[need to re-edit] Since I just installed a new radiator to replace a leaky one I thought I would do a quick write up of the work I did. I've never installed a radiator before but it's really easy. I'm sure there are already guides but doesn't hurt to have another. Price: Dealer quoted ~750 for oem radiator (no thermostat) and installation.I opted to do it myself and it cost ~$350 Parts: 1 Mishimoto all aluminum radiator - $255 (shipped) 2 coolant hoses (free thanks to Zombie) 2 containers of Subaru coolant (you will have extra) 1 Subaru thermostat 1 Subaru thermostat gasket 4 coolant hose clamps if you choose to replace main coolant hoses (get new coolant hose clamps, i didn't and the ones i had were rusted and caused much swearing to ensue as well as adding to installation time in a cold garage.) tools needed: 10mm wrench (ratcheting if you have it) or 10mm socket 12mm socket 15mm socket 1 Lisle 24610 Spill-Free Funnel - $25 1 drain pan for catching coolant The Install. Quick steps here, I'll detail my install below with pictures Step 1: disconnect neg. battery Step 2: jack up the front of the car and make sure it is stable on stands or ramps Step 3: remove cover that sits under engine Step 4: disconnect both fan electrical connections from underneath the car step 5: drain coolant (remove fill cap for faster drainage) step 6: remove air intake step 7: remove upper radiator brackets step 8: remove spare coolant reservoir step 9: remove 4 coolant hoses 2 main, spare reservoir line, line to top of radiator left side. step 10: pull radiator step 11: swap fans from old radiator to new radiator step 12: remove fitting exposing old thermostat, remove thermostat and gasket step 13: install new thermostat gasket on thermostat, install (jiggle pin up), replace cover for thermostat. step 14: drop new radiator back in place step 15: hook up the 4 hoses (using new ones if you decide to) step 16: re-install radiator brackets, spare coolant tank step 17: hook up fan electrical connections step 18: re-install air intake, attach neg. battery connection step 19: install under engine cover and take car off jack stands step 20: fill with coolant (50/50) and burp system. My install: It went really well, the only thing I had to fight was some rusty clamps on the main coolant hoses and the cold of my garage since it is not heated. Anyone with minimal experience can do this easily. Before with leaky radiator: After with non leaky goodness: Detailed steps: not going to lie, some steps will be oversimplified (step1 for instance) Step 1: disconnect neg. battery terminal, enough said. Step 2: jack up the front of the car and make sure it is stable on stands or ramps. It will make it easier to access the lower coolant hose, electrical connections for the fan and to install the thermostat. Step 3: You will need to remove this cover to get at things from below. Mine has missing clips/bolts that will need replacing. Mine isn't in the best shape but I'm not too concerned right now.
steps 4-10 Step 4: Disconnect both fan electrical connections from underneath the car. They can be a bit hard to disconnect if you haven't done it before. Mine came out pretty easily. There is one for each fan located on either side of the radiator. You can't miss them. passenger side: driver side: Step 5: Drain coolant (remove fill cap for faster drainage). Make sure coolant is cool so you don't burn yourself. The easiest and probably messiest is to just disconnect the main lower radiator hose. I opted to use the drain on the lower right hand side of the radiator. I hooked up a small piece of hose I had in the garage. I used a ziptie to tighten the connection. In theory this would work well. However, the drain screw is not that high of quality and though some coolant did come out where it was supposed to, much leaked around the actual through and not through the nipple for the line. It did however follow a clean path into my drain pan so I didn't spill anything. It took longer to drain this way but it worked out well since my coolant was still pretty hot. I just had a beer and relaxed while it drained. If you want to remove the main lower hose coolant hose, just get ready for the gush of coolant. You can see the nipple here, the t-screw is to the right and it is all just plastic, unfortunately you don't see the t part of the screw and it looks like another nipple shooting off but it's just the angle the pic was taken at. Draining, with no mess. Step 6: Remove air intake, just 2 10mm bolts (i think 10mm, could be 12) Step 7: remove upper radiator brackets. You can see in the second pick, one of the posts coming up from the radiator was busted off. Probably from the accident my car was in when it was pushed into the car in front of it when hit from behind. I also think this contributed to mine failing already. Step 8: Remove spare coolant reservoir. Two 10mm bolts on either side of the resevour at the top hold this in. Just disconnect the soft line that goes from the reservoir to to the solid line that runs across the top of the radiator. out already The bottom of the reservour sits on this tab Step 9: Remove 4 coolant hoses. There are the 2 main hoses. One located on top of the radiator and the lower on the driver side. Two smaller hoses are on the passenger side of the radidator. One runs to the radiator. The other hooks to a hard line which runs across the top of the radiator to the spare coolant overflow reservoir. The picture of the main lower hose didn't turn out but heres the top you can't miss. The lower one is ~ the same thickness and located on the driver side. The hoses take a 10mm wrenches and the ratcheting wrenches work well for this. The 2 smaller connections on top of the radiator passenger side. Ahh you can see the lower hose starting to be removed in this picture. The connection to the engine is removed. Also for reference, behind the metal tube that you can see with coolant dripping out is where the thermostat is. Step 10: Pull old radiator. It slides out easily. Just slowly pull up and shift the radiator to the left (driver side) watching to make sure you don't catch any hoses including a power steering line that runs to the power steering reservoir. It's out nice and easy. The fans will get swapped to the new radiator Lots of space in there now. Next up, thermostat and re-installation.
