Hey Guys,
I went over my overheating woes in another thread but long story short I bought a new radiator. So hopefully this weekend or next I'm going to try my first radiator swap, I was wondering if any one had a write up? Or any general tips/tricks to keep in mind. I know its a two person job (at least pulling it out/in), do you guys think I should take the hood off or is possible with it still in place?

Here's whats going in: Brand New 1 Row w/o EOC w/o TOC Replacement Radiator For 4.2 L6 GAS AT | eBay

Thanks for all the help everyone.

 

Just replaced my radiator this past weekend. You're going to want the hood off (there are two plugs per side for the high beam lights), that's the only part that really requires additional people to help. It's pretty straightforward, though. You'll disconnect the little water pipe that runs across the top of the core support, the small hose from the expansion tank that goes to the DS top of the radiator, unbolt the receiver/drier bracket, the two bolts for the fan shroud and take off the top of the core support (6 additional bolts). Disconnect the large rad hoses on either side, plus the one on top of where the lower DS rad hose connects, disconnect the fan switch and carefully wiggle the whole thing out. I did not unbolt the bottom of the fan shroud or remove the fan, clutch or condenser. It can all be worked around fairly easily, AC system does not need to be opened, either. The hood is the PITA part, the rest is easy. Take car to observe the location of the foam insulators blocks that are stuffed on either side of the radiator as they help direct air through the radiator. Replace with something from home depot if it is too crumbly.

Take care to flush everything VERY well. My coolant came out very brown and dirty. There's a coolant drain plug on the DS of the engine block by the cat, remove it to drain the block. Once you have the radiator out I would remove the tstat, too and, while the block plug is out, run a garden hose into the coolant pipe behind the tstat until it runs out of the block whole nice and clear. Also run water through the hose between the water pump and the tsat housing to flush out the radiator pipe. Disconnect the heater core hoses and flush those as well. All that is not much extra work and will help in the long run. Obviously also a great time to replace any hoses that are in less than stellar condition.

After doing all that, installing a refurbed radiator, new 180 degree tstat I replaced the receiver/drier and expansion valve, vacuumed the AC, installed adapters and re-charged with R134 and with the AC blasting I'm running 10 degrees cooler engine temp than I was before with no AC.

Edit: One more thing I should mention is if you have access to compressed air and a vacuum filler for the coolant system it'll save you a lot of time and headache. These things hold a ton of coolant, around or just over 5 gallons (about twice what modern cars use) and it can be a pain to purge all the air from the system.

UView 550000 Airlift Coolant Filling Tool

 

Great! Thanks for all the advice!

 

What are your thoughts on the quality of the radiator you purchased? Also, if possible, please take pics of your install. Always good to see what's going on as well as read about it.

Thanks,

Eric

 

I'll try and take pics of the radiator and of the install, it looks fine to me but I really don't know what I should be looking for. Maybe I'll get a better idea when I pull my old one out and compare them.

 

In my case I pulled one from a junkyard for 40 bucks and had it flow tested, leak tested and acid cleaned (cost about $50) and used that. I'm just skeptical about the quality of modern aftermarket parts and the original units in these cars are all metal, high quality, heavy duty radiators. I'd recommend getting an original one refurbished if at all possible. It seems like, when it comes to aftermarket parts these days, you have two options. Bend way far over and leave your lube at home and get the dealer part or save a bunch of money and install very questionable quality Chinese parts. There's not much in between.

 

So we did the radiator install yesterday and followed vwtechnician's instructions (thanks!), and it was pretty straight forward. Last weekend the lower radiator hose also tore so that needed to be replaced. Napa was able to match a similar hose for us and we cut it down it fit. The only real problems we ran into was getting the radiator in properly so it was flush, it required a little wiggling and a firm shove but it all went back in. I posted some pictures below as well as one of my lovely assistant and one of us together post install. I'm happy to say that it works! I'm running below 90 all the time now, its the coolest I've seen it run and we don't even need the aux fan running.

Thank for all the advice everyone, if anyone wants to buy the original radiator send me a PM, you can see its pretty dirty/beat up but I'll prob put it up on ebay if no one of the forum wants it.

I'll be out of town this week but next week I'll prob start posting the other problems this thing has as I try to restore as much as possible before the winter. Thank again!