Project STurdteen, Plumbing the Motor and Getting Her Ready to Run!

The no-name bootleg Chinese radiator on the car was also not up to snuff and the engine would tend to overheat.  Ao we replaced it with a Koyorad Cooling Systems racing radiator.  The Koyorad radiator has a triple pass core which is 20% more efficient than a typical single pass core. It also has a way thicker more efficient core with a good fin pitch that allows air to penetrate the thicker core for better heat exchange. We think that the Koyorad will absolutely end the car’s cooling issues.

The Koyorad radiator has strong tig welded end tanks and provisions for all the factory mounting points, so it will drop right into an S chassis. If desired, the factory fan shrouds and fans will bolt right on.

We also used Koyorad’s higher pressure racing cap. The higher pressures raises the coolant’s boiling point.  Non-boiling coolant transfers heat much more effectively.

To keep the engine oil cooler we used this huge Koyorad 24 row oil cooler. Rathyna previously had no oil cooler on her engine and who knows how hot the oil was getting. Drift cars really thrash the oil and a cooler-less SR20DET will soon reach over 300 degrees under these conditions. Damage to bearings starts at 260 degrees. The Koyorad cooler will go a long way to keeping both the oil and overall engine temps down.

When the power steering gets hot the fluid boils and the pump stops working. This makes the steering get stiff suddenly without warning. This had been happening in the car in the middle of drift sessions. To cure this we installed this 10 row Koyorad oil cooler on the return line to the pump reservoir.