This past January i had the radiator go in my 02-no biggie, happened en route to work. fixed 3 days later.

NOW my wifes 01 has followed suit. We went to Cabelas off 78 in PA on sunday, parked and i smelled coolant. Popped the hood and sure enough...deja vu.

So, went shopping for a few hours, picked up a gallon of Peak in the ATV section and nursed her home 70 miles.
New KOYO set to arrive tomorrow-not bad at $108.xx shipped from rockauto w/my coupon!

Not exactly how i wanted to spend thanksgiving. I guess there's always the weekend-heck shes off till tuesday and is driving mine

Times like these i'm so glad we have 4 vehicles. So i've been roughing in it the trail truck (95 land rover DI).

I'll be following the How-To/write up done by c-young. looks like shouldnt be more than an hr or two job...

 

It's not a bad job at all. Just be patient with it.

 

OEM radiators suck. I went through 2, before I realized Koyo was an option. Knock on wood, no issues.

 

knock on wood I am still using my OEM unit

 

Seems the stock ones are good for 10 years and then the plastic upper tank cracks. I've always replaced them with the cheapest ones I can find on ebay...about $60 shipped. Good excuse to change out your coolant.

BTW, wish there was a Cabela's near San Diego. What a great store!

 

I'm at 98k on my 2k2. Might be a good idea to order a Koyo rad to have on standby.

 

Anyone running a Mishimoto radiator? I have a crack on my plastic top tank JB Welded until I can get the radiator replaced. Strong stuff, it's holding up well.

 

Ditto.

Just replaced my radiator with one from eBay. Its really not a hard job, just dont forget the auto trans cooler runs through there so you need some extra ATV. The hardest part for me was "priming" the radiator so the trans wouldnt suck air.

 

LOL, the trans won't suck air, that line is filled w/ATF. It just runs through the radiator, and the water running over the metal ATF line helps keep the temperature of the ATF down. Just check your trans fluid when you are all done (in Park with engine idling) and add a little if you have to replace any that spilled out when you disconnected the lines.

 

How many miles on your wife's 2001??

 

good little tidbits there-i appreciate it guys. I did not do the repair to mine in january-too f'in cold and no shop available. with some decent weather this weekend and the rad 'out for delivery' as of 5am today, ill give it a go. i'm fairly competent but some of the more involved jobs i've never done can be slightly intimidating.
i'm feeling good though, just replaced the rusted out trans cooler on my rover last weekend w/o help and in less than an hr.

@sascuderi, my wifes now has about 179k.
when my 02 blew out this past jan it had 144k

 

advance auto coupons + radiator = best option period

 

Radiator is not too bad. I did my thermostat and water control valve as well when I had everything apart for my radiator. It took me 2 days to do it. I spent half a day trying to get the access panels off the water pump and timing chain tensioner because I wanted to replace that too while everything was apart, but gave up.

 

Its funny how something will break or need to be replaced right around your vacation. Just replaced my clutch last weekend (on vacation). Did the radiator 2 months ago, now the water pump is leaking!

 

so was lazy thanksgiving morning but by noon (had to be at family thanksgiving by 2:30) i dug in. got the old rad out and had hoped to get the new one at least seated in the bay but found the fan assy mount screws were coarse thread and the new koyo has finer threaded clips so its sitting until i get home later today.

need to pickup screw type hose clamps too-i hate the oem types. lost a little atf since i thought i had the one clamped but wasnt paying attn-it was seeping out so probably lost like an 1/8 quart. just over a gallon of coolant drained-should have her all buttoned up sat am.

 

That is true. When my g/f and I went on vacation this summer, the battery in my car died. Nothing like having to spend $100 of your allocated vacation money on car parts!

 

some minor surface rust prep-then later ill coat w/POR15