Will RWD radiator work for 4WD van?

[vanalogs]

I need a new rad for my 87 4x4. I have found the rwd radiators but I don't want to buy one if its not going to work. Anyone know if either of these will work for a 4x4?


https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=3610761&cc=1279784&jnid=444&jpid=0


https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=271814&cc=1279784&jnid=444&jpid=2


:wave2:

[nikifix]

no...it wont fit....4wd drive one isn't so tall and is a bit wider

[vanalogs]

anyone know where to re core high efficiency 4 row in LA area?

[JDM VANMAN]

Check it out on the "search feature" there's a highly recommended place in Yuba City CA. that does them for the 4WD van.

[vanalogs]

Check it out on the "search feature" there's a highly recommended place in Yuba City CA. that does them for the 4WD van.

yea there wasn't any shops in the LA area under the "search feature" there's a million mechanics in LA there has to be someone.

[JDM VANMAN]

Check this one out courtesy Gwen-

4WD Radiators. NLA from Toyota, NLA from everywhere else now, too, including 1-800-Radiator.


Solution — grab ANY 4WD radiator you find in a junkyard and stash it, even if you don't need it! (If you have an A/T van and can only find a M/T van radiator, there are people here and elsewhere who will swap with you. No sense in letting any more get crushed.) As long as the tanks are good, it can be recored.


Even better solution — send away your radiator, or a harvested one, for a high-efficiency four-row recore. This outfit has done several and is keeping the build specs (their ref #7403) on file:


Ability Radiator
260 A Garden Hwy
Yuba City, CA 95991-5500
(530) 673-0813; ask for Greg


I paid $342 plus shipping for one in mid-2010.


Gwen

[JDM VANMAN]

Here's the thread it came from and there's a few more you can search and read for your own comfort :thmbup:

http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/showthread.php?1365-need-a-radiator-for-my-4wd-van&highlight=Ability+radiator

[trestlehed]

Even better solution — send away your radiator, or a harvested one, for a high-efficiency four-row recore. This outfit has done several and is keeping the build specs (their ref #7403) on file:


Ability Radiator
260 A Garden Hwy
Yuba City, CA 95991-5500
(530) 673-0813; ask for Greg

I went this route along with dual electric cooling fans. My van runs so cool now it's almost unbelievable... A miracle!
As a van owner you probably are well aware of the inherent cooling system issues. I think TimsRV said it best, something along the lines of: The radiator is the heart of your van's cooling system. If the cooling system doesn't work properly, your engine will be ruined very quickly.

For me it was a no-brainer. If my van or any other vehicle I have isn't 100% reliable all the time, then it's not worth owning. I don't want the headache of worrying if it will make it to the next destination or not.

[LightBlueToy]

Check this one out courtesy Gwen-

4WD Radiators. NLA from Toyota, NLA from everywhere else now, too, including 1-800-Radiator.


Solution — grab ANY 4WD radiator you find in a junkyard and stash it, even if you don't need it! (If you have an A/T van and can only find a M/T van radiator, there are people here and elsewhere who will swap with you. No sense in letting any more get crushed.) As long as the tanks are good, it can be recored.


Even better solution — send away your radiator, or a harvested one, for a high-efficiency four-row recore. This outfit has done several and is keeping the build specs (their ref #7403) on file:


Ability Radiator
260 A Garden Hwy
Yuba City, CA 95991-5500
(530) 673-0813; ask for Greg


I paid $342 plus shipping for one in mid-2010.


Gwen

Whats the difference between an A/T and M/T radiator? I just pulled a radiator out of a 4WD A/T but it didn't have any transmission cooler attached.

[originalkwyjibo]

Two 8mm(5/16") copper nipples protruding from the left(driver's) side radiator tank. These are attached to an oil cooler mounted internally in the radiator to cool transmission fluid. There should be corresponding steel tubing running from the right(passenger) side of the transmission extending to just in front of the engine under the crankshaft pulley. Rubber hoses connect the tubing to the nipples on the radiator. The 5spd and auto radiators are essentially interchangeable with the caveat being if a 5spd radiator is used in an auto, as in the instance you came upon, than an aftermarket external oil cooler would need to be used to keep the transmission happy. If an auto radiator were installed in a manual vehicle the nipples could be capped or left open so long as there was no residual transmission fluid to dribble out. The miniscule amount of lost coolant capacity due to the volume occupied by the unused oil cooler would likely have a negligible, if any, affect on engine cooling.
Here's a photo.