The Mishimoto radiator. Here is the new radiator that I picked up to go in. This mishimoto was easy on the pocket book and fitment was excellent. The all aluminum design will hold up much longer than the oem unit. The metal mounting posts top and bottom of course are much stronger than the plastic ones on the oem unit. The welds look good to my untrained eye. The mishimoto has a cap on the actual radiator where the oem unit doesn't. It also has a connection to hook up the overflow hose for use with the overflow reservoir. I'm assuming there were changes in later years (post bugeye) that this can be used. On the '02 There is an external solid line that the reservoir uses which runs across the top of the radiator. This piece can be reused on the Mishimoto radiator. Mishimoto includes a rubber cap for this overflow line and I used that so I could keep the original plumbing. I'll point this out in pics later. The only thing I noticed with the Mishimoto unit is it sits a couple mm higher than the oem tank but this causes no fitment problems for the radiator brackets or air intake piece. I just thought I should mention it incase someone is tight on space for some reason. They also include all the hardware you need for mounting the fans so you don't need to use the screws the oem unit uses to hold the fans on. Mishimoto uses bolts with lock washers. Here are a few pics of the unit, here is the bottom of unit, showing some welds an upside down shot for some reason top of the unit. radiator cap and spare coolant reservoir outlet included hardware Step 11: swap fans from old radiator to new radiator. This is as easy as it gets, just don't overtighten the screws
If you look closely you will see a solid line running across the radiator. This is for the spare coolant reservour. I'm not sure if this is unique to the bugeye or not. You can see the end of it is the exact location where the cap is on the radiator. Like I mentioned above I retained this external line and just capped the line on the radiator. Step 12: Remove fitting exposing old thermostat, remove thermostat and gasket You can clearly see what you need to remove here. This is where the lower radiator coolant hoses hooks to. Just remove the 2 10mm bolts and pull this off. You can then pull of the thermostat, The gasket should come out to. Notice when you pull out the thermostat that the jiggle pin is on top. It needs to be at the top. And with the thermostat and cover removed. I didn't take a pic with the cover off and thermostat in unfortunately. new thermostat (no gasket yet) with jiggle pin. What's a jiggle pin? "All High-Flow Thermostats are fitted with a jiggle pin that enables the system pressure to be stabilised so that the valve opens easier. The jiggle pin also allows air pockets to move past the Thermostat and the temperature to be regulated more efficiently. Fitting High-Flow Thermostats will allow your vehicle cooling system to operate more efficiently." --> source: http://www.are.com.au/feat/techt/thermostat.htm Just make sure when you put the new thermostat in you have the jiggle pin pointed up (towards the top of the engine/sky/etc) Install will look like this. (yes, this is the old thermostat in this picture but you get the idea. Step 13: Install new thermostat gasket on thermostat, install (jiggle pin up), replace cover for thermostat and tighten to spec. 6ft/lbs I believe. excellent, now it's time for new hoses and to drop the new radiator in place. Step 14: Drop new radiator back in place carefully. I decided to hook up the upper hoses and swing it out of the way first. You don't have to but I decided to. Just watched the power steering hose right side (passenger) when installing. It's dropped in place and fits well. Step 15: Hook up the 4 hoses (using new ones if you decide to) This is the step that took me the longest because the old clamps I was forced to used were rusted enough that getting this one was a royal pain in the ass. If I had realized my free hoses didn't have clamps I would have picked some new ones up. When installing my lower hose I needed to trim the one I had as fitment wasn't perfect with the replacement hose I was using. A utility knife with a new blade quickly cut it down to size cleanly. I'll breeze through these since they are trivial and documented during removal above. Step 16: Re-install radiator brackets, spare coolant tank Step 17: hook up fan electrical connections step 18: re-install air intake, attach neg. battery connection step 19: install under engine cover and take car off jack stands step 20: fill with coolant (50/50) and burp system. I wish I had taken a pic with the spill free bottle in place to see the procedure but it is straight forward. You replace your fill cap with the one supplied with this spill free system. It allows for a leak free secure attachment to the system. Just fill things up with 50/50 coolant. When it takes no more fill the funnel 1/3rd full. There is a t-bracket supplied with the system that you place in the funnel to cap it. Squeeze the upper radiator hose and then remove hand while pulling out the bracket. This will purge a bit more air out and allow more coolant to enter the system. Top off the funnel when needed. When no more is entering the system it is time to fire things up. First fill the funnel 1/3rd full again. Turn your car on and let the car idle, additional air will be purged from the system. Let the car come up to temperature so the thermostat fully opens. When this is done and you see no more bubbles come out you should be good. Any fluid remaining in the funnel can be put into the spare coolant tank. You shouldn't spill a drop with the system. All done. have a beer and enjoy the money you saved doing it yourself. --i should note i took all the pics with my cel, heh.
See, this is why I get yelled at all the time. I don't take the time to keep things clean and tidy like you lol I figure that's what the oil-dri and broom are for iirc the hardlines and secondary reservoir changed 03 or 04ish. So depending on the year, you may run into some minor issues. I think I ended up buying the newer hardlines when fitting a newer style koyo to a friend's bugeye... I can't remember but now I'll have to go check.
So I got the old one all taken out. Sent my dad into his work (Roto-Rooter) for some new hose clamps. You're right those can be a biatch. Very helpful so far!
