has anyone fabricated their own? i've seen them on ebay for about 100 bucks and looks pretty simple.

 

Aluminum? Z32? One name comes to mind... MEGAZ.

http://www.megaz.net/index.html

 

ive seen one by carbing.

 

Guy on 3ZC made his own, can't get on there but you can feel free to search for it. Cost him like $12 in sheetmetal or something... Looks like **** in my opinion, but maybe if it was polished/finished nice it could be okay.

 

Well worth it on a Z32...ANYTHING you can do to help airflow throught the radiator & the hot-*** engine compartment is a good thing!

 

^^^I can't say I agree, I've tracked my car pretty hard and can't say I've overheated it. Stock radiator is MASSIVE and allows for fine airflow, there shouldn't be any need for a radiator guide.

 

I couldn't disagree with you more. Overheating in Z32's; especially a TT is very common. I must say you are the 1st person to ever say that the OEM radiator is massive. It certainly is not.

 

Heh, compare the size of a TT radiator to most other cars... And if you've overheated the Z with a working fan, working water pump, working thermostat and sufficient coolant without leaks, I'm surprised.

 

have you ever gotten a Z32 to running tempurature and lifted teh hood, the thing is a personal oven, why do you think the injector wires commonly need replacment, they bake and get brittle and work like crap, may be a larger radiator than most cars but its also a much more heat producing engine than most. yes normal driving you should be fine, but if you start tracking a Z32 you best believe it will get hot ESPECIALLY a TT.

 

A lot of that heat is from the turbos, which don't have coolant passing through them. You can say whatever you want about a "personal oven", running temp is 180F-210F or around there on almost any car... So what's your point about the engine bay being hot? 180F is 180F, "at running temp" is going to have the engine temperature no higher than other cars. If you pin the water temp needle at H and then open the hood, yes, it'll be a personal oven. But how are you telling me 180 degrees is hotter on a Z32 than it is on another car? An upgraded oil cooler and oil thermostat can also aid in the cooling, but either way, the thermostat opens at 180F, plus or minus 5 degrees. Your point about running temp is simply not valid.

 

just forget it. yeah thats running temp and temps the thermostat opens at, doesnt mean the engine bay retains that heat very well though or not making it like an oven, my Z32 had the hotest engine bay of any car i ever owned and yeah it never overheated, but if you do read up on here and other sites you will find that TT's can over heat pretty well if you run them through there paces for a bit. its hard to argue with 91zxtt

 

Sounds like you need to do a bit more research.....the turbos do have coolant circulating through them. An oil cooler won't have a noticeable impact on the the coolant temp. An oil thermostat??? Sounds cool,....what does it do?

Overheating is a common problem in these cars; even when the fan, t-stat and everything else working fine. Do more research before you debate this. Maybe you should use that search feature that is such a big pet peave of yours. You may learn something. My car always ran hot with all of the cooling parts working properly. I installed a larger radiator and the problem went away.

All of your points aren't valid. Sorry.

 

^^^First off... the Z has water-cooled turbos? I was completely unaware of that, thank you for correcting me.

Second... What does an oil thermostat do? Quite simply... Same thing a coolant thermostat does, but with oil. When you have an oil cooler that's 11"x11"x3/4" thick it tends to overcool the oil (such as a thermostat stuck open would do to coolant). Overcooled oil is running below its thermal efficiency peak, leaving you with less than optimal lubrication. Oil thermostat lets oil flow to the oil cooler when it's above 180 degrees, but once the temp drops below it simply recirculates it to the oil pan. As for not helping, an upgraded oil cooler is adding a heat exchanger to your engine, and especially helped with the turbos as far as I was aware (but then again I didn't know they were in fact water cooled, so I can't speak for that now). Hey, guess you learn somethin new every day, right?

 

I think you may have it confused with a pressure bypass. Not all of the oil is pushed through the oil cooler; only a small percentage of it. I have never heard of an oil thermostat. If it does exist, where is it located?

 

Don't take me for an idiot, although we have differing opinions I know my car very well... Especially considering I hooked up my oil t-stat with the cooler just a few weeks ago when completing my TT swap. It works exactly how I said it does, it's not a pressure bypass.

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/mocal.htm

 

c'mon guys lets take the rogerian approach here and respect one another. so about that radiator plate is it worth making/buying?

 

I'd say no, the general consensus seems to be yes.

 

come again?

 

basically, if you want one buy one. if you don't, don't.
easy.

 

but i dont "want" one thats why i started a thread asking if i "need" one i just got this car at the begining of this year and it hasnt seen a summer by me and was just trying to get some input on advice

 

actually your thread doesnt ask jack except if anyone has made one...

if its an NA and assuming you dont live in death valley... you probably wont every NEED one... its a want, not a need as rizz stated.

 

amazingly, i actually agree with snw.

 

The air guides look nice, but they don't do much. It cleans up the engine compartment nicely though.