Radiator Question!

[JDMPrelude23]

My radiator needs to be replaced so i ordered a new one, but i got the single fan radiator instead of the big regular one, a mishomoto replica

my question is can i just have 1 fan connected and ill be good and if yes which fan???? or i have to have both fans and how when the radiator is type small cause its a single fan radiator???

[88lxi-shortram]

if its a single fan then youll be ok but if if starts to get a little hotter than you want you can order a reverse blow fan and mount it to the front ( youll need to make some brackets) and hook it up and thatll help

[JDMPrelude23]

which fan do i use though. the Radiator fan or the cooling fan??
And if you plug the fan wires in reverse blk/rd rd/blk instead of blk/blk and red/red, wouldnt the fan go in reverse? i tried it with an electric fan and it worked... or are the propellers shaped a different way (thats wat makes it a reverse fan??)

[88lxi-shortram]

im not sure but i know there are fans that are specially designed to be spun in reverse. but like i said, its a single fan radiator so it should be fine with a single fan. if not youll need another one

[DBMaster]

It's really a matter of how many cubic feet per minute (cfm) the new single fan moves compared to the two OEM fans. Also, the design of the shroud makes a difference. I'll bet you will be fine. You should connect it to the wiring for the current main cooling fan (the one on the passenger side). That one comes on both when needed for the radiator as well as when your A/C compressor is running. The other fan only comes on with the A/C so you would not want to use those wires.

Can't remember if you still have your A/C installed. If you don't you will absolutely have no problem with one fan. I have had two instances over the life of my car during which one of my fan motors had gone bad. The only way I knew it was that the A/C vent temp got a little warmer when I was stuck at lights or in traffic. The temperature gauge barely changed from its normal position. I do use synthetic oil, though, and that is known to lower engine temps by 20-50 degrees.

[JDMPrelude23]

Oh ok cool... but yea my AC system is removed, so i guess ill leave the ac fan out and just use the 1 rad fan, if anything ill add another fan if it gets bad.. and thanks for the info on the synthetic oil, didnt know that. I heard it was bad to put synthetic oil in honda's lol.. i used it on my prelude when i had it so idk, maybe the dude was wrong

[DBMaster]

Hmm. Synthetic oil bad? I guess I hear those sorts of wives' tales every now and then. Like the one about putting "orange" coolant into the car causing your cooling system to be clogged with something gelatinous. I have used synthetic oil since the first oil change in 1989 and I switched to extended life coolant in 1997. (Not all extended life coolants are orange.)

[YK86]

Like the one about putting "orange" coolant into the car causing your cooling system to be clogged with something gelatinous.

Sorry, kinda off topic but this is actually true. A coworker mixed dexcool (orange) with the regular green coolant in his Civic and Mazda 626. I caught the Civic in time but the 626 had already started overheating and when I peaked inside, the coolant had turned to a mud colored gel. It was an absolute nightmare to clean out. I literally took me a week to get 75% of the gunk out. It's greasy and doesn't wash off easily, gets stuck to the sensors making the car run like crap, and all the hoses felt like they were being eaten away by acid (unusually soft). Even heavy duty rad cleaners didn't get it all out. The problem was the mud had caked the coolant passages in the block and it wouldn't come out so every time, it would just contaminate the new coolant.

The extended life yellow coolant is ok for all cars though. I've been using that a lot now lately.

[DBMaster]

I guess maybe I didn't run into that issue because I drained my system and flushed it with purified water first. I used the orange "Dexcool" stuff for years and lately I have been using the Supertech stuff from Wal Mart. It claims the same long life as th orange stuff, but has green dye in it instead. Heck, back in the 90's I even used Sierra for a while. Remember that stuff? It was blue and based on propylene glycol rather than ethylene glycol. I have had no issues that I am aware of. You'd think after 11 years and MANY miles I would have had issues by now if I were going to have them.

[YK86]

It's a good thing you did the flush first. That's probably why you've been ok. I've read as long as you get a good 95% of the green out, you'd be ok.

