Radiator blown

[mutley]

Well today I thought I'd have a Saturday treat and take the NSX out for a run, got 5 miles and got petrol, no probs, few miles later, saw lots of "smoke" (turned out to be steam)in the rear view and thought "F**k", pulled over and as I got out the car, saw a trail of coolant and then a puddle forming from the front. Popped the bonnet to see coolant pouring from the bottom of the radiator, about 3 inches from the bottom hose.

Guess I'm trawling for a new radiator. Anyone??


Cheers
Jim

[Dragonlady]

Can it not be welded at work? Throw the metal bashers a few tins at GEF or whatever it is called nowadays.

Ian

[mutley]

possible (and yes it's still GEF.......I used to be ground Mech before remustered to copper)

I'll have to take it off the car tomorow and have a look at it properly.

Ian are you ex-RAF? seem to know our terminology

Jim

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, Jim.
Sorry to hear the news but you managed to stop the car before cooking the engine so at least you have some good news.

As you have enough skills and possibly better facility at your new place, it's worth putting your NSX on the lift and check to see whether it is really leaking from the radiator or not.
I hope it's from the burst water hose or damaged O-ring at the drain plug and not the radiator...

By the way, you need to wash off the leaked coolant really well otherwise the smell will stay on several places for many years.

I think one of the member 'britlude' experienced radiator leakage in the past;
http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/testvb/showthread.php?t=7038

He may be able to share his experience with his new radiator and also how he dealt with the problem while waiting for the delivery of new one.

Hope to see your NSX back on the road soon.

Regards,
Kaz

[Dragonlady]

Yes, been out 11 years now but I was a JT heavy at Waddington.

Regards Ian

[mutley]

Yes, been out 11 years now but I was a JT heavy at Waddington.

Regards Ian

Ahhh that explains it, I was SAC heavy at Coningsby 1996-98, then remustered.


Kaz- I had a quick look today but I think it is the radiator, but will be getting it up on ramps tomorrow to have a proper look over it.

Jim

[Dragonlady]

Did you manage to get the car in the air? What's the damage, repairable or is it down the new and better route?

Regards Ian

[britlude]

my rad went in pretty much the same place, it was the bottom plastic end cap that had split, at the sharp corner between the tank and the flange that the aluminium matrix crimps to. i tried a temperary JB Weld repair after scuffing the surfaces, and got another week out of it!

[gsuds]

Jim,

Same happened to me a couple of years back. Split rad tank unfortunately not repairable and I ended up finding one from a salvage dealer on t'Internet for about £140 (new ones are £££ :()

Cheers

G

[mutley]

Update:

New rad ordered from the US, so pending delivery, customs etc I should be back up and running in a couple of weeks.

Jim

[Dragonlady]

Good news, then you can really go out and play to hear that exhaust note!

Ian

[mutley]

UPDATE:

got email for the place in California, misimoto rad now on it's way by FedEx, and may be delivered to my home address but tomorrow evening.

Technically (if all goes well, no hold up at customs etc) I could be back on the road next week!

Jim

[nigel]

James,
Been thinking of getting one of those radiators but leary of the quality as it seems to cheap to be any good considering the cost of a new OEM one.
It should cool better which is why I considered it.
Let me / us know how it goes after you get it installed and give it a good sound flogging.
A bit of black heat paint on the ends and it should look the, "dogs danglies".

Cheers
nigel

[mutley]

Nigel,

It arrived today and is looking pretty sweet, will be installing tomorrow, so will post pics up once in place.

Jim

[nigel]

Thanks James for the update.
Hoping for the best as i'll get one as well.

Cheers
nigel

[britlude]

well done, arrived quicker than mine, as my one languished in UK airport customs for 5 days!!!! (the joys of online tracking!!!)

[mutley]

well done, arrived quicker than mine, as my one languished in UK airport customs for 5 days!!!! (the joys of online tracking!!!)

That's what I was expecting, however they put the unit price on the ticket as 74.00, so below the import tax threshold, and delivered to my home address yesterday afternoon.(only down point is that is in Edinburgh and I am near inverness, so had a nice little drive down and back yesterday)

I'm now off to Honda to get the coolant and then straight round to the car, pics will be in in a few hours.

Cheers
Jim

[mutley]

Done! new rad on the car and almost back on the road, just need to find out best way to bleed coolant system and that's that.

Fitment was really good, only slight mods I had to do was on the fan mounting and had to snip a little bit round the pipes but that's it.

Whole job took less than 30 mins.

[mutley]

and a couple more.

[NSXGB]

Done! new rad on teh car and almost back on the road, just need to find out best way to bleed coolant system and that's that.



Here you go Jim, piece of cake....

http://www.daliracing.com/v666-5/info/acura-nsx-service_manual_91/5_cooling.pdf

Page 10-7

[NSXGB]

That's what I was expecting, however they put the unit price on the ticket as 74.00, so below the import tax threshold, and delivered to my home address yesterday afternoon.(only down point is that is in Edinburgh and I am near inverness, so had a nice little drive down and back yesterday)

I'm now off to Honda to get the coolant and then straight round to the car, pics will be in in a few hours.

Cheers
Jim

Jim, can you remember where you ordered your rad from? Looking at mine the other day I'm thinking it may be worth having one 'in stock'...

