Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

So on this build the client requested we give the engine bay a very "normal" no bling kind of a look........ nothing too outrageous or flashy. So we decided to powder coat all the pipes and the air box in a satin black finish. Must say it goes really well with the colour of the vehicle.
Here are some pics of the pipes when I picked it up from the powder coaters.

Pictures does not reflect how nice this build came out. Its just one of those conversions where it ended up looking better that you hoped it would.
Dit longish trip last week and the car runs so well! Power is very good and the tune is just about as perfect as one can get it.
We only ran into one problem............ water temps..........., but will give more info in the next post. Lets first enjoy the beauty of this vehicle!

Water temps!!!
So yes, as mentions I could see on the Madman that the water temps does not reflect the very good tune and all the effort that we put in to make sure the engine runs as cool as possible.
We changed the following on the cooling system up to this point.
1. All the radiator hoses and heater hoses.
2. Water pump
3. Thermostat
4. Inspected the Thermostat housing and the aluminum behind the water pump to make sure it is not pitted and in spec.
5. airflow to radiator is good and will allow enough cool air to reach the radiator

So the only two things left is the radiator and the viscus coupling, so I removed the radiator so that it can be sent in to be serviced. They remove the tanks and clean the cores with a rod to make sure there is no blocked cores and well as a chemical clean inside and outside.
BUT....... I did not even send it in as I found the "problem" as the radiator was standing outside the vehicle.
So not all radiators are equal and this is one of those cases. This radiator was not performing poorly, but I could see the temps were higher than it could be. It was actually performing on the good side as I was testing the Patrol in really hot weather and was pushing the car quite hard, but I drive many Patrols every day and knew it could be better.
If you look at the photos you can see the difference between the Nissan and aftermarket radiator. In this case, the aftermarket has 88 tubes and the Nissan one has 100 which might explain why the Nissan one gives us better cooling in this instance.
We have found other aftermarket radiators that perform good, so not all aftermarket radiators are bad.

Next part to change is the viscus. Just waiting for delivery

Michael, what's the plan of action? Get a good aftermarket radiator, or a Nissan OEM radiator?

ChristoSlang wrote: ↑09 Feb 2025 19:07 Michael, what's the plan of action? Get a good aftermarket radiator, or a Nissan OEM radiator?

let me answer that one. In this application OEM, no question!!

ChristoSlang wrote: ↑09 Feb 2025 19:07 Michael, what's the plan of action? Get a good aftermarket radiator, or a Nissan OEM radiator?

Christo, I guess it depends on the vehicle setup. If you are running a turbo engine, I would always go for the Nissan original. In a NA setup, the aftermarket units does the job