Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Hey Peter

Is it not worth considering a water spray onto the radiator that operates from the dash.
Especially when going slowly in sand driving. It should be effective for both Petrol and Diesel engines.
I know some racing applications use this, and I do not really understand why it has not been done for overlanding.

Alex Roux wrote: ↑03 Jan 2022 13:48 Hey Peter

Is it not worth considering a water spray onto the radiator that operates from the dash.
Especially when going slowly in sand driving. It should be effective for both Petrol and Diesel engines.
I know some racing applications use this, and I do not really understand why it has not been done for overlanding.

Alex I think it becomes a logistical issue.
My brother did this years ago in his souped-up Mini.
The water tank took up almost the whole boot and on a hot day it only lasted a couple of hours.

One needs LOTS of water, and on an overlander space and weight is already at a premium. And in those areas I know with thick sand, water is pretty scarce.

The thing is, you're getting hot while driving at highway speed and that should just not happen.

I've had two persistent overheating problems with 4x4's where we thought we did everything but the problem remained. A guy reprimanded me with the "it just should not happen, stop doing mods and fix the basics" speech which made us re-think.

One was to replace a radiator that we thought was perfect but it ended up fixing the problem. We did it as a last resort because we ran out of ideas, and ended up happy but annoyed with ourselves for not doing it earlier
The other one was fixing the fan cowl to ensure proper concentrated air flow through the radiator

Spike, remember/keep in mind that I am pushing at least 30% more power than the car and thus the cooling system was designed for.

All cooling system components except the water pump, viscous and fan were replaced when the engine was replaced. And those were carefully checked.

Additionally, everyone I know with a Y60 pushing similar power has similar or worse problems.

Shoo, your mate owes you big time!
I think youve nailed this now with your grill modification.
If it were me I would still remove that nice logo though, just to have nothing hampering flow at all.

The logo is a big part of it's structure Graham.

I could regain the structural integrity with less air resistance, but it would make the welding more complicated and I doubt it would gain me much airflow.
I still think the biggest gain I could get now would be by moving the AC condenser somewhere else. Just don't know where that somewhere else is...