nissens / cooling ducts

[Peter Schulz]

At 02:50 PM 4/12/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>2 things...
>Again, a nut on the bottom of my 2nd nissen's radiator broke! I worked
>the two mounts in carefully, I got one bolt carefully in for the cooling
>duct, started the last one (WD-40 applied), just started threading it in
>and "tink", the damned thing snapped! I can't belive nobody else with a
>Nissen's has seen this problem! Also, the lower port by the
>thermo-switch was bent down. I managed to get that bent back. I was
>going to inspect that more before install, but wanted to get the bottom
>threads cleaned up first. Arrg!
>
>2nd thing... If I didn't have the ducting bolted up to the radiator on
>one side (near the engine), would that be much of a problem? I'm going
>back to the garage to look for myself. I'm trying to decide if I should
>send this back and just get the OEM unit, or try to make the best of it.
>
>Any sage wisdom is welcome!
>
>David
>
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David:

I almost had the same happen to me ( captive bolt loosening).  The real issue is that Nissen's does a poor job of masking prior to painting the radiator, and the threads get covered with paint.  When I felt the resistance while installing the rubber mounts, I backed out the rubber mount, put anti seize on the stud and screwed back, backed it out, screwed it back in.

If you have a tap and die set, you could use that to clean the threads,

I had a little trouble aligning the duct with the radiator, and in some cases used nuts, washer and bolts instead of the threaded clips.

TPC didnt do the best job packing the rad and I had some damage by the overflow nipple...I had a local radiator shop do the repair and Rod said he "would take care of me"....Given that Rod has had my business for the last 7 years, this is the first problem I ever had...And he is standing behind his product.

I now am starting to understand why some folks said that Nissens has a higher return rate than AKG radiators - its not due to leaks, but other issues like poor factory packaging and stupid litlle things like paint on mounting threads,


-Peter




Peter Schulz
1990 CQ (awaiting S2 3b engine transplant)
1991 200 20v TQW indigo mica
1991 200 20v TQW titanium grey
Chelmsford, MA USA
peschulz at cisco.com