Radiator Upgrade

Rusty67 · Jun 11, 2013

My dad's car is making too much power for his stock radiator. Do you guys know if the 03-04 Cobra radiator is the same as the GT radiator or if it is a bit beefier. His car isn't making more then a lightly upgraded Terminator so I figure if that radiator is good enough for a supercharged 4v motor, maybe that is the easiest way to go.

I've looked at fluidyne and mishimoto but both of them seem to have a bad reputation/failure rate. I know mishimoto upgraded their design to 3 core which is supposed to be stronger but I don't want to do the job 7 times before I get a good one.

At this point I'm considering sending his radiator out and having a badass custom unit made just to avoid issues.

bhuff30 · Jun 11, 2013

Tell us more... what do you mean the stock radiator isn't keeping up? I would fully expect the stock radiator has plenty of capacity short of it a track day.

Find the root issue with the system. It may be a leak, or blockage but I would fully expect the stock radiator to keep up perfectly fine for street or 1/4 mile runs.

Rusty67 · Jun 12, 2013

Car isn't going to be a drag car ever but it will see open track time at willow and california speed way.

The motor has been freshly rebuild so I doubt the block is clogged with anything.

Basically, the car is running hot after being run in traffic.

joshjwc9 · Jun 12, 2013

How hot? Stock Thermostat and fan on settings?

From research I did, Fluidyne, SVE and OE Cobra radiators are the quality replacements..

Rusty67 · Jun 12, 2013

Stock t-stat and the fan turn on is stock at the moment. I can adjust the fan turn on setting in the tune if I need to.

The Mishimoto and the Fluidynes had a bad reputations when it comes to leaks. Mishimoto revised their design and I haven't heard if the new design is much better but I imagine it is. I was thinking about a terminator radiator if it was an upgrade but no one seemed to know. I asked my friend at Ford parts but he never got back to me.

Another friend of mine who has a fox Mustang with a Coyote in it has a Ron Davis radiator in it that he has had for some time and was very happy with the quality. I called them and they make a direct bolt in that will work for my dad's car. The guy at Ron Davis suggested that I get one of those inferred thermometers to measure engine temps at different locations for troubleshooting so I think I'm going to pick one of those up. The Ron Davis unit is expensive but to be honest only spending 250 on an aluminum radiator kind of worries me. My dad ended up calling and ordering the Ron Davis unit.

Radiator Upgrade

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