V8 Compatible Radiators

[e30_302]

[Zacm829]

I ended up with the Mishi!

[Jean]

What about just buying the OEM Behr radiator?

This seems like a great deal!

http://www.autohausaz.com/search/pro...er=17112227281

Plastic is not fantastic :(

[JGood]

What about just buying the OEM Behr radiator?

This seems like a great deal!

http://www.autohausaz.com/search/pro...er=17112227281

My justification was the warranty. See my post above. I'll never have to buy another radiator for this car for the rest of the time I own in. And considering that's already been 13 years/200k+ miles, that should be a very long time :)

[Zacm829]

What about just buying the OEM Behr radiator?

This seems like a great deal!

http://www.autohausaz.com/search/product.aspx?sid=o1pklkadtqvrdhrgnswp5p45&partnumber=17112227281

[_JohnnyD_]

I used an aftermarket "ebay" rad for a Toyota Celica GT4 (ST185 I beleive but the ST205 should fit also).



There were 3 reasons I picked this rad.
- The outlet clears the oil filter housing. There is a nice flow from the outlet to the water pump. No stupid rad rose like with my E28 535 rad.
- It fits the E30 perfectly. The rad is 12mm narrower than the frame rail opening so it drops in nicely. The heigth of the finned section matches the opening in the rad support perfectly and since the tanks are on the top and bottom the finned surface is the entire width of the opening. The surface area is 14% larger than my E28 535 rad.
- It has rad fan switch bung for a Toyota fan switch (see problems below) welded in the bottom of the rad. No stupid inline sensors or probes in the fins needed for your rad switch.

There are also 3 problems.
- My car is still overheating very slowly in traffic. I can control it with using the heater however it is not perfect. I think the problem with my car is the lack of a good fan. I got a 14" "universal" fan with the rad that I tried. I can't even tell if the fan is pushing or pulling on the front of the rad I've tried both polarities it makes no difference. I will upgrade to a 16" pusher SPAL fan in the winter.
- It is not bolt in. But if you can do an M60 swap the brackets are 1/2 hour project.
- Although this rad has a bung for a fan switch the Toyota fan switches function opposite to a BMW switch. The Toyota switch is normally closed and opens at temp and the BMW system is normally closed. That means if you wire it in place of the BMW switch the fan will turn on when the rad is cold and turn off when the rad hits the switch temp. (this screwed me up for 2 weeks, I thought I had defective switches ) There are 3 solutions, use a Tridon TFS 199 fan switch, which is a Toyota switch for some Australian application, find an aftermarket switch that fits or add a relay circuit to your switch wiring to revese the function. I went with the Tridon TFS 199 option. You will need to find a wiring pig tail from a late 1990s Camary and wire it in place of the BMW connector.

I hope this helps.

[GB / John]

You really going to fit the fans between the engine and radiator? :)

Yep, worked well on my e36 328.

[Jonsku]

You really going to fit the fans between the engine and radiator? :)

[GB / John]

I'm going to be using a 52mm Japspeed S14 Radiator, with 2 x 12" fans.
£109, think thats about $170.

[mark///m3]

I took my chances with the ebay one. It has worked great for me, never overheated once. The one thing I had to do was get the proper crush rings for the overflow and the drain plug. It came with o'rings....

[MJCRO]

I was cheap and got an eBay radiator with a 16" Spal fan on it, haven't mounted it up yet but I'm confident it should work just fine.

[Jean]

Better to OVER DO IT with cooling haha :)

[kalib0y]

I have a mishi z3m rad too with no issues but I've seen the normal e36 rads used all the time with lsx swaps with no issues. Actually i get alot of american muscle guys that look at my swap and say my radiator is huge. #bcuzsizematters

[carlb]

The Mishimoto Z3M radiator is the business. It's actually probably keeps the engine too cold on most (non-summer) days...

[Northern]

Are you running one Northern?

I bought one for my ix turbo project, its still sitting in the bedroom though. I imagine I'll have the same one (or mishi) in my v8 project also.