I'm am so close to taking a bat to my FD. Spent the last 3-4 weekends installing a new radiator, new pillowball bushings, new trailing arms, new toe control links, even a set of new Zeal Coilovers (thanks Rishie) and I'm still chasing gremlins. Car is on jacks right now peeing it's coolant in a bucket.

1. The RadiatorWorld radiator is truly an example of getting what you paid for. POS should have come with a dremel because of the grinding involved. I expected to do a little modifying but not to the extent it required. Ended up mounting the radiator first from the top, then installing the fans. I was pretty ambitious with this project because I wanted to contribute a step-by-step procedure with photos to the forum. Weekend was coming to an end so I had to focus on getting the car running.

2. Pillowball replacement was cake. Bought the giant C-Clamp from Harbor freight and they popped in and out with some muscle. Glad I had the Workmate which acted as a vice. Went as far as doing a mild polish on the lower aluminum suspension member.

3. Toe control links. In and out without a hitch.

4. Trailing arms. Same as above.

5. Zeal B6's. Rishie and crew had them installed within 45 minutes.


I had a track day at Laguna Seca last Friday that was mostly black-flagged because of fog. Spent all day Thursday flushing the brakes, setting my suspension preload, changing plugs, oil, air filters, and blinker fluid. And to add insult to injury - got meatballed for sound - a measly 97.1 dB. I'm going back next year with the goal of breaking 105. Bitches...

Past few days have been chasing a problem with the cooling system. My ASI AST was leaking coolant right where the neck meets the top part of the cannister. A little JB Weld fixed that. Also, the coolant from the overflow tank isn't making it back to the radiator when everything cools. Decided to pressure test the cooling system. Pressurized to 16 pounds - left to get another beer and to hit the head - 10 minutes later - pressure is around 14.5 pounds. FSM only tells us to pressurize and see if it holds. I guess this is good. Pressure tested the cap - 13lb cap was only holding 7. Bought another cap and decided to pressure test to be sure. 13lb cap held 12. Good enough. I put everything back together and start the car. Now the leak in the AST is at the new goddamn pressure cap. Overflowing like a fountain and causing the belts to screech like holy hell. Shut down the car and let it cool. Cleaned off AST neck and reinstalled the old cap. Everything hunky dory.

Today, I decided to raid the swagelock bin from work. There's got to be a vacuum leak somewhere that is preventing the return of coolant from the overflow tank coming to the radiator. Snagged some 1/4" high temp teflon tubing (good up to 400F) and some teflon fittings for my AST and the overflow tank (will need to do some custom work here). Well, I might as well flush the coolant. ****!!!! Why is the radiator drain plug made from cookie dough?!?!?! My wrench is turning but the ****** drain plug isn't. Now it's slowly leaking and half the drain plug is in my hand. Go into the tool pin to look for my extractors...wait - I can't drill into it with 20 gallons of coolant above me. Undo the lower radiator hose and wait for everything to drain. I start drilling into the remainder of the drain plug and change to the extractor bit. Thing doesn't move. Keep upping the torque until my drill starts to smell funny. Time to shut it down. I'm throwing in the towel. You've won today FD but I'll be back. If it wasn't for my summer plans - the FD would get parked and I'd be shopping for another car. The CTS-V is starting to look better and better...

 

Step away from the FD...calm down....have a beer or 6!

 

don't try to save a buck with cheap parts, esp something as critical as the cooling system on a car that runs incredibly hot....plus you are tracking the car (!)

PWR bolts right in....it does have a plastic drain plug, put I promptly dumped that for a stainless bolt

 

you are one lucky dog to be able to turn laps on L.S. though!

 

fd --> <-- you

btw i had a coolant return problem until i changed both my ast and radiator caps, with stock caps, since my fd is a street car

gl

 

Well - I did do some research on the forum and the radiator from Radiator World did seem like a good deal. It theoretically has more capacity volume-wise than the Koyo. And since the Koyo was going to require some fidgeting to get it to work.....

Anyways, it's the morning after. I feel better. Going to start fresh when I get back from work.

 

Which AST did you have and what did you change to? I have the aftermarket ASI one that needed help sealing.

 

I can empathize with you.

My car was down for almost two months with me trying to isolate my own coolant leak. I just got it running last week. Changed the caps 2x, most of the hoses (10+), & water pump. While doing all this **** I was breaking wire harness connectors left and right. I never thought I'd be doing so much solidering trying to fix a damn coolant leak. It turned out to be the seal behind the WP.