This guy had a problem on both cars with a leaky rad (cheap guy didn't want to fix it). The Civic coolant was still green but the overflow was orange so he probably didn't add much.

The 626 was worse so I think he kept pouring the dexcool in to top up every day. I still get shivers thinking about that job. In the end, he didn't listen to my advice on keeping a good eye on it even after the clean out. Kept driving it, eventually clogging up the rad again and thermostat. Overheated the motor so bad that all the valves were sticking out a good 1/8 of an inch from where it was supposed to be seated with no cam lol. No wonder all cylinders had 0 compression.

Anyways, sorry op for taking this off topic.

[DBMaster]

^^Don't feel badly. I started it! It is, unfortunately, one of my talents - taking conversations off onto tangents. I guess I just like to experiment. I read a few articles about the "Dexcool" formulation before I tried it. I have not changed my coolant since 1997. I should state, however, that over the years I have changed some, or most of, the coolant due to water pump (with timing belt) replacements, popped hoses, leaky radiator tank gaskets, etc. So, the coolant has been changed over time. When I look inside the radiator the coolant is very clear and the tube ends look like new. I play around and just don't spend too much time worrying.

[lostforawhile]

Oh ok cool... but yea my AC system is removed, so i guess ill leave the ac fan out and just use the 1 rad fan, if anything ill add another fan if it gets bad.. and thanks for the info on the synthetic oil, didnt know that. I heard it was bad to put synthetic oil in honda's lol.. i used it on my prelude when i had it so idk, maybe the dude was wrong

the early synthetic oils sometimes had compatibility issues, but those issues were solved a long time ago, yet the stories continue to circulate, the only issue you may have, is if you have oil leaks, they may leak faster, this is because the synthetic is slippery enough to get out the leaks at a higher rate. the solution to this is to fix the leaks, which should be done anyway. with the fan, it depends on how hot it gets there, I got rid of my AC too, but I would never get rid of my big radiator and dual fans, I even added an oil cooler, of course it regularly gets over 100 here in the summer all the way through fall, it's already hit 93 and it's still spring. The extra coolant capacity means the coolant will stay somewhat cooler just due to a higher volume.

[Dr_Snooz]

The DexCool is reputed to cause a lot of problems, even in the cars engineered to use it. Some shops advocate flushing it out and running regular green instead.

[DBMaster]

I give up! If I listen to Snooz and Lost too long I'll start losing sleep worrying about my car self-destructing from neglect.

Guys, if the thing pulled a Blues Brothers on me tomorrow (remember what happened to their old police car at the end of the movie?) I would be satisfied with its life span.

The honest truth is that I have used extended life coolant for fourteen years with zero issues. I have use synthetic oil for 22 years and everything the oil touches is spotless. It should be noted that my experience is what you would call anecdotal so it cannot be generalized to the entire 3G population. I only change my oil at 10K mile intervals. Again, that's the kind of thing that may give you the shivers, but it has gotten me 335,000 miles, so far, out of this engine.

I'm just saying, let's not get carried away.

[DBMaster]

OK, I didn't mean to sound so belligerent, amigos. Maybe it wasn't that bad, but I have been feeling very irritable lately. Maybe it's the fact that I dislike my work so much, I don't know. I guess I just find that there IS a lot of misinformation about car stuff out there. I knew that Honda coolant was silicate free and that the big deal about Dexcool was that it was silicate free. A coolant "flush" for me always consisted of draining the radiator and block, refilling with R/O water, warming up the engine and then draining again. That's all I did before putting in the Dexcool in November of 1997. I am not sure why the Wal Mart brand stuff is green, but it still claims the same 5yr/150K mile life span and it says it is "universal." I've been using that for the past 4-5 years. My coolant stays so clean it's amazing.

I'm surprised about no comments on the 10,000 mile OCI. I still have full compression, clean spark plugs, and fuel economy numbers that have not changed since 1995 (when the switch to reformulated gas happened here). I guess I am just cautioning about over thinking things. I have done that most of my life and it usually causes nothing but grief.