[Carbonized]

Yes! The 2wd radiator will fit in the 4WD :yes:. Someone shoehorned one in mine!

6131 How can you tell?

6132 This is a 4WD radiator,

6133 2wd shroud mounts in my 4WD :clap:.

6134 Another giveaway, 34 layers of tubes (no way in the 4WD rad) and they started to hack the shroud but never finished.:rolleyes:

[boogieman]

my 87 4x4 had a rwd radiator in it as well, not really mounted all that well.....i pulled it to fab up the custom aluminum one thats in there now but just started trying to figure out a cleaner mounting for it in my 89 4x4...it will almost cradle in the stock mount tabs. id be curious to see how yours is mounted carbonized....

[Carbonized]

My van is currently at a friend shop on the other side of Florida, I only have a few pics on my phone and most of them from the top. My friend is doing all the fluids right now and some leaky tranny oil cooling lines fixes I talked to him this afternoon and he told me there was some non standard stuff (epoxy) done at the bottom of the radiator. I do not have more details .

Now I'm getting random "failure to upload" when trying to insert pictures :pissed: :(: :wall:

[Gingervan19]

If someone looking for a RWD radiator to fit in a 4WD, I have one for sale :yes:

[Carbonized]

I will probably have one soon also as I will switch back to a freshly re-cored 4WD radiator.
I would not recommend the Rwd in there. Yes it fits, yes it is bigger (1" both ways), but it is thinner (2'' vs 2.25) and most importantly, unless you go for electric fans, neither shroud will fit and that is the killer. On our vans, air flow is critical. No matter how clean is the system , no matter how "efficient" is the radiator, if you cannot "pump" sufficient fresh air through it you're screwed! That make the fan clutch and the shroud 2 of the most important parts of the system. One guy at a radiator shop was very familiar with the van, hadn't seen one in years but remember very well working on perfectly fine radiators when the only thing wrong was a missing bottom part of the shroud. At slow speed or in traffic when the coolant most needs it the air will bypass the radiator following the path of least resistance.
Oh by the way a bunch of engineers at Toyota put a bunch of brain cells into it..... just sayin'...

[LightBlueToy]

I can attest to the difference that that lower piece of the shroud makes, especially on longer hills. Mine never had one and in the wrecking yard so far i have only found the upper shroud on two different 4wd's. Right now i have some bent up sheet metal in place.

[Carbonized]

Hey, LightBluetoy, recognize this guy?:wnk:

6138

[LightBlueToy]

Haha no, it looks 100x better!

High efficiency?

[Carbonized]

Yep, 3 rows 14 fins/inch. My guy didn't recommend the high efficiency high density (shorter center to center and 16 fins). He said its good for fast moving performance vehicles or all electric cooling devices, fan and water pump, but for the van application it will choke too easily at low speed. Also the high density is vulnerable to dirt and end up "not so efficient" fast :LOL2:

Yours before and after.

6139 You can see that it will be a little bit harder to clog the more open tubes of the new core .

The volume of coolant going through ,contacting the metal, is about the same even if there is less tubes, the surface area of fins is about the same. The ability to transfer and shed heat is the same. Because of the location of our radiator we have to compromise in favor of "free-er flow", both coolant and air. So he said :dizzy:

Oh and for those interested. Ever wonder what the oil cooler looks like?

A simple double walled tube in the cold side tank. Oil flows between the walls an "cool" :wnk: water flows in and around the tube.

6140

[LightBlueToy]

Thanks for all the info, cool to see the inside of that transmission cooler tank

[Carbonized]

That oil cooler in the radiator got me thinking:
Isn't it weird that the coolant, after picking up heat from the engine, painstakingly getting reed of some of it through the radiator core, reload more heat from the oil cooler before going back to the engine and try to do the bisness all over again? mmmmm???
What if the tranny had it own dedicated small radiator? Wouldn't' the ,now, wider delta between coolant and engine temp make heat removal more efficient?
Woops.. What did I just say about a bunch of brainy Japanese engineers :LOLabv: