Radiator shutter? Any pics out there? (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Threads
729
Messages
3,001
Location
Always on the Run
Anyone have good pics of an installed radiator shutter on your rig? would love to see how it is set up?

Roberto
 
?

Anyone have good pics of an installed radiator shutter on your rig? would love to see how it is set up?

Roberto

I don't want to sound stooopid, What's a radiator shutter?
 
It is a shutter kinda of like a pull down shade that goes in front of your radiator to block the air so it will warm your engine faster in colder climates, for the heaters and such! I believe it was an option on some? When warmed up then you raise the shutter.
 
It is a shutter kinda of like a pull down shade that goes in front of your radiator to block the air so it will warm your engine faster in colder climates, for the heaters and such! I believe it was an option on some? When warmed up then you raise the shutter.
It is, just like a window blind. There are 2 tabs on the radiator mount for the roller, the cable came off the middle of the bottom and went out forward under the radiator, there is a ring on the end of the cable that hooks onto a small hook on the frame to hold it down. Took mine off when it seized up a couple of decades ago so can't take pics of the installation.
 
i dont think i have that, but i have a small piece of canvas with snaps on it that snaps onto the bezel...same purpose?PO said it was original with the 78
 
Dad used to put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator in the cold months to do this.
 
Thought it would be nice to have, mine came from AUS so did not come with
 
Ditto an/or goto a higher temp thermostat
What good does a higher temp thermostat do if it doesn't get warm enough to open the thermostat in the first place? I'm refering to a 3B engine and at -30C (-22F) the 188degree thermostat doesn't even open, why would a higher temp thermostat open? The B engines have a bypass system in the termostat housing so coolant circulates through the engine and heater core but not the radiator when the thermostat is closed. You can't even get any warm air out of the heater unless you're doing something like 100kph (60mph), so at those kind of temperatures in city driving you probably could do without the radiator at all.
Even with 2/3 of the radiator sealed off with cardboard and the RPM at 2000rpm you don't get any heat out of it unless you can load up the engine.
 
Roberto did you ever get one of these?

interested to see one hooked up...i cant recall if i've seen one on a bj40 or not...think only on a bj60 here on mud

anybody with a picture?

i usually use cardboard :) so i don't need to see pics of that :)
radiator shutter.jpg
 
subscribed i want one for my cruiser
 
First off, I gotta say that coming from California, I didn't even know cars ran at -30 degrees! Second, I was just wondering.... I wouldn't think that the temperature of the radiator even mattered for a place that cold. Since the engine never gets warm enough for the thermostat to open, the water from the radiator never circulates through the system. The radiator water would just stay the radiator. I was thinking that the shield wasn't so much to keep the radiator warm, but more to keep cool air from rushing into the engine compartment. In essence, to keep the "warmish" air in the engine compartment- in the engine compartment. At -30 degrees I would bet that just- air cooling, on the outside of the engine actually cools it so significantly, that a shield could be a really big help. I don't know much, but I was just wondering about this cause it seemed interesting and I was curios what other people thought.
suzuki_cooling_system.jpg
 
... Since the engine never gets warm enough for the thermostat to open.....

Whoeever said that?

If you we climbing a big hill in a blizzard in Antarctica I'd still expect the thermostat to open .... eventually.

:D
 
Whoeever said that?

If you we climbing a big hill in a blizzard in Antarctica I'd still expect the thermostat to open .... eventually.

:D

I personally don't know as the coldest weather I have ever been in is probably 25 degrees. I was simple going off of what Kootenay said up above: that in the conditions mentioned in BC where he lives that the thermostat doesn't open. I was merely speculating that the point of the screen might not be to keep the radiator warm, but instead to keep cold air from rushing into the engine compartment where it probably has a significant cooling effect at -30 degrees just from moving around the engine. Since engines are designed to run best at around 180 degrees, this significant air cooling effect might be enough to keep the engine from warming up to its ideal temperature.

In your imaginary scenario of pulling a heavy load uphill for an extended period of time in a blizzard in Anarctica, I would also imagine the thermostat could open. I would think in that scenario, one would not want the screen. I wasn't saying that there is no way the thermostat could open, only guessing as to the purpose of the screen.
 
The Tstat doesn't open instantly at the design temperature - its partially open somewhat before that... its all about finding an equilibrium based on the openness of the Tstat and the efficiency of the radiator for the temperature difference across it.

When its very cold that equilibrium might be reached at 150 or even 120deg. Closing the shutter raises that equilibrium.

As you say, when its VERY cold plenty of heat is lost to the block itself. And indeed at some unbelievably cold temperature the radiator probably would be completely irrelevant, shutter or no... but by design that is not the case for the range of temperatures found on the inhabited continents.

It would be interesting to know exactly when the Tstat allows some small amount of flow through the rad. I suspect we'd be surprised to find its quite cool by comparison to proper operating temperature.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom