ASI Radiator from ebay??

Hey all,

In the middle of sorting out the cooling side for the old girl.

I got the SPAL Twin Turbo Electric Fan Kit with high amp fan option, Coolant Temp Sensor Adapter and 185TS Thermatic switch.
http://www.z1motorsports.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_15&products_id=82

So now turning my looking at the radiator side of it, not to sure about paying the the amout that Z1 want for one pass postal and all that so went looking and found this ASI one, question is are they any good? has anyone used this one before??
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ASI-Super-cooling-3-Row-aluminum-radiator-300ZX-Z32-89-90-91-96-97-turbo-manual-/281399879727?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4184bd682f

noob question i know but better to ask now then be short cash later lol

 

Never used one myself but plenty of people use them without issues.

 

Thanks. Never sure about the quality of stuff on evilbay at time.

 

There needs to be a big huge banner across the top of every page on the forum saying:

" Electric fan conversion kits on twin turboZ32s are a failure waiting to happen"

I personally have tested the Chinese type ally radiators & compared their performance against stock and the Z1/Howe units.

The Chinese units perform WORSE than stock if you are using an e fan conversion (fan doesn't have the grunt to pull the air flow required for sufficient cooling).

Dozens of people will argue that e fan conversions work & honestly they will if you only ever tootle around on the road & never give the car any stick for more than a few seconds at a time. You might get away with it and manage to build a system that will even match the stock systems ability in traffic.

When pushed the e fan conversions WILL fail to meet the needs of a VG30DETT.

I've been on the track, done five or six laps & had temp issues, pulled the e fan conversion off & fitted just the stock clutch & fan with no shroud & had no temp issues for the rest of the day.

E fan conversions are a DOWN GRADE compared to stock - I can't stress this enough, I'd need to throw in a whole pile of swear words to tell you what I really think of them.

Recently I parted out what used to be a really nice TT manual 2+2 - it had an e fan conversion & a Chinese rad, it had been overheated & had a blown head gasket (or two).

Just because you can buy parts and bolt them on to your car it doesn't say they are an improvement over what was there when it was built.

Personally I hate the stupid big windmill on the front of the engine but you know what - it's not that stupid because it actually works!

 

Yep, not worth the dicking around.

Asi rads are ok, I had no trouble with mine. And it's shiny.

 

Thanks for the input put, I have every intention of making a custom shroud for the fan and for around the side of the AC radiator to the nose cone and getting a higher output Alt.

But that is the 1st I have read about them e fans not being on par with the stock ones.

 

Yer it was fully stuffed, free spinning to much and cracks all around the hub of the fan. I am going to be make a custom fan shroud for it so it is fully sealed.

 

Typically those who have them fitted & believe they work as good as or better than stock will shout down anyone who says otherwise.

The normal defense is that they monitor engine coolant temperatures & see no increase or possibly a slight drop - completely overlooking the roll the thermostat plays.

If the system is operating correctly any sensor mounted on the hot pipe to the radiator should only ever see a relatively static temperature until such time as the system can no longer maintain the desired temp.

What this means is that even with a weak fan compared to stock you're still going to see ~83c or what ever, the flow will increase significantly & the temp exiting the radiator will be higher but the measured coolant temp will be the same - until the system can't maintain that - normally only just beyond pretty standard driving if you're using an e fan set up.

If people had the smarts to measure the outlet side of the rad they would soon see the e fans do NOT even come close to the good old windmill Nissan put on there.

Also typically those who want to be brave and give it a go will happily post about their plans, ambitions and intentions but when it all goes bad nothing will be said.

Personally I gave it a go & it was crap, that was proven at the track under high power conditions not just tootling off to the bakery for some pies (where under the right conditions you could get away with no fan at all).

 

ASI and clutch fan works very well .

Had it for 5 years now and with stock thermostat my temps sit at 80 - 82 all day with high HP.

as every one has said (no matter how good a shroud on the spal) clutch fan cannot be beat..

its one of those NISSAN things you don't touch/upgrade.

A lot of people on here have learned the hard way


.

 

I got an asi. Have not run it yet. Got the full shroud on it. You need to make up some top brackets to mount. Custom made or off the shelf

 

Well as I'm still learning about this car, I based it mostly after looking reading the following links, there was a few others but can't find them now. Need sleep after nightshift lol And yes I was going to run the lower TS with this setup and the AC lower speed fan mod too hens why I know I should get the larger ALT for this kind of setup.

http://forums.nicoclub.com/electric-fan-debate-t503033.html

And this old link.
http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=281732

 

Well I will say sorry for leading you down the wrong path, I have added a post to that thread in case anyone searches in the future.
At the time everything seemed all good but once I gave it some stick at the track it all came unstuck.
As someone else said in that old thread in the right climate you might get away with it but not in Aus, certainly not if I couldn't do it here in NZ without the AC system installed.

For normal road use you might be OK but then all it would take is for a wire to come off & then it's all down hill from there, stock viscous clutch etc very rarely goes wrong.

 

Yup ... me to

 

Okay and thanks.

So what I am hearing is that it is fine unless your a wantabe racer/difter in a street car and think every street is a drag strip. I told years ago still believe today that if the car has AC on it then it's not a race car, I have never seen a race car with AC. I might be wrong and I'm sure I'll get told too.

This car for me is a winter drive. Nothing more, If I want to go racing so I can brag about how fast I can go I wouldn't be using this car, I would be using my daily ride which is a mildly worked R1 08. The whole reason I got this car was I getting sick of riding to work at 5am in the winter. The chances of this car being using during the summer time are buckles and none!! That's perfect bike riding weather!!!

Canberra, no local race track, be lucky if it gets over 40c in the summer. Winter be lucky if it gets over 15c.

 

I'm running an ASI too, today at wakefield my water peaked at ~100*c running in 10 minute sessions with an air temp of up to ~14*C. I didn't have the lower shroud on, I'm using a standard fan, have a front mount intercooler and a big oil cooler in front of the radiator. making 230Kw at 10 psi.

When looking at Black Beasts results also consider that he has heaps of air ****ing and a very well designed system.

Edit: p.s. Quality on the ASI units isn't perfect, mine had a stripped thread in the fitting for the overflow tube but that's a pretty easy fix in aluminium if you can re-tap it