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radiator change
This past weekend I decided to change my stock radiator for a brand new all aluminum radiator that I purchased from eBay, from option racing total price was 180 including the shipping. My 1996 eclipse turbo was in need of a radiator change as you all know our radiators are have plastic and they tend to leak, mine was not a big leak but it was becoming more of a nuisance every day. This will also be good modifications for those of you who are always having overheating problems and it will not break the bank. This will be my first teck article so if I missed anything or if I could have done it some other ways please feel free to add your 2 cents.
Tools used:
10 m wrench
Phillips screwdriver
Flat head screwdriver
Either needle nose pliers or regular pliers
A antifreeze bottle to fill up you new radiator
I first started by giving the system a good cleaning by purchasing a cleaning agent from AutoZone to clean rust and buildup from your car, poured it in and turn on the car for a couple of minutes to have all of those liquids clean and do what they where supposed to do. Let the car cool down a little before proceeding, after the car cools for 10 to 20 minutes depending on how long you where driving or how hot the car is. Release all of the pressure of the radiator by taking your radiator cap off ( be very careful in this part if the cap is too hot let it cool down more we don’t want you to get burn by the water that comes gushing out of there when your car overheats or its hot) after removing the cap remove the upper radiator hose that comes from your radiator and connects to the pipe where you just took off the radiator cap from. I disconnected the lower radiator hose after this by using the needle nose pliers on the clamps that where holding it in place.
After this step you are ready for the radiator. First begin by unplugging the cables that connect to the radiator fans (showed in the pictures below on the right and the left). After that also remove the radiator core supports also show in the pictures below.
Remove the antifreeze reservoir bottle and set aside.
After this the radiator should be ready to take out of the car just pull up gently with the fans attached to it ( you may choose to take them off if you want but is more work and a bigger headache for you at this point)
If you followed my instructions it should look something like this picture
My radiator was leaking in 2 spots on the bottom, so it was definitely time to change it before it damaged some other components in my engine.
After you pull the radiator with the fans attached is time to remove them from the old radiator and use them in the new radiator (if you decided to buy new fans this would be the time to install those bad boys on the new radiator for me is the stock ones) they should be attached to the radiator by 4 bolts that you can remove with the 10mm wrench or socket. Make sure you do not switch the order of the fans because they do different things. After taking the fans off put them on the new radiator like this see pic below.
Hang in there your almost finish now. All there is to do now is backtrack and put it back together.
Slip the new radiator with the fans into place mine was a perfect fit (even though it is bigger than the stock radiator)
Connect both o the plugs of the fans with the cables you disconnected from them earlier.
Attach the lower and upper radiator hoses and make sure they are secure and tighten them.
Next I placed the radiator support brackets back into place.
Placed the reservoir bottle back on its clip and filled it with antifreeze. ( I was really worried at this point that I would have to modify or hack the crap out of that bottle to make it fit but there where no issues at all with the fitment)
Fill the radiator with antifreeze as well.
Remember this new radiator is going to be bigger and it requires more antifreeze than your stock one so be prepared.
And here is the finish product as you can see everything fits with no problems at all
Turn on the car and look for any leaks that you may have I did not tighten my lower radiator hose and cot it on time before I lost all of my new radiator liquid, so be sure to double check all of the components once more just in case.
Turn it on and take it for a spin.
If you car is overheating take it back to where you where working on it and check the components once more and correct what ever the problem is.
Be rally careful now when you place your hands in the car I touched the new radiator looking to see if all of may hoses where tighten down and I cried bloody mary.
This should take you no more than 2 hours at max.
I have been monitoring my temperatures on my car after the switch and it seems to run 5degrees cooler than when I had the stock radiator.
The only thing I did not like about the radiator was that the radiator support cannot clip on to it somehow but it does not move from its place either.
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