[Dr_Snooz]

OK, I didn't mean to sound so belligerent, amigos. Maybe it wasn't that bad, but I have been feeling very irritable lately. Maybe it's the fact that I dislike my work so much, I don't know. I guess I just find that there IS a lot of misinformation about car stuff out there. I knew that Honda coolant was silicate free and that the big deal about Dexcool was that it was silicate free. A coolant "flush" for me always consisted of draining the radiator and block, refilling with R/O water, warming up the engine and then draining again. That's all I did before putting in the Dexcool in November of 1997. I am not sure why the Wal Mart brand stuff is green, but it still claims the same 5yr/150K mile life span and it says it is "universal." I've been using that for the past 4-5 years. My coolant stays so clean it's amazing.

I'm surprised about no comments on the 10,000 mile OCI. I still have full compression, clean spark plugs, and fuel economy numbers that have not changed since 1995 (when the switch to reformulated gas happened here). I guess I am just cautioning about over thinking things. I have done that most of my life and it usually causes nothing but grief.

It's mellow bro. I don't think anyone is telling you to go out and change it right now. Nor is anyone saying you take bad care of your car. You're having good luck with DexCool and that's great, but in the interests of preventing misinformation, as you put it, we're just pointing out that your experience may not be typical.

Sorry to hear about your job.

[gp02a0083]

The DexCool is reputed to cause a lot of problems, even in the cars engineered to use it. Some shops advocate flushing it out and running regular green instead.

yah that stuff is junk , my father says just to use regular old radiator fluid, or if you wanna get fancy use propylene glycol rather than ethylene glycol.

[DBMaster]

I did once use Sierra Coolant. Are there any other advantages to using it other than the purported lower toxicity? I read an article about fifteen years ago that stated once the coolant's been in your engine for 30,000 miles it is toxic, even if it was plain water when you put it in there.

Wanna hear something funny? The city where I live will actually tell you that you can just dump it because the water treatment plant can remove it in normal processing. That's a little uncaring for me so I do save it along with other fluids for the household hazardous waste collection events.

I guess the big thing is just not to let puddles of the stuff hang around long enough for a dog to drink out of it.

[Dr_Snooz]

You probably want to do some reading before using the Sierra long term. I've heard it also creates sludge. The Evans NPG that I'm using is supposedly propylene glycol and I'm getting ready to ditch it. I can't get my ICV to work properly and my second water pump now is squealing like a snitch. That sucks because the stuff is $35/bottle. I will probably end up running Zerex G05.

[DBMaster]

Speaking of sludge...

I know it's off-topic, but I liked those Castrol commercials with the gallons of sludge falling from the sky. Also, the ones with the Scottish guy and "using your dipstick, laddy" still crack me up every time!

[Tdurr]

I did once use Sierra Coolant. Are there any other advantages to using it other than the purported lower toxicity? I read an article about fifteen years ago that stated once the coolant's been in your engine for 30,000 miles it is toxic, even if it was plain water when you put it in there.

Wanna hear something funny? The city where I live will actually tell you that you can just dump it because the water treatment plant can remove it in normal processing. That's a little uncaring for me so I do save it along with other fluids for the household hazardous waste collection events.

I guess the big thing is just not to let puddles of the stuff hang around long enough for a dog to drink out of it.

thats pretty much everywhere man...

[JDMPrelude23]

Thanks ya for ya info!.. my radiator finally came, just finished putting it in like 2 hours ago.. I didnt keep my old fan, i got an electric fan instead, its slimmer and more powerful and i connected it using the radiator fan wires, so now it looks great.

[3gkeemo]

hi everyone not trying to bring back and old thread but my 87 lxi has been having some overheating issues i was told to replace the radiator and hoses and do a flush because the car sat for some time and had also been in a front end collision that was minor, but major enough to slightly bend the frame and radiator. long story short the other night was driving home smoke came up from the engine i pulled around the corner to stop a "whip cracking" sound and a puff of smoke came out of the bay. i let it sit for a while and it brought me home. now the car had a weird idle and was revving on its on but just slightly. also i've noticed that coolant has been getting eaten by my engine. what can i do to fix it?

[import racer]

Put in a head gasket.