Fenix Radiator or OEM

[steroidcontaskie]

Hi all

The radiator on my 2jzge turbo soarer is looking a bit worse for wear, top tank is defiantly on its way out. Thinking it might be time for an upgrade and saw a Fenix all alloy one that also has a inbuilt cooler for the transmission.

http://www.fenixautoparts.co.nz/index.p ... ct_id=2156

question is, will this be better than getting another factory one? The car does have a big old turbo and a high stall toque converter, so will be making more heat than stock.

Any thoughts on that radiator or the fenix full alloy stuff in general.

Cheers
Edward

[mlracing]

Radiators are OK, caps are trash

[steroidcontaskie]

Cheers for the response,

If I get one I will make sure I replace the cap.

It is actually quite hard to find an aftermarket radiator for a Soarer that has a built in trans-cooler. All the ones I have seen are manual only. Serves me right for keeping the car auto.

Cheers
Edward

[sergei]

Just get an external transmission cooler.

[Dell'Orto]

That^
As above, the radiators are ok. OE will last longer though. Nothing from Mishimoto or the likes?

[steroidcontaskie]

Hi all

thanks for the respones

I have a extra trans-cooler with a thermostat controlled fan. But i am super concerned about cooking the trans fluid. I have also already had 2 transmissions fail (before the extra cooler was added) with the pan being filled with a thick black sludge after the last failure. The current trans has a been rebuilt with a performance kit from Import Performance Transmissions and they recommend having 2 additional coolers if I run a hi stall torque converter. If possible, I would really like to keep the extra cooling that the radiator offers.

Mishimoto (and lots of others) do supra radiators, that you can apparently make fit with a bit of fiddling, but they are all for manuals and it seems only Fenix seem to do an soarer one with a trans-cooler built in.

The fenix one is twice as thick as the OEM, if it is going to cool better, then I don't mind it not lasting as long. I just don't want to end up with worse cooling than what I have now.

Cheers
Edward

[85AW20v]

Copied this from MR2 OC - posted by Malcolm. Pasted here so he doesn't have to type it all out again!!

Jeez what a lot of nonsense! Sounds like the guy from the Summit technical department is about as clued up as your local pimply-faced Repco salesman. I can't believe any technical article would propagate the myth that coolant moving too quickly through a radiator gives you worse cooling.

To answer the original questions, Ash; I agree that you should definitely check out the state of your current radiator - the AW11 one is virtually identical to the SW20 and they're both more than adequate for your power plus quite a bit extra.

As for the oil cooler - first step there would be to look at oil temps - generally you can handle oil temps up to 130-140 degrees C, but if you're hitting that on the road then it probably means you'll be massively overheating it if you take it to a track. If your oil temp is close to coolant temp or even below it, there's no point separating the system off.

And a few general comments about the physics behind radiator/cooling system sizing: generally, there are diminishing returns for increasing radiator size and/or coolant flow rate: a radiator that is twice as wide will not reject twice as much heat, a radiator that is twice as thick will not reject twice as much heat, a coolant flow rate that is twice as high will not reject twice as much heat. This will always be true, but how steeply diminishing the returns will be for each change is hard to know without actually testing.

To understand the reason for these diminishing returns you need to realise that radiators are all about temperature differences. When air first hits the radiator it might be 80 degrees cooler, once it's traveled through 10mm of core thickness and absorbed some heat the temperature differential might be 50 degrees, once it's gone through a further 10mm of thickness the differential might be 30 degrees. For every bit of extra thickness you add, the more hotter the air becomes and the less efficiently it cools.

From my experience with cooling system testing on various cars and similar vehicles, the biggest limitation tends to be airflow through the radiator. Because air is much less dense than water/coolant and has a lower specific heat capacity, you need a shitload of it in comparison to the coolant flow, and usually it ends up being the biggest limitation. Interestingly, this can lead to the situation where making the radiator thicker, and therefore creating more resistance to airflow, can actually cause the cooling of a vehicle to get worse! Not likely the case on your average road car with a large frontal area and thin core, but if your starting point is a 38mm core and you replace it with a 76mm core, it can happen (I witnessed this on a vehicle I was involved in the development of a couple of years ago).

Cheers

[Mr Ree]

Agree ^

One only has to look at how small the Honda Civic radiators were during the 90's, to see how well a small/thin core can shed heat.

[GDII]

Agree ^

One only has to look at how small the Honda Civic radiators were during the 90's, to see how well a small/thin core can shed heat.

We used one on an SR20DE in a KP61 Starlet and it worked. Wasn't great but still worked well enough. This one was from a 1999 HRV and these cars have no grille.
However we have now swapped to an S14 aluminium radiator.

[JZCrazy]

I replaced my radiator in my V8 Soarer last month with a Fenix type (aluminium). Also installed Trans cooler.
No issuses as yet.
TT Soarer has Ali Radiator and trans cooler as well (4years), no issues.
SC Soarer has standard copper radiator and a separate trans cooler. Could have problem with this.
You should be ok using the Fenix + trans cooler.
Or get the top tank replaced and have the radiator cleaned and rodded.