[mutley]

Jim, can you remember where you ordered your rad from? Looking at mine the other day I'm thinking it may be worth having one 'in stock'...

I done the usual Internet trawl and I found it on eBay ( eBay shop), fromthe USA. I will have a hunt through my purchase history to see ifi can locate the seller. I do remember it was a buy now or best offer, so I offerered about 50 USD lower than asking price, so if it is the same now you might try asking for a lower price

[NSXGB]

Thanks Mutley, much appreciated.

[NSXGB]

Ended up getting myself the Koyo rad, apparently better made than the Mishimoto according to NSX Primers (?) and no cutting required to fit the rad fans. Must say, I'm impressed with the quality, almost can't wait for my radiator to start leaking...
Prices have risen...came to best part of £320 delivered, taxes etc.

[mutley]

Fair enough , glad you got a new rad ( still cheaper than OEM) I'm glad I changed mine

Jim

[NSXGB]

Another member asked if I could post some more detailed pictures of the KOYO rad than were available online, happy to oblige...

1079210793107941079510796

Only phone images but show the detail well enough I hope.

[NSXGB]

...last ones...
1080210803108041080510806

First pic with drain plug removed. The new drain plugs are black anodised aluminium and use a polo shaped seal.

[BabyG]

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately my radiator went a couple of weeks ago. I bought the Koyo radiator (at Kaz's recommendation). It had split at the bottom, same as a few others have described (can't complain too much after 150,000 miles!). If anyone's in need of one here are the details of where I got mine from:
Purchased from ebay seller: undercaroutfitter Link: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/undercaroutfitter?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
Item Number: 230609194611 Link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230609194611?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Price of item (w/o postage): £227.98 ($367.99)
Price of postage: £56.30 ($90.25)
Total paid to seller: £284.28 ($458.24)
Coming through UK Customs the charge was £47.54
Total price paid £331.82


The item was dispatched within 24 hours of the order. It took a few days to make it out of the US, then the usual week or so in UK customs. Once the letter informing me of the import VAT had arrived and been paid it was delivered the next day.


Upon arrival the packaging was damaged. This was in an area of the packaging that had plenty of protection and upon detailed inspection the radiator was undamaged. The radiator was pretty well protected in the packaging.


The guys at Chiswick Honda commented on it being a well made piece of kit, that it fitted into the car (91 manual) without modification (to radiator or car) and that it had significantly more capacity for coolant than the original radiator.

So far it's got me to Maranello without problem and should be good for (at least) another 150k!

Rich

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, Rich.

Thank you for sharing your experience and this would be great information for all of us with classic car like NSX.

As mentioned many times, the radiator is a consumable parts so it’s not a question of if but when so all of them will start to leak sooner or later.

Koyo is well known among the racing teams and also as OEM supplier so build quality is excellent.

With this price and being as all aluminium construction (which should last longer than the OEM plastic top/bottom tank design), I don’t see the point in going for the OEM one.

Hope you are having good time in Maranello.


Kaz

[goldnsx]

Not looking for a new record but some feedback on the Koyo and Mishimoto radiators longlivety.

I guess I'll have to replace it soon (well, before it breaks and that's what I consider soon :)). Koyo would be my choice. Anyone has one in stock before I try to order from JP or US?

[duncan]

I can’t comment on longevity between the two.
I did not find that the Mishimoto was a direct drop in; the tank with the lower hose fouled the bottom cross member and needed cutting and welding, see post no2 in my post
http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/showthread.php?15599-Major-Service

[goldnsx]

Thanks. Anyone know a good source in the EU?

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Japan Post stopped accepting any deliveries to majority of European countries except for UK but other courier services are still in operation.
Not EU but if you can still get the delivery from US into your country, I can forward the contact detail of the shop I use.

It's not generic email address like sales@***.com so I would rather not post the address on the public forum.

Just received the Koyo Racing rad from them recently so hope it's still in stock.

Kaz

[goldnsx]

Kaz, I've sent you an email. Not sure if you received it.

Another question: in the US the Koyo no. is v2032 while I've found another one which is adverted as 'fits NSX' but its no. is KV0826303R. See also: https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/e-naniwaya/10002137.html

The later one looks different (with a bottle cap???) Standard picture? Wrong one? Fake? No, I'm not ordering it from Japan but from the UK.

Dummy me, just seen Kaz' blog here: http://www.nsxcb.co.uk/entry.php?1452-Eng-Refresh-Health-Check-etc-30

So it seems to be the same, right? I just want to hear that it's the same,so please tell me it's the same. :)

Thanks.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Received last night and just replied as getting so many email, messages, etc from many countries while dealing with other projects and NSX services.
Seems like everyone has extra time under current situation so the amount of messages increased massively....
Hope you will get my email shortly....

Kaz

[goldnsx]

Sorry, Kaz, I don't want to steal your time.

I've ordered one.

[goldnsx]

Update: I've just received a Koyo radiator from the UK. There's a little bit of dust (aluminium?) on the inner sidewalls of the inlet/outlet from production I guess. Might need a little flush before installation.

They've also sent me a 1.3 bar Koyo cap but I'll stay with the 1.1 bar OEM one.

Update 2: installed it today.

13926

The quality is ok so far. But the welder must have had a bad day...

13927

I don't like bleeding the cooling system as it's always a time-consuming mess and you're never certain if all the air is out.