Reworking 4wd radiator

Been away on travel so haven't had time to post much on progress on my van. But I just wanted to note that I got my recored radiator back and installed it back in. The place I went did clean and fast work. They even fixed the bottom mounting bracket I broke when taking it out. I didn't ask them to do it, they just did it with no charge. Also through a new drain plug in for me, no charge. I paid just over 400 for the recore. I went with a 3-core high efficiency. Turn around time was about 2 1/2 days. Last week or so it was about 103 degrees, 4 or 5 days in a row...I was grinning ear to ear as I blasted the a/c around town and on freeway and the temp never rose above a quarter way up. After giving it a thorough test in some serious heat, I am VERY pleased with pulling the trigger on the recore. With exception of a bad float in the reservoir tank, I'm stoked I can check this big chunk off list of to-do's. If anyone is near Bellflower,Ca and interested in a recore I can give info on the shop that I dealt with. They were great.

Anyone have a coolant FLOW diagram????
I' suspecting some air in system.

found it!

http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...-your-Vanwagon!

Results:

Cooling is improved but still challenged on 100*F + Days.

I have the stock Toyota Thermostat with 3 1/8 holes drilled in it to help get air out and make it run a bit cooler when the thermostat is shut.

I also added rubber sheet under the van to "scoop" air into the radiator on the freeway. This was a great bang for the buck mod and allows my fans to shut down when cruising on the HWY.
(pics soon)

I think the biggest challenge we face with the vans is not an undersized cooling system But POORLY LOCATED RADIATOR.
Maybe someday I'll plumb it all the way to the back and mount it on the tailgate like the dessert race trucks.

The other thing the van lacks is a high pressure radiator cap. I had a good parts guy who helped me find a 19 lb cap. This reduces the temperature at which the coolant boils. It helps keep coolant in the system when the gauge goes up past 3/4. (I did this mod before replacing the radiator).

Also I'm still Running water wetter.

Go to Pirate4x4 and read cooling 101.

Next I need to find a place for a surge tank .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by coronan

I also added rubber sheet under the van to "scoop" air into the radiator on the freeway. This was a great bang for the buck mod and allows my fans to shut down when cruising on the HWY.

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The other day I was helping my friend with his 89 he just got. I noticed it had a scoop on the bottom that looks OG. I wonder if toyota had these stock on some of the years of vans?

Here's a picture of the scoop I made:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a23...ps1e578c72.jpg

Of course mine won't be as forgiving as rubber, but it's still up pretty high, and I don't go off road with this van anyhow. On the plus side, I too noticed immediate improvement in highway speed cooling. This mod is easy and cheap. Tim

PS: For more info on my cooling mods, here you go: http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...ng-system-Mods

Hey Coronan, did you ever get your front differential back into your van with the Corolla radiator in it? Was there enough space?

Attachment 5171

so i picked up the 87 cargo and drove from austin to abq no problem, i was surprised to see and hadnt seen in the for sale pics that the radiator installed was for a 2wd...ill be rectifying the situation as im not totally confident its gonna survive and theres no way the shroud is gonna fit but in a jam this could get you home..

Attachment 5579

mmmm tasty

Okay, so that last picture has me interested. Where did you get it and how much $$$? Do you have a name brand & part number? What mods were required to make it fit/mount correctly? Please share. Tim

Attachment 5581

well this turned out to be more project than i wanted but im glad its finally in the van.
i started with a $112 delivered universal ford style 25x19 radiator with 3" tanks and 2 rows of 1" off of ebay and sliced it down to size...used some of the scrap to cap the tanks and turned a couple right sized spigots on the lathe....a couple tabs at the front lower corners mount on the oem rubber standoffs..
its a tight fit width wise as i had to remove the washers behind the front upper control arm mount and would probably use a slight narrower one but that might also make the shroud mount more difficult...i was able to mount the shroud although its just a tad high and the fan just kisses the removable lower section so i have it off for now until i can figure out how to lower it, im also using an 89 fan which has bigger blades than the 87...ill probably just leave it off
a friend did all the welding for me so i dont really know how much that would cost but he says that roflroflroflrofl is easy...he builds titanium bike frames so go figure.
anyhow i have another van that needs one but im looking more at the scirocco style which are more the right size and just play around with the spigots...or the griffin that VanCo used for $290..it seems like the lowest hassle deal...its weird how many of the scirroco radiator options are available..i mean how many sciroccos are out there? i think a manufacturer could be convinced to make an aluminum radiator for the 4x4s if we could pool an order together....

