Hey all Got the radiator installed yesterday, will try and grab a few photos today once the rain buggers off. Fairly easy install, kinda followed the tech article. 1. Park car so bonnet is facing down slope. 2. Take out drain plug and drain all coolant (when car is cold). 3. Flush the system (so as to not mix coolant, and get rid of old crap). 4. Drain again. While waiting, start to take off hoses, upper hose only needs disconnecting at the engine side, lower one is easier to take completely off. This will also help with draining all coolant. Also remove brackets holding radiator (x2). 5. Since mine has the 2 part shroud, I could simply unclip the lower half and leave the rest on, if yours is one part, you will need to take off the clutch fan (which is a PITA). 6. Disconnect overflow hose and radiator should pull out (tight fit). 7. Wash the new rad out with water, to ensure no shit is inside it. 8. Connect lower hose to rad. (easier to put it on while rad is out). 9. Slide new rad in place. Fits really well, again, tight fit. 10. Connect lower hose to engine, put upper part of shroud on, connect upper hose and overflow hose. The only hose that needed shortening was the upper hose, by about 2-2.5cm. 11. Fill radiator with water and replace caps, turn car so its facing up hill (to assist bleeding system of air). Check for leaks. 12. Follow normal filling procedures, etc, etc, with coolant. Easy as! Took me all of.... 2 hours. Some of which was waiting for car to cool down as I took it for a short test drive to ensure no leakage, pressure was building, coolant temp to norm levels, etc. Only have three minor issues: 1. Bottom rad shroud still isnt on, im lazy. Need to jack car up to get under so i can see wtf im doing. 2. Clamps. The drivers side will fit on (as a temp measure) without change. However it will contact the bonnet slightly. To fix this, the inside edge will be cut off, making the clamp a L shape, not a n shape. The passenger side will not fit at all, due to filler cap being in the way. Solution? Custom made bracket? 3. The lower radiator hose bracket screwed onto the old radiator. However the new radiator does not have such a hole. Hence, bracket remains off, and lower radiator hose is free floating. Solution? I was thinking of bending this bracket and bolting it to the radiator shroud. I have fears that the hose will move and contact a belt, get torn off by rocks, hit the rad fan, or something equally as bad. I guess those of you who have hard pipes there wont have issues with it moving, but it might be more of a pain to fit.
Hey andy, i swapped sides with the clamps so it fitted better - a few taps of the hammer and the radiator isnt going anywhere! Had to ditch those rubber bits underneath though..
is it helps with the lower shroud you can do what i did and attach one clip (the right side) and push it around with the fan, after a few goes you can make it come all the way around, then simply jam your hand between a the shroud / clutch fan and you will be able to connect the other clip.... i hope that makes sense but it only took me about 5 mins to do and saved me jacking up the car and pulling off the undercar cover
Essentially, only the right hand side bracket is needed. It is easy to mod the standard one to fit. Quickest, and neatest way is with a hack saw, and a file to clean it up if you wish to do so. Simply cut the far end off (as pictured), and a little of the front, and wool la. Took maybe 10 minutes (including trying to find the hack saw )
Similar I did Similar to this with my Rad. install, it was'nt a PZP one but still needed some mods. I cut the bracket just a bit more than that and trimmed the rubber to fit aswell, just something about having metal on metal. Easy to do with a hacksaw and a stanley knife. Andy
Clamps... If you're worried about the clamps not securing the radiator, you can get clamps for larger radiators from CZP. http://www.conceptzperformance.com/...ar_Type=300&UID=20081230202417203.206.110.157 Hope that helps. Cheers Rob.
i didnt use brackets at all, they are not even needed. the hoses and tight fit on this into place nicely, i cant even move mine by hand without undoing all the hoses.
Hold ur horsies sonny Im doing a tech artical on 2 peice rad brackets should be completed in the next couple of days. Much cheaper to do this way as opposed to paying $60 US and shipping from the states. also zedforlife has 1 peice tech artical on 300zx.com http://www.300zxclub.com/showthread.php?t=45872 Regards Trev
I just fitted mine.. I found that the bolts and rubber mounts which hold the Aircon 'radiator'? in place stops the PZP rad mounting fully forward. To remedy this i took off the brackets and rubber mounts and fixed the AC 'rad' with washers. Not sure if the rubber washers are there to absorb flex etc but this gave me another 10mm so the PZP rad can be mounted correctly
