Got back from a Nashville this afternoon to find coolant leaking. It didn't take long to find the fracture in the passenger side endbell on the radiator. Anyone here done a replacement? Can it be done without removing the condenser coil (evacuating the refrigerant)? Is the aftermarket unit from Ecklers any good (good enough, the car is 125K, but still in above decent shape). I'm a pretty competant mechanic but I don't have a lift, and obviously can't do a evac and recharge on the A/C...

...any advice is appreciated, even if it's, "save up your allowance and take it to the dealer...".

 

I just pulled the rad out of my 94 for cleaning purposes. You do not have to move the condenser. I did have to trim a little of the shroud tab to get it past the AC lines but not a big job. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get it out and about 1 hour to put in back together. Good Luck, Craig

 

i've just gone through cleaning my radiator. didn't take it out, but i'm pretty certain once you have that top shroud off you can pull the radiator.

here's what i did - drain the radiator and remove the bleed hose on the top passenger side. since you're yanking the radiator you might as well get all of the hoses off. remove all of the obvious nuts and bolts on both sides and back of the shroud.

now, there are three 7 mm screws on each side of the shroud towards the front, between it and the wheel well. on the passenger side i removed the horn and got to the bottom two screws with a socket and extension. for the top screw i made a special tool by taping a 6" ratchet extension to a 7 mm combination wrench, with the closed end facing out, effectively making a 7 mm closed end wrench that's about 10" long. this made the job much easier.

the driver side is more of a pain. the screws are hidden by the AIR pump intake. you must remove the pump, and again removing the horn helps. the rest should be done the same way as the passenger side.

the last thing i did before yanking out the shroud was remove the hood hinge bolt on the driver's side, towards the rear of the car. you will wtill have to play around the shroud to get it out.

now the radiator and A/C condensor should be in plain sight. many people have found a lot of crap in the shroud. some have reported they found dead animals and even Jimmy Hoffa's finger, and some found Jimmy himself.

OK... you have your new radiator in. do yourself a favor and remember the six 7 mm screws? take the c-nuts they screw into (i forgot the technical name for those things) off of the top shroud and install them at the mounting holes on the car, but backwards (inboard <-> outboard). i had to dremel off some of the plastic on the bottom two to line up the holes. now when you install the 7mm screws, install them from inside the air scoop in front of the car. next time you will have an easier time removing these screws.

one last detail, i also cut the back 90 degree corner off of the passenger side mounting flange of the shroud into a 45 degree angle. this made it much easier to get it back in.

good luck.

 

Posted that here a number of years ago. Try a Ron Davis radiator. Works of art, no more expensive than a BeCool.

 

Since I believe the Ron Davis radiator is the best aftermarket unit, I was going to go with a Ron Davis radiator.
But, when I called LPE (who sells Ron Davis radiators) and explained why I wanted one, he convinced me that an aftermarket radiator with a larger cross-section was not necessarily the best thing.

The reason:
Turbulence of the water through the radiator is sometimes more important than the volume of water that can flow through.
If you are experiencing higher engine temps at idle and in traffic and proper cooling at all other speeds, you need more air-flow over the radiator and/or coolant turbulence through the radiator. The way to achieve more turbulence is with a **smaller** radiator cross-section or a larger volume water pump.
If you are experiencing higher coolant temps when racing and runnning at speed, you need a larger cross-section radiator.

Since my idle temps were my concern, I went with a new stock radiator, while I am hoping the aftermarket comes up with a high-flow water pump -- I know they make electrics, but I don't want one.

Supposedly, greater coolant turbulence causes more coolant molecules to come in contact with the radiator inner tube surfaces which promotes better cooling. With low turbulence, the coolant drifts through the tube and only a small amount of molecules have direct contact with the inner surface of the tube.

Once again, many things about performance vehicles are a compromise, and bigger is not always necessarily better.

Tom Piper

 

Some terrific advice here folks, I really appreciate it. Need to get my new HX on order now I guess.

Thanks again, all...

:cheers

 

Has anyone had any experience with DeWitt's products?

http://www.dewitts.com/pages/product...asp?ProdID=325

 

They make nice stuff too. I don't take issue with the comments regarding the stock rad above, but IMO, if you are pushing the car at all, I would go for one of the larger units.

 

For a stock replacement radiator, you can't beat a Modine. It should cost about $200.00. Also, the plastic tank can be replaced. It may be cheaper still, to talk to a radiator shop. You can still do the R&R.

RACE ON!!!

 

I went on line and called around. I didn't want to spend $500-$600 on an all aluminum unit, but I didn't want one with plastic tanks either. I finally found one that's all metal, and is three rows for $235. If it's a good quality, good fit I'll post the source.

 

I'll bet it's copper/brass. It's gonna NEED three rows to keep up with a 1 row, OE, aluminum, radiator. At least all that extra weight will help keep the front end from blowing around.

RACE ON!!!

 

An update: The new radiator is in. Yes, it is massively heavier that the origional (by seven pounds dry). The fit is good and appears to perform as the origional, no better, no worse. The all aluminum, four row unit would have made for a nice pedigree, but the $300+ additional cost just couldn't be justified.

The help here was invaluable. I have the OEM manuals and they say, roughly, "Disconnect the negative on the battery. Remove the upper shroud. Remove the radiator."

My thoughts: There's no need to remove the passenger side horn, that side is relatively clear of interferance. On the drivers side, the air pump and horn must be removed. The intake silencer (on mine) is a one piece unit, vs. two piece as is shown in the manual which might have made it unecessary to remove the pump and horn.

Flipping the speed nuts around to access fasteners from inside the scoop is a great idea, thanks!

Thanks, guys, for the help.