Here we go again.
Some of you may remember my last round with Mishimoto over an oil sandwich plate... After some discussion with the company they did follow through with their promise to compensate me somewhat for the trouble. I ended up with their radiator to try out to see if I can find anything good to say. Here's the results and reasoning behind this adventure.
I chose to try this radiator based on reading reviews of the two major brands I know of (Mishimoto and CSF). I have seen good and bad reviews of both. Based on this and my frequent trips to the Tail of the Dragon, I thought giving this radiator a shot could be beneficial. I will be posting my temps from runs starting this week, weather permitting.
Full Disclosure Section:
I want to clarify I am not being compensated in any way for this review. I was given a special price for it based on the hassle of my previous experience. If any of you have read my review of that oil sandwich plate (which will never be on my car again) I will give honest feedback.
Story Section:
I ordered the radiator directly from Mishimoto. Unfortunately Fedex managed to destroy the first one. They somehow put a hole through a double wall box all the way through during an overnight shipment. (I was trying to get it in before my dragon season ended due to weather.) I had to contact the company and request an RMA that came quickly, I think within 1-2 days. They paid the shipping back and sent out a replacement shortly after receiving it. Once I had one that the box was in one piece, I unboxed it to check it out. Here's how it arrived:
Fedex killed box....
Side 1 of good radiator. Some fins bent but nothing major. Only my OCD was affected.
Side 2 of good radiator. More find bent... OCD suffers.
Interesting feature. Magnetic drain plug.
After I unboxed it, I check both plugs. They were both able to be removed with my hand. Not sure if that's correct torque or not but I won't get off on that tangent again. I decided it would be a good idea to fill it and check for holes and debris in the radiator. I did not find any debris, I used a couple coffee filters in a effort to trap anything that may come out and still found nothing. I know this wasn't a pressurized test but It was a dummy check I thought was worth the 10 minutes it took to try. After this, I repackaged the radiator to take to a friends garage to install. Might have spent an hour bending fins back straight. Again, mostly OCD.
Install Thoughts and Such:
The directions on Mishimoto's site are pretty accurate. The only trouble I had was getting the A/C hard lines around the radiator to get to their final locations. I ended up just fighting with the radiator location vs hose location to get them by the corner. A picture of the final product is below.
My cooling setup is complete, I think.
A couple of side notes:
1. I hate the integrated A/C heat exchanger in the stock unit. I ended up paying $100 total in evacuation and refill costs as a result.
2. Wear eye protection and work in an area that can be well ventilated quickly in case your A/C guy doesn't understand that when you tell them you want the freon out of the system because you are opening the lines ALL of it should be removed. When I broke the hard lines loose from the stock radiator, the oil, dye, and a large amount of freon were still in the system. The oil and dye are now all over the core support and garage floor. If I hadn't had safety glasses from work, it would have ended in a trip to the ER.
Post install thoughts:
I really hate that you can't see the radiator once it's bolted back together. It's a fairly nice to look at. If you install any aftermarket radiator, keep an eye on your fill tank. Even after I turned my heat to max and used the refill funnel like in the video to purge the air out of the system I had to refill the overflow tank twice. This might have been because I still had the car on stands until after I was sure there were no leaks.
Testing:
This is where the fun begins. I have been driving on the unit for 3 weeks now. I has survived the two ice storms that have been through east TN. The warmest day since the install was today and it has made a couple three hour instate trips at a good rate of speed. I've romped on the engine in town trying to see if I can create a leak. So far, nothing.
I am planning a half day trip to the Dragon this week if the weather forecast holds true. my average temps after the oil cooler install were 200-220 if there was little traffic in the fall. It will still be cool in the mountains but I think It will drop the temps some more. On average I'm seeing 10-20 degree drops around town and I haven't seen the temps get above 180 at all. I am hesitant to say this is all the new radiator because it's been around an average of 33 here most of the time since the install.
Overall Impression:
I have been happier with this product vs the last one. It does take about 4 hours if you are working around upgraded PS and oil coolers. ( I was lazy and didn't unbolt mine) If it makes it through a couple trips through the dragon without incident, I will sign off as something I would buy again.
If you have any questions, please ask or PM. I'm only posting this to help others as this forums always helps me with my questions.
Sorry for the book and I hope this helps someone.
P.S. Not sure how to make the photos smaller. If someone can tell me I will edit the IMG tag or what not.