Radiators lasting way beyond expectations

As the car and driver age it continues to confound with its reliability and durability where the car will likely exceed that of the driver. My car still has lots of original parts that you'd consider must be nearing the end of their useful life but that show no signs of failing. I'm thinking radiator and oil coolers. My SMIC was toast due to corroded fins and replaced 5 years ago but the radiator, evaporator, and oil coolers are all original 1996 vintage and seem to still be working well. The water temperature is the same on the gauge today as it was over 20 years ago. In particular regard to the OEM radiator, has anyone ever had one re-cored successfully? I'd much rather have a new 41mm core and retain the original top and bottom tanks than fit a new shiny aluminium radiator if that is possible when the time to change comes around?

Alternatively, if anyone has new parts sitting around for a TT6 93 - 96 that they never got around to fitting or some really good condition parts set aside from a build project that they wouldn't mind parting with then feel free to PM me. My preference has always been with my old cars to maintain with new OE parts or restore the original part whenever possible.

With Supra rads what i have found is, the cores do well but the plastic inlet and outlets dry rot, one day you reconnect the hose, use a spring clip or jubilee and Crack!

recoring can be done, but the plastic wont last im afraid.

when my last one broke i got a new one. the place it was at at the time sold the old one to a recoreing place. saved me a bit of money. turns out the new one didnt fit. so i baught my old one, jujst recored. its still going after 5 years. where it was that recored it i dont know. but it was more than buying a new one.

With Supra rads what i have found is, the cores do well but the plastic inlet and outlets dry rot, one day you reconnect the hose, use a spring clip or jubilee and Crack!

 

recoring can be done, but the plastic wont last im afraid.

My car is still on its original hoses so that could explain why its lasted this long. I'm always expecting a turbo hose or radiator hose to pop but they have proved to be very resilient. The only plastic bits I've had to replace so far are a few of the number 7 loom clips in the engine bay and a few of the injector clips that disintegrated due to their age. Time is not your friend with rubber and plastics though so I know its just a question of when.

My original radiator in my 98 vvti popped on the top water neck last Friday. Coolant and steam everywhere.

Couldn't find an original but had a spare ally unit in the garage.

The plastic top neck was toast. I will up load some pics

My original radiator in my 98 vvti popped on the top water neck last Friday. Coolant and steam everywhere.

 

Couldn't find an original but had a spare ally unit in the garage.

 

The plastic top neck was toast. I will up load some pics

Funny you say that! Mine done the exact same last weekend as well, it was the original 24 year old radiator in mine. I just got my replacement through from Keron today and is as close to oem as you can get

Funny you say that! Mine done the exact same last weekend as well, it was the original 24 year old radiator in mine. I just got my replacement through from Keron today and is as close to oem as you can get

The closest I can find is one by Valeo, others quoted as drop ins seem to use a thinner 32mm core (as opposed to the 41mm original). They aren't cheap though, seen prices ranging from £250 - £450 which is quite a range when you think most Valeo rads are in the £50 to £100 range. I'm tempted to buy one to hold as a spare seeing I'm 23 years and counting on my radiator. Out of interest what was the price out of Keron?

You can't get rads from Toyota any more? As above normally the plastic top tank gives way, its common on all Toyota's. my Crown did it, my Aristo's have done it.

My original radiator in my 98 vvti popped on the top water neck last Friday. Coolant and steam everywhere.

 

Couldn't find an original but had a spare ally unit in the garage.

 

The plastic top neck was toast. I will up load some pics

yep mine did the same a few years ago

got a new one last year from my local rad guy

Those solid top 'L' shaped hard pipes don't help, neither does rushed/forced renovation of the hose.

Rider, watch the two turbo hoses at the front they are parallel to each other and easy to access. One of the sprung a pin hole leak, I changed both and they were very brittle.

Areas to possibly look at........also the larger hose from the top rear of the cylinder head is known to go.

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?341193-Turbo-coolant-pipe-warning&highlight=Coolant

Still on the original 94 rad and no sign of any problems but its always in the back of my mind, so much i always carry 5lts of water with me when going on a longish drive then at least i can try and limp a few more miles to the nearest water source if the worst happens and i wont be stranded in the area where the thing blows. The rad or one of the hoses bursting is the main reason i always make sure ive got breakdown cover as well, you just never know when they are going to go.

I can feel a whole new project coming up - replace all plastic critical parts, rubber coolant and air/breather hoses in the engine bay as well as the radiator and oil cooler. The car will be going back on SORN soon so maybe its something to start this winter. Bet that lot will cost near to £1k in parts.