Now, my ABS isn't working and my stereo won't turn on. I still have to replace my bushings and flush my brakes.

This kind of hassel really makes me start thinking that 9 years of this **** is enough. I've been thinking of selling the car and "downgrading" to a more reliable, less finicky sporty car like a G35 Coupe or something like this 350Z that I found on CL. It's lowered with nice 19" volks

 

Cheap has nothing to do with with it. If he got the Race radiator, it's even larger than the Koyo. Obviously it's not going to be a direct fit.

 

i have the tripoint ast. uses the stock cap size. so i bought a .9bar oem cap from malloy. also changed my .9bar radiator cap as well. $14.95 each

 

"large"is not necessarily "better"....does it really cool more efficiently than a PWR? I doubt it, if it does, it's likely an insignificant difference

 

don't be a sheep and buy another silver appliance on wheels

my gosh I hate that thing....and they are slow

 

Yea, yea, yea. And the ankle bone is connected to the foot bone.

Why make a blanket statement about something you have absolutely no idea about? Do you think PWR and Fluidyne are the only ones to figure out how to weld up a radiator?

Here is the thickness of that radiator:
http://mahjik.homestead.com/files/FD...1/Radiator.jpg

 

show me the test data PROVING your pos race radiator cools better, mr. know-it-all

you can't....end of discussion

and you're the expert on radiators now, huh? :roll:

 

Sorry, I don't have any.

Show me data showing the PWR out-cooling this radiator? Huh? You can't.

The only difference is I'm not saying one is better than the other. You are without any facts or data backing it up.

 

and I never said it was better, re-read my post

I've seen PWR radiators in Supras pushing 700+ hp....enough said

 

Ok:

I'm reading it and it still looks the same.

Wow, cooling a 700 HP supra. Oh boy, doing what? Running down a drag strip? Lot of cooling needed there.

YZF, you can post all the crap you like, but it still means the same without anything backing it up: *****. I bought this radiator to "test it out". Can I afford a PWR? Sure. However, if there is something just as good and/or better, no one will know until they try it.

How about you do some experimenting yourself instead of regurgitating everything some mechanic who's never set foot on a road course tells you.

 

I wouldnt necessarily argue w/ mahjik, he knows more about FD's than most of these forum members put together.

One problem w/ cheapo radiators not made for out cars is fabricating brackets, making sure you have all the rubber grommets in the right place, etc. etc. I just went out and bought a Koyo, hour install or so. so simple, a year ago I had a cheapo radiator installed, within the year I found one spot I didnt put in the rubber grommets, and it rubbed a hole clean through, just make sure yah do it right is my only advice!

 

In this case, it's more about the size of the radiator than the price. RadiatorWorld sells radiators the same size as the Fluidyne/PWR radiators as well as smaller exact OEM replacements and the larger Race version.

I looked at the specs of the Race version and saw that it was going to need a little help fitting it in since it was larger than the Koyo. However, I already plan to drop the radiator down a bit with some custom brackets.

 

sure he does....

 

ok do a search and see how many posts he has not only posted in but threads started and....he was one of the moderaters (recently pass to rynburg<---(sp) IIRC)...im with tenacious on this one...(hands improved a flame retardent suit)

 

I've been here as long or longer than he has...he's a master of links to various topics within this forum and he's done a few track days, yipee

my original point stands until someone proves otherwise

 

Actually, your post has no proof, so it's only standing in your mind. No one here but you, has said one cools better than the other; so prove it. Post some facts for all of us.

Regardless of whether it comes from you or someone else, I would love to see a cooling comparison of the various radiators available for the FD. However, I doubt anyone here is going to take the time and money to make it happen as it wouldn't be cheap or easy to replicate same conditions to test them all.

 

ok, I will

as far as I know, the "claim to fame" of your "race" radiator is primarily the increased core thickness....however, this is not necessarily a significant benefit

helpful reading

http://www.stewartcomponents.com/tec...ech_Tips_6.htm

The most important criteria for any radiator is it's surface area. The thickness of the core is increased only after the surface area is maximized. Adding thickness to a radiator does not increase it's efficiency the same extent as surface area, but in no case will additional thickness alone decrease the efficiency

 

That proves what? That just says that inceasing the surface area will have a greater effect on cooling than simply increasing the thickness. They are also talking about inceasing a "single core". Obviously increasing a single core isn't going to do much good.

Most of the dual cores out there require some fitment help. PWR looks like they use thinner cores. Some companies have issue getting the fluid through larger dual cores, some don't.

Once again this is all for not without testing. It's like forum racing, who would win with these mods.