What's the *best* radiator for M50?

[Adrian_Visser]

NAPA has a selection of generic rad hoses you can buy with various preformed bends. When I went there I looked through their catalogue and ended up buying two hoses with 90* bends for my late model m20 rad and just cutting them to size.

Like it says in that other thread if you are going to be cutting the hoses to size you are better off not getting the OEM style hoses because they neck down in the middle of the hose and if you cut them you end up with a hose that is a total bitch to slip over the fittings.

[Jand3rson]

Like it says in that other thread if you are going to be cutting the hoses to size you are better off not getting the OEM style hoses because they neck down in the middle of the hose and if you cut them you end up with a hose that is a total bitch to slip over the fittings.

I was just going to say exactly this. The difference in size will not affect anything.

[JGood]

did you use the same ones?

I'm going to have to check, I wrote the numbers down somewhere. I should probably dig that info up anyway and pick up some replacements so I have them on hand.

[JGood]

Like it says in that other thread if you are going to be cutting the hoses to size you are better off not getting the OEM style hoses because they neck down in the middle of the hose and if you cut them you end up with a hose that is a total bitch to slip over the fittings.

That was my main problem. I don't know where people are getting stock hoses that don't have a smaller diameter in the middle. If you can figure that out, you can probably use stock hoses that will fit great.

[Jand3rson]

If you have an 87 E30, then you probably have sheetmetal L brackets to support the radiator that are welded to roughly the center of the radiator support. The L shaped brackets have, for early model E30s, round rubber isolators that sit on them. You will need to space these up somehow--threaded rod and some rubber bumpers will work.

The late model E30s have provisions for mounting the radiator on their end tanks.

Just to add to this a little, since I'm not going to be running AC on my car, I removed the rubber bumpers that supported the AC condensor in front of the radiator, and just bonded them to the existing bumpers using a super-thick, almost epoxy super glue, and they are SOLID!

Also, I don't know about some of you other early-model guys, but in regards to the L-brackets that Fred is talking about, my car had 2 sets of them down there, one pair was slightly lower than the others, and offset to the left (looking down on them from the front). On the higher right set, the M42 radiator didn't sit level, because the bottom of one of the end caps was actually sitting on the rubber bumper.

I moved the bumpers over to that lower left set of L-brackets, and with the doubled-up rubber bumpers, the radiator now sits in the exact perfect position for the plastic arm on top to secure it in place.