The closest I can find is one by Valeo, others quoted as drop ins seem to use a thinner 32mm core (as opposed to the 41mm original). They aren't cheap though, seen prices ranging from £250 - £450 which is quite a range when you think most Valeo rads are in the £50 to £100 range. I'm tempted to buy one to hold as a spare seeing I'm 23 years and counting on my radiator. Out of interest what was the price out of Keron?

Sorry only just seen this now! Will get some photo's today of the 2 radiators side by side so people can see them. Price from Keron was £180 delivered, i have the stock fan still so wanted just something that was still oem looking and still retained the viscous

Yep, had the same thing happen to me with the top rad neck going brittle and cracking.

I replaced with the radiator supplied by TCB parts, running on both cars and no issues on either at all.

That’s with a Blitz 4” 3 row FMIC in front of it on one of them.

Sorry only just seen this now! Will get some photo's today of the 2 radiators side by side so people can see them. Price from Keron was £180 delivered, i have the stock fan still so wanted just something that was still oem looking and still retained the viscous

At that price I'd expect it either to be the KOYORAD PA010413 (£180) or Ava TO2347 (£160). TCB sell the AVA radiator as a drop in. Prices are just those I picked up on a trawl rather than being provided by either Keron or TCB.

This is the one I got from Keron, as you can see it’s pretty much identical and even fits the stock fan shroud without any issues

Can also see here where the issue was on the old one, essentially the same as majority of other owners

Alex, do you have the OEM rubber upper radiator hose or aftermarket metal pipe fitted?

I'm guessing metal pipe, restricting movement, putting more pressure on the plastic connection. Over time the plastic will become brittle with age and the hot and cold heat cycles won't be helping.

Alex, do you have the OEM rubber upper radiator hose or aftermarket metal pipe fitted?

 

I'm guessing metal pipe, restricting movement, putting more pressure on the plastic connection. Over time the plastic will become brittle with age and the hot and cold heat cycles won't be helping.

Yeah i have a polished top pipe for the time being, i do have the stock rubber piper in the various box of spares regardless for a later date if i decide to change it out

The closest I can find is one by Valeo, others quoted as drop ins seem to use a thinner 32mm core (as opposed to the 41mm original). They aren't cheap though, seen prices ranging from £250 - £450 which is quite a range when you think most Valeo rads are in the £50 to £100 range. I'm tempted to buy one to hold as a spare seeing I'm 23 years and counting on my radiator. Out of interest what was the price out of Keron?

Thinking of buying a koyorad oem replacement myself, in favour of the alloy rad I currently have

Thanks for posting this info bud, I've been trying to find out the thickness of an oem core.

Thinking of buying a koyorad oem replacement myself, in favour of the alloy rad I currently have

 

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I'd hold off for a little while, I've been emailing Paul at TCB and hopefully he is looking into the Blue Print radiator that sells for about the same as the Valeo and should be near to or possibly identical to the OE radiator. So the choices should be a Ava or Koyorad with a slightly thinner core for around the £180 that seems fine in the UK climate or the Valeo or Blue Print for around £250 if you want the same width core as original if you are used to working the car hard or want to keep things as close to OE as possible.

I'd hold off for a little while, I've been emailing Paul at TCB and hopefully he is looking into the Blue Print radiator that sells for about the same as the Valeo and should be near to or possibly identical to the OE radiator. So the choices should be a Ava or Koyorad with a slightly thinner core for around the £180 that seems fine in the UK climate or the Valeo or Blue Print for around £250 if you want the same width core as original if you are used to working the car hard or want to keep things as close to OE as possible.

The koyorad is £170 delivered, with a core size of 738mm x 400mm x 41mm

I was told that pre-facelift TTs had radiators with copper core. Is that true?

I was told that pre-facelift TTs had radiators with copper core. Is that true?

i talked with Chris Wilson about radiators and he said the early ones had copper cores so the replacements with a thinner aluminium core are as good, maybe better. He also said it is difficult to now get manual rads, all the ones he sees these days are auto rads that can be used on either manual or auto cars. There are companies that list different rads still for manual and auto like Koyorad. Their PA010413 is listed for manual and PA010413 with the transmission cooler PA010414. No discount on not having the oil cooler and Ava actually charge £40 more to not have it so some people, Chris suggested, may want to just use it anyway and plumb in the PAS fluid to circulate at the bottom of the radiator.

Top choices seem to be for similar to OEM the Koyorad or Ava options. I found out today the Blue Print one ended production in 2016 which is probably when Denso stopped supplying them and the Blue Print was just a rebrand. The Valeo one is hard to find and quite a bit more expensive. The Nissens budget options gets knocked a bit on looking cheap and a bit tacky.

I've been talking to a lot of radiator retailers and all are reporting a sudden surge in interest in and the sales of Supra radiators. One eBay seller had three left this morning, now sold out.