For those who want more cooling....

[Ryan Stewart]

http://www.absoluteradiator.com/ProductPage.asp?idProd=50

Third one down.

I measured, I have 4mm on each side to the frame rails with those bigass tanks. Its a 55mm dual core all welded unit. Engine fan is a no-go ( guess I should say for the swappers, the stock M20 fan might). Im gonna run 2 offset 11"ers.

[rs4pro3]

That's for the 88 style and up frame, you'd have to weld in brackets for the pre 88's

[Ryan Stewart]

Raise the bottom mounts, or fab a top mount like I have. Neither are all that challenging. I have an E36 radiator at the moment anyway.

[parkerbink]

Sweet

[Chris E30 Cab]

BMW offers larger radiators for the M20 too.......the E30's bound for tropical climates got these standard. A pal of mine put one into his car in Germany for better cooling.

[Ryan Stewart]

Still have the crimped and gasketed plastic reseviors?

[trent]

OEM always worked fine for me.

[Ryan Stewart]

Yeah I just have no faith in those reseviors and as long as I am doing it (and have plenty of room)....

[Chris E30 Cab]

That radiator looks great Ryan!!....I was just mentioning the larger M20 one for folks with M20's.

Never really looked at my radiator so I'm not sure what you mean by the plastic.....the expansion/overflow tank?? I'll take a pic when I get home from the office if you like. Will be posted by your morning ;)

LoL, one thing I learned is to never slowly open that expansion/overflow tank when the car is overheated. I tried slowly opening it when my water pump failed. After 5 or so min's of easing off the cap the pressure blew water & fluid around 15ft high and all over my arm. The fluid hit the freakin roof of the petrol station :shock: Needless to say I went to the emergency room for burn treatment :oops: I was later told that it takes a good 30 or 45 min's before you should try opening that cap.

[Jand3rson]

LoL, one thing I learned is to never slowly open that expansion/overflow tank when the car is overheated. I tried slowly opening it when my water pump failed. After 5 or so min's of easing off the cap the pressure blew water & fluid around 15ft high and all over my arm. The fluid hit the freakin roof of the petrol station :shock: Needless to say I went to the emergency room for burn treatment :oops: I was later told that it takes a good 30 or 45 min's before you should try opening that cap.

Yeah, I did the same thing about 3 months ago when my wife's 89 overheated. Only it all hit me in the face. :up:

I was doing it super-slow, and all the hissing had stopped, so I thought it was ok to open it. I thought wrong.

[Chris E30 Cab]

Ouch! Yeah the hissing stopped on mine too.....damn expansion tanks!!! My arm's still funky looking after over 6 months :(

[Jand3rson]

Ouch! Yeah the hissing stopped on mine too.....damn expansion tanks!!! My arm's still funky looking after over 6 months :(

I didn't get burned (for some strange reason), although the coolant was plenty hot. My face and neck did hurt for a few days, though.

[Ryan Stewart]

Chris the stock radiators have the metal core but the side tanks (not expansion tanks) that the hoses attach to are attached to that metal core. Then the lips of the core are crimped over a lip on those sides. The sides often crack or the seals on the cores give way (although a lot less likely). Usually just the cracking.

[Ryan Stewart]

Fits great. A bit thicker (13mm) but the hoses still arent touching anything or kinked. Mounted the same. The pics are a bit decieving, there is a minium of 1" clearance. Its shadows created by the flash.

[bimmer8604]

Looks good ryan, prob runs a bit cooler too, never heard of you having an issue with it though. I'm going to try and come up some time and really see what this badboy will do!

Kyle