Wow! That's a bit more work than I'd be willing to tackle. Looks excellent though! Did it pressure test good after the welding?

i was supposed to do that because the welder was concerned about one area but ended up just mounting it..its got a couple heat cycles on it and so far so good...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by boogieman

Attachment 5171

so i picked up the 87 cargo and drove from austin to abq no problem, i was surprised to see and hadnt seen in the for sale pics that the radiator installed was for a 2wd...ill be rectifying the situation as im not totally confident its gonna survive and theres no way the shroud is gonna fit but in a jam this could get you home..

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Any chance you'll be getting rid of the 2wd radiator? I'm in the market

the gal has a 2wd we just picked up so im gonna keep it around sorry...

I'm also trying to figure out an alternative radiator for a manual 4x4 van. I've had bad luck with my recores. One recore only lasted 2 years, I had to fix a hole that developed in a tank and noticed that the core was pink and corroding. Maybe the coastal air and salt flats in Baja wreaked it, but I doubt it. I had it recored again and got hosed by the shop, $700! I even delivered and picked up the radiator. So I have two recores and one tank repair for about 30,000 miles of driving. This obviously sucks!

What about this radiator? I measure my original outside dimensions to be 25"w x 12 3/4" H. This one is in the ballpark. I can tig weld aluminum but I don't have the confidence to weld the split in half core like they did in the modification on this thread. The modifications for this radiator might be relatively basic.
Heres the link: https://www.rywire.com/ProductDetail...IATOR%2DCUSTOM

thats pretty cool! (no pun intended) i cant tell if the bungs are the same on all 4 corners, but that seems like a winner...not cheap though...ive been tempted to try a scirocco radiator which is about the right dimensions but usually a dual pass with the bungs on the same side...can be had on ebay for $95 delivered.

The female thread holes are not the same. The upper left one should be on the right. The hose could be snaked over there. Thats a full 'S' curve and might be ok. If you flip it, you would have to snake the bottom hose, like the mod in the thread above. You would also have to snake the 5/16" hose.

Or the left port could be hole sawed out, moved to right side, below the smaller bung, welded. Old hole would need to be capped. Or plug left hole and weld new pipe, right side. You could do all the fit work and bring it to a shop to be welded.

The radiator does come with a nice double fan shroud. I think I need to assume that the old plastic tin will not fit and fans will need to be installed with any aluminum radiator. I like the simple clutch fan system and consider that a downside of this aluminum radiator.

I prefer the more generic mounting option on the Rywire radiator. It also does not have the fill neck like the Sirocco radiator. Both radiators would need to have the top hose snaked over or be modified. The Sirocco is Way cheaper. The Rywire is $475.

Thanks for the Scirocco radiator suggestion, Boogieman. There are a couple that look pretty good.

Griffen has one with ports in the correct corners, just not the correct diameter.

Flex-A-lite has a fan/shroud set up for it. You can't tell from the picture, but I think the fan shroud has tabs for the 4 fastening spots on the radiator. The plastic only covers the fins, the tabs extend to the tanks. Flex a lite website has the details.

The Scirocco radiator is available on ebay for $125 with all ports on rt side. The ebay sellers don't go into details about the construction. They appear to be all aluminum and same as the summit Griffen one. You pay about $175 to get the outlet port on the bottom, left. Snaking the hose does not seem so bad.

Both options seem Way better than the Rywire one.

yeah, snaking the top or bottom hose wouldnt be a big deal if one were to use electric fans..the scirocco rad with both inlet and outlet on one side are dual flow, meaning theres a block in the tank between the two so the coolant does a "U"..i considered knocking/driling /cutting out the block and mounting the spigot where we want...they also have two pegs that would make mounting the bottom easy..and fan mounts already welded..theres some that are wider than the others and i think the wider ones would fit and have more capacity..