Thread: My radiator thread. Project Tight Fit complete!

Well, the civic radiator is not likely to be a good idea for the track. Maybe 1/4 mile runs, but the overall capacity wouldn't do it for track days in 100* heat with high boost. I'm almost positive on low boost it would do just fine though.

I have been thinking about it in an abstract sorta way. And I think I have a solution, granted it won't be the cheapest route. But it will allow me to run with the rad support and increase cooling capacity to the levels of a Koyo radiator and give more room by the manifold. Basically, I want to do this job one time, and never mess with it again. I want to start tracking this car again on a more regular basis.

But this radiator just won't work. I went outside and saw a little puddle under the car, and I think the radiator finally wore through. I didn't think it was actually touching the manifold, but I knew it was close.

Hmm. If you really want to keep the upper support, I would suggest looking at some universal radiators by size. I know when I was searching I saw some universal, and model specific aluminum radiators. I was looking at the design layout and physical dimensions. I'm sure you could find a nice aluminum radiator that will fill the entire area, and even be the right size to sit about where the A/C condenser sits. That way, you get additional cooling, plus a little room between it and the turbo. I thought of doing this myself, but it surpassed my needs. I DO remember seeing some in the Summit Racing catalog that would have made a nice fit like that. Can't remember off-hand if they were universal, or model specific, but like I said...I was looking dimension-wise.

I'm thinking an aluminum radiator measured to fit the entire area of the stock opening, ditching the vertical center support/hood latch for hood pins (and fan clearance), and a 2" or possibly 3" core should meet your needs. Especially a 3" core. That SHOULD be plenty of surface area, and a 3" core should round it out nicely. I'm no expert, but something like that sounds to me like it should be able to handle the duties, and continous high boost of track conditions.

Otherwise, I'd have to go with welding in a much larger radiator support section if this is going to be a serious monster of a track-only car. Sorry to ramble. Just trying to offer viable ideas, or give you something to work into a better idea.

That is exactly what I was thinking myself actually. I am planning on getting something serious, but I just want to get something with the right size 1 3/8 hose inlet and outlet to make things easier. Otherwise I will just size them however I need them.

But 3" is what I am thinking.

Sounds like a plan.

Don't forget about custom made radiators, you can get them made for about the price of a Koyo.

I don't know what you bay looks like but a few more ideas you can play around with to use skinner/smaller rads.
Ducting to and from a smaller rad can make a big difference (ducting out the hood for bonus point and added downforce if you do it right and at the same time cut some lift).
Also with ducting you can play around with the fans some, they don't have to be against rad itself they can be anywhere along the way so long as they have good seal. So for example stick the fans to a ducted hood vent on the hood itself.

Mounting the rad at an angle might work, side view front bumper here... { \ ....and rad leaning like that
If you go the custom rad you can go dual pass or 3x pass which will also make it more efficient (and you could have only inlet and outlets on the rad this way and remote mount the filler cap on a swirl pot.
EWP and high pressure rad cap can help as can a 1 liter swirl pot for the coolant system. (Just adding capacity to the fluid in the system will help)

A nice oil cooler will will do some good as will some other engine bay cooling and shielding. Hey maybe even think about water/meth injection or ethanol. With a properly set up water/meth injecting pre and post compressor you could ditch the FMIC put your radiator where the FMIC was.

water to air IC, love it, gives me all the room I need.

Brent

I'm running a A/W intercooler. I have tons of room up front for a nice radiator. But for the sake of keeping things as simple as possible, I may end up using the factory Koyo or Mish radiator.

I am pretty sure I am going to at lease cut off my radiator support and go to hood pins. I am leaving the bracket supports that hold the grill on for now. But I planned on keeping the top rad support intact so I can reuse it if I need to. Or I can just cut one off a junkyard car and weld it on mine if I really need to.

The front frame member that holds the AC condenser in place is what I plan on mounting the radiator on. This will allow the radiator to be moved forward by a few inches and give some room for the manifold to clear properly.

Anyone have the dimensions of the Koyo Radiator? If the whole radiator came forward about 2 inches I could fit something really big in there. I have even thought about getting a Griffin radiator and mounting it, though there is a lot more fab work to do if I go that route.

Bottom line, I dont ever want to have to touch the cooling system in this car again. I need to make room for the manifold/turbo, but I also need plenty of cooling capacity for track days. I figure with the koyo mounted in the AC condenser space, it will sit about 1" higher and take up the space used by the rad support, and still clear the hood. If that doesn't work, angling it may work.

Here is what the setup looked like a little while ago. There is a larger turbine housing on there now.

Yes, it is very close to the radiator already.

civic radiator here no issues

Half core radiator's are for drag cars, street cars, and/or hard parkers...

He already said he plans on tracking the car. Use a Koyo or have one made. My idea is to cut out the lower radiator support and weld in a piece of 90 stock to move the radiator forward more and fill that void. it could even angle if you needed it too.