Post by scottyaurorav8 on Jul 21, 2018 12:06:23 GMT -6
Before anything. Special thanks to member, "amunroo." After seeing his earlier post regarding an STS radiator swap into an Aurora, it gave me the idea. He also provided me with the measurements from the STS radiator so I could do fitment checks and see how much room there is where the original radiator sat. He was not kidding, it's a very tight fit for sure lol.
So the radiator I got is a custom welded, 3 core "All aluminum" radiator. Very beautiful, the tig welds are very well done. So no more plastic end tanks. It will probably out live the car haha. It was an extremely tedious, pain in the ass job involving the use of my dremel. I had to shave and cut certain areas of the headlamp shrouding down so the A/C lines on the passenger side could fit without being rubbed. I did a clean job, you can't even tell. Dont forget a lot of cursing while angling the fan, radiator and condensor for fitment, was also involved. But I got them all in. I'm very pleased. It also allowed me to do a few other things while I had everything removed. Like clean the entire inside of the engine bay area where the old units were, re-do the rubber seals along the bottom. Also, the stupid plastic clip that holds the top radiator hose along the radiator support is now gone and I replaced it with an identical metal support. I made a template from the original holes and dremeled an exact hole on the other side of the support. Came out great!! Why they didnt do this from factory, I have no idea!!
I also got color matching clearcoated spray paint from NAPA and repainted my rad support beam. It Came out great. I re-did all the rubber and foam around the radiator as well. There's no way a shop would have done all this. So I'm so pleased with my "perfectionist" type of personality and work I did to further improve this vehicle. Its becoming quite unique. And it also doesn't hurt that I saved myself $200 or more doing it myself.
Overall, the radiator is great. My coolant needle stays well before the halfway mark now.
For the future, I'm thinking of getting a custom bent aluminum radiator hose to replace the top one. It will look way better. So that's in the works. And I am getting my front valve cover redone by powder coating it and I will probably get a new OEM coolant overflow tank. I'm tired of looking at a slightly yellow one.
This top pic shows the metal radiator hose bracket I put in.
So the radiator I got is a custom welded, 3 core "All aluminum" radiator. Very beautiful, the tig welds are very well done. So no more plastic end tanks. It will probably out live the car haha. It was an extremely tedious, pain in the ass job involving the use of my dremel. I had to shave and cut certain areas of the headlamp shrouding down so the A/C lines on the passenger side could fit without being rubbed. I did a clean job, you can't even tell. Dont forget a lot of cursing while angling the fan, radiator and condensor for fitment, was also involved. But I got them all in. I'm very pleased. It also allowed me to do a few other things while I had everything removed. Like clean the entire inside of the engine bay area where the old units were, re-do the rubber seals along the bottom. Also, the stupid plastic clip that holds the top radiator hose along the radiator support is now gone and I replaced it with an identical metal support. I made a template from the original holes and dremeled an exact hole on the other side of the support. Came out great!! Why they didnt do this from factory, I have no idea!!
I also got color matching clearcoated spray paint from NAPA and repainted my rad support beam. It Came out great. I re-did all the rubber and foam around the radiator as well. There's no way a shop would have done all this. So I'm so pleased with my "perfectionist" type of personality and work I did to further improve this vehicle. Its becoming quite unique. And it also doesn't hurt that I saved myself $200 or more doing it myself.
Overall, the radiator is great. My coolant needle stays well before the halfway mark now.
For the future, I'm thinking of getting a custom bent aluminum radiator hose to replace the top one. It will look way better. So that's in the works. And I am getting my front valve cover redone by powder coating it and I will probably get a new OEM coolant overflow tank. I'm tired of looking at a slightly yellow one.
This top pic shows the metal radiator hose bracket I put in.
