Today we did the install of my Koyo radiator. I drive an 02 wrx... Automatic. Come to find out that Koyo radiators are not ment for automatics!! Long story short after me getting all mad and ready to smash things we got some good advice from mr. readymix. Get an oil tranny cooler since my stock radiator had one built into the radiator. ..... Once we finally got that things started to go together much smoother. BIG thanks to : Aric(manochromatic), Josh(Tangledupinblue), Josh(Somethingswrong), Lee(Blackozone) and Ryan(Zeus) for all the help/heckeling and to readymix for the over the phone advice! It was alot of fun and I will try to get some pictures up tomorrow after I get off of work!
Glad you guys got it to work. I was worried that you'd have to put it off for another day. Good job everyone!
I have a Koyo in my Auto...There is one specific to the auto...at least, there was when I got mine. Glad you got it working http://mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26921
Nice. Ya a Koyo in an auto car can be trickey bisiness sometimes. I didn't even know you had a Subaru, let alone an auto. When you are ready to step it up an need a man's auto, talk to Derek.
Yes, I do own and drive a Subaru!!:hsugh: It's very sexy and fast.. all thanks to Manochromatic for all the teaching, helping, and guideing he has given me. And thanks to all my friends who help. Last night I had to go to bed by midnight cause I wake up at 5am to work. So the boys stayed up and pieced it back together. This morning mano had just gone to bed when I was getting up to go to work. I left the house around a quarter to 6 to drive to work. ( I live like 2 miles away) I drove it down the street. Heard some rubbing so I got out and checked it. It was that stupid underbody skirt. (Mine is all cut up so it will fit around the pipes to the fmic.) I popped that back into place and went on about my business to get to work. I was watching the thermstat just to be on the safe side. It suddenly jumped up above the normal 1/2 mark line. So I flipped on my heat and started over to the other lane so I could pull over.It jumped back to it's normal spot so I started back home. From the little way I drove towards work and then back home again I pulled over about eight times just to cool her back down. I finally made it back home to wake Aric up so he could take me to work today. I'd rather have my car sitting at home then at work. At least this way it is ready to be worked on some more. My car is such a butthead. Aric knows alot about cars and I trust him completely so I'm not too worried. I'm sure it is a much simpler fix then what I think it will be. But it is still very stressful. Especially after the whole ordeal of when I ordered this radiator. The web site said nothing about the mannual/auto differance so I had no idea. Plus, the place I got it through jerked me around quite a bit. Any usefull advice or thoughts would be nice. Not that I don't think we cant figure it out but sometimes it's nice to have other brains in on it because sometimes emotions and anger can block the brain juices!
Well, I'll help check it all out when I get done with work. I'm positive the fans are plugged in since I was watching Lee and Aric mess with them. We didn't change the thermostat since we were going to wait till next week or so when we did the timing belt and water pump. Could not doing that w/ the radiator be an issue? There is a good chance it is the tranny lines that go into the oil/tranny cooler that we got for the radiator. Last night there were a few cracks in those that had to be sealled up, so we'll see how it goes today. At least we'll be working on it in day light! But the rest of what we did yesterday looks fricken sick! I cant wait till she's running right. The front bumper got trimmed up some more so most of my fmic is sucking in that air! And with my Ac condenser out I think that the Koyo is visable through my grill!
No coolant level is good. There are some hard tranny lines that run into the radiator, Those over time have gotten bent and crunched. So I think we're going to replace those today so that there is a nice even flow. That is where I had some leaks going on this morning. Hopefully that does it. Otherwise we'll be tearing it all out again today to get to the thermostat. And if we do that we'll prolly just do the timing belt and water pump while we're in there. Good thing I already bought those parts!
the hard tranny lines should go to your separate oil cooler. it should have no affect on your rad not cooling the motor correctly. did you guys burp the system or let it run with the cap off for a bit? because if you didn't mess with the thermostat then it should not be that if it ran fine before the new koyo install.
Yes, those lines go into the new oil cooler. But those lines are pretty beat up and bent under the battery. The car didn't over heat before with the old radiator, but that radiator was leaking really bad. Thanks for all the advice and input guys!
+1. You need to make sure that there is no air in there. Experience any hiccups or hesitation when it was overheating? Pumping the top radiator hose with the cap off of the radiator while the car is running can help get the air out.
From what I saw of the car last night, I'd put all my money on air in the system (good job to Fobia, good guess). The tranny lines are in trouble, but now have their own cooler (which, I will admit, looks pretty cool mounted on the radiator). I don't believe we were able to bleed air from the coolant system well last night. We had only one halogen lamp to work with and it was dark as hell out. With the temp gauge bouncing around like that, I'm thinking air.
I had issues with mine initially after the install. Since mine doesn't come equipped with a radiator cap ON the radiator itself, I just pulled the top hose off and poured coolant directly in there. After it was filled up (she is a lot more thirsty than OEM), I topped it off and began purging the bubbles. After about 10min of "burping," I drove her around and all was good. 2 days and 2 thermostats later (new one was stuck), she was all good. Coolant temps are much lower than stock, even on the idiot gauge it's noticeable.
I was wondering why Tangled didn't contact us again, now I know. I figured when she posted this thread, that you guys had just finished it. :biggrin:
Yeah, so the issue was air in the system. And we added a whole lot more coolant!! Tomorrow we are going to replace those tranny lines. The zip ties will be replaced went we dig back in there next week to do the rest of my stuff! Thanks so much to all of you who came over to help! And thanks for the input on the problem guys!
Oh, they'll hold. I'm the one who put them in. A little bit of Honda modification technique comes in handy sometimes.
Thanks! The boys did most of the work! I did what I could. Yeah, we'll get bolts on there when we get some! The zip ties will do for now! Now I can drive her up to Firestone. She's only made the trip once!!
Looks nice! Just got mine in the mail the other day. I may have some oem fan bolts for you Friday. I'll let you know when I get a chance to check.
The problem is that the fan bolts from the factory are like sheet metal screws into the plastic grommets on the radiator. The Koyo is tapped for machine screws with different pitch. But you, from the land of the rising sun, already knew that, didn't you?
I have a couple bins full of bolts and such. Like I said, I got it in the mail the other day. I found a bunch of screws that work and may have some left over. smart ass edit: I suppose I should have said "bolts for the oem fans" rather than "oem fan bolts."
well after something like 4 days..4 gallons of coolant..and 3 qts of tranny fluid we've finally got gurdy up and running..now that im not so busy id like to thank lee (blackozone) josh (somethingswrong) josh (tangledupinblue) Ryan (zues) for all of the help..tangled..thank you so damn much for coming down to hang out and help with the car.it means more to me than you know. somethingswrong....dont ever come over again!! I KID I KID!!! no project..tattoo..or fun run would be the same without you! blackozone...thanks for surprising us by showing up..you put in alot of work on this radiator and i had an amazing time hanging out somewhere other than a sports bar..youre welcome over whenever the hell you want. fobia and idget and readymix all had a hand in this as well with all their mighty knowledge...thanks for the words of wisdom guys...next time come over and do all the work for me..thank you. and of course rexarew...thanks for being understanding and patient hun...you handled all of that stress very well..thanks for getting your hands dirty babe. oh and im sorry for the dent in your fender... and im sorry if ive forgotten anyone else... but thank you mnsubaru and thanks to all the wonderful and knowledgable advice. see you guys at firestone Aric
