As many of you know the PR kit offered on their website is a very affordable, efficient, and overall great deal getting you out the door ready to go for $250 shipped. Here I'll be showing whats involved in installing this kit and what temperatures I saw before and after the kit.
First off the kit was packaged exceptionally well so this should not be a issue for most. The kit came with all mounting hardware for the fans and a "cx racing" sticker for you're toolbox. You say "wait a minute cx racing - thats ebay". Correct and you can get the same radiator on ebay but I wanted to deal with a reputable vendor in case i had any issues with the radiator kit.
So lets get started with a test fit. Sorry for the bad night picture, I couldn't wait till morning.
Fitment seemed stellar minus the fact that I had a run in with a crown vic. back in winter months.
Because of this minor collision I had some minor trimming and painting that had to be done for clearance. However a vehicle with no accident history should have zero trouble with this.
I also added some soft side Velcro in the corner to keep the radiator from getting scratched.
Time to mount the fans, thermo sensor and put on the hoses. The supplied kit lets you run these ribbed plastic lines through the fins of the radiator and provided you with a piece of sticky back foam and a locking tab for the lines. This is very nice because you get a clean install and can mount ANY way you like. Wiring the fans is cake, a fan can be wired any way because the you can reverse the polarity of the motor and get the fan to be a pusher or a puller. With my setup i wired them as pullers since this is a more effective means of transmitting air through the radiator. Strip both ends of the wire and apply them to a 12v battery to determine whether you want the fan to pull or push. I decided to wired both fans together off the radiator wiring, but again how you wire them is completely up to you.
Now what about the thermo sensor? You have three options: Reconnect it to the sensor and the fans will turn on when necessary. Or you can run the connector to a switch instead of the sensor. This allows you to turn on your fans whenever you want. Since this thermo sensor is only a switch it needs no fuse, just run wiring to a switch from both of the connector wires. Lastly you can unhook the connector from the sensor and grab a paper clip. Cut off the "U" shaped end about a 1/4" back and now you have a little "jumper" that you can put in the connector. This gives you fans on ALL the time whenever the ignition is on. Nice yes, but i like to get out of open loop asap and get better gas mileage. Sorry no pic of this yet.
Next i forgot to take pictures of the foam i sealed the sides of the radiator opening with to help provide airflow through the radiator and not around it. Here you can barely see some of the foam i placed. I did kind of a half ass job on it, but nevertheless it helped!
So what else can you do to keep those temps as low as possible?
Well thanks to members of our site I saw that many people installed lower diffusers to help channel airflow that would otherwise flow underneath the car, and redirect it up towards the radiator. More airflow = better cooling, but you knew that.
I went to the hardware store and gathered a nice piece of .020" aluminum for $24.99 that was roughly the size of the 1g trunk when laid flat. Determining how big of a diffuser you want is completely up to you but I decided to go big and trim it down if needed. How you mount it is up to you, I used self-tapping screws through the core support. Repainted the piping.
Finished product?
What about those temps though?
Well prior to the kit I'd see a solid 215 for my lowest cruising/idling or whatever. Now with the kit:
On the freeway(65-85mph) my cruising temps are at a rock solid 209*F, also did a WOT pull to 110mph and stayed at 209*F. Anything under 45mph I turn the fans on and it hovers between 203*-209*. At idle I've never seen anything more then 213*F. All of these temperatures were logged with mmcd.
Temperatures may vary from car to car, however I have no heat shield and this I'm sure is hindering the radiator's cooling capability. You can stay tuned here
Punishment Racing Aluminum Radiator W/ Slim Fans
Where I will be making some heat shields temporarily until i get money to buy the JM fab shield.
**UPDATE**
Installed home-made heat shields from left over aluminum. Now my temperatures range 203-206, This also helped NOT melt my wiring on my slimline fans since that was an issue. I decided to make it two pieces for easy removal.
Hope you enjoyed the write up!
Punishment Racing Radiator Kit Install & Review
