Stop Overheating and Keep Cool

Upgrade your 240sx cooling system

There are many upgrades one can do to their 240sx, some are for increasing the aesthetics of your S chassis, others to increase the handling and performance. One thing that is often overlooked when increasing performance whether it’s minor bolt on parts, or adding a supercharger or turbo charger, or even swapping a completely different engine platform. The cooling system is one of the most important things that should be addressed when doing anything.

Basics To Better Cooling

When you are looking at the stop cooling system of your 240sx, it’s basic and although does work, once you do a bit of spirited driving, drifting, or a few good pulls, the engine is generating excessive heat, there for you need to get it out.

The OEM Clutch fan although works very well, can be fairly worn and if that’s the case, it isn’t moving as much air as it originally did. A basic upgrade is removing the clutch fan setup and installing some Electric E-Fans. This is a fairly easy task, and has multiple benefits, one being you are removing the fan belt which turns the clutch fan which is a drag on the engine since it uses the engines power to spin it. in most cases you can feel a performance gain by simply doing this.

Going E-fans is good and all, but imagine all the years of build up inside your current radiator. Which restricts flow, and chokes the cooling stem. The cost of removing the current radiator with a full aluminum one which not only holds more coolant for heat exchanging but being aluminum it transfers heat far better than the original. The prices of these units can be as low as $100 and can go up into the upper $500 depending on your application. As you move into the upper prices you will find radiators such as Koyo’s N-FLow and Mishimoto’s dual and triple pass radiators. If you are doing a swap of anything larger than the stock ka24 it is highly suggested to at the very least go with a dual pass or N-flow. Remember the entire purpose of this is too Upgrade your 240sx cooling system to keep your engine staying cool.

Cooling Fans

When picking cooling fans, its important to know how much CFM you are going to need. Here is aa generic example:

• 1,250 CFM for a 4-cylinder
• 2,000 CFM for a 6-cylinder
• 2,500 CFM for a 8-cylinder

You can never have too much air flow so it’s always best to shoot for the higher is possible. Pay attention to the fans you are looking at. With the current size of radiator you can comfortably fit (2) 12” Fans without having any issues with clearance.

A good combination is utilizing Mishimoto fans with their fan shroud, its fitment if direct bolt on, and easy installation. The 2 fans are 1150CFM each, so thats a combined 2300 CMF of air flow! More than what you need for your RB,JZ, or any other 6-cylinder swap, but just shy for ample cooling on your LS-swaps. If you are going LS it is suggested to upgrade to at least 1500cfm each for fans.