy...

Which tectaloy? They make more than one coolant.

[l0WRB]

hmmm fark ... changed to a 40mm aluminium radiator recently .. never knew about this stray currents stuff. Oh well at least I did use a Nulon coolant flush product and rinsed like 5 times with tap water before putting new coolant in.. so atleast hopefully I don't need to worry about old coolant reacting with the new Nulon coolant.

But I never did check for stray currents .. on NS the info posted says to run the engine to operating temps with radiator cap off and then chuck in the mutlimeter probe. But how the hell do you run it to operating temps without coolant coming out of radiator cap opening .. unpossible! Anyway, time to check for stray currents methinks..

u can run the car up to operating temp with no radiator cap on its not pressurised or however u spell it lol.. thats how u get air pockets out etc..

[warps]

. But how the hell do you run it to operating temps without coolant coming out of radiator cap opening .. unpossible.

You can run it up to temperature with the cap off, and you shouldn't lose any coolant. It's just that with a sealed system it builds up pressure when it warms up. This will cause it to spit water out when you open the cap.

A good way to tell if your radiator is being effected by electrolysis is to check the colour of the alloy inside the rad. If it's going black, then it is corroding and you need to do something about it.

Another trap is if your battery is in the boot. You need to run your earth cable (fat) all the way to the front firewall. Bolt the cable to the firewall, and then run another fat earth strap from the same bolt (on the engine side) to your engine block. This means that most of the current will run through the battery earth lead, rather than the car's chassis, which can cause stray currents through your radiator.

[Bliksem]

Ive simply run a lead from the plastic fan shroud bolt, to the radiator support bracket nut. No problems after 18months (MSPEC radiator)

[PM-R33]

Wtf you need to earth an alloy radiator? This is news to me.

[Bliksem]

Wtf you need to earth an alloy radiator? This is news to me.

Read this post...

[PM-R33]

I'm not following you, thats just a link to this thread....

Im reading the shit on NS at the moment, never knew about this.

[Bliksem]

It links Post #4 of this thread... it answers why you should earth an Aluminium rad

[turael]

Which tectaloy? They make more than one coolant.

It was the tectaloy 90 or whatever. I'm pretty sure any of their green stuff will be bad, regardless i'll never touch the stuff again. why take the risk when other coolant is just a touch more expensive.

[ssxRicho]

hot earth kit ftw

[08r3308]

i use mspec one and i earthed mine as well

[Wacky Dee]

if you read the NS site ..apparently earthing the rad can make the stray currents worse .. Weird shit. I'm getting a multimeter tommorow with milivolt measurements ($30 at jaycar) and I'll see what comes up .. Apparently anything more than 50mV in the coolant is BAAAAD.

[PM-R33]

So earth it, helps the problem or earth it, makes it worse...

Is this actually legit or something that occurs in 1 out of 10000 radiators?

[08r3308]

instructions in mspec i got were that it can kill a rad in few days if not earthed, well for the stray current to stuff it up.

If you use a concentrate, then you should be using either demineralised water. mineral content in tap water will conduct electricity better and cause a higher rate of corrosion. Off the shelf premixes can sometimes contain tap water so may have a higher mineral content as well.