babyfood1217

PIC REQUEST - I need pictures of the height of an installed radiator with the cap on. Straight on shot with a ruler placed somewhere. I need to see how far up everything should be sitting.

I 'm having some clearance issues, and I think some recent component failures may be caused in part because of my hood pressing on the radiator cap, resulting in it seating improperly on the filler neck causing a lack of pressure and preventing a number of components involved with the cooling system from functioning properly.

I'll add some details in a minute. I'm starving for a beer...

-Chris

Tubbyfatty

Mine sits like 2 inches above the core support, my friend who has a body lift (3") has his sitting an inch below the core support, its way down there.

92 TOY

when i installed my new radiator(spectra) with a larger cap it also had clearance issues (no pics, i'm rebuilding the engine, sorry)......but i mocked-up a cap with foil and dropped the hood to see where it hit. turned out i had to make some relief cuts (two approx 1/8'') in the hood bracing where it hit and then it was fine.

babyfood1217

I've been looking at the bracing, and I think I may do this. The last radiator I had just failed recently with a large fracture at the base of the filler neck, caused likely by the pressure of the hood bracing on the cap. Without pulling the entire radiator out and fiddling with nutserts and drills and grinder to create new core supports, I can't move the radiator any lower. So perhaps a few choice notches wouldn't be so terrible. Still hoping for some pictures if anyone has them.

-Chris

myyota

Why not just get the correct radiator to solve the problem ???.

babyfood1217

I've been trying, but apparently I, just like the mechanics at the local Toyota service center, as well the podunk mechanics at the shop in Indiana where it broke down last week, "couldn't get one." I found out yesterday after opening a complaint with the dealer, that they got there from Weaver auto parts, and the Indiana shop got theirs from Carquest. I would love to have a OEM radiator, but apparently, they are harder to find than the culprit behind my fuel supply/ignition problems.

The Toyota dealer put one in this february when I had numerous oil seal failures and had most of the coolant system replaced as well.

The indiana shop put one in last week when the "toyota" one developed a fracture at the base of the filler neck, likely in part from the pressure of the hood pressing on it.

92 TOY

The hoods are probably different but here's what I did.....




to acomodate a higher radiator with a larger cap


However. on my son's '88 3vze we replace his radiator with the same brand(Spectra) and had no issue, but it's a different engine

myyota

Go to radiatorbarn.com and you can get an oem replacement that will fit like the original radiator, i bought a three core replacement radiator from them for my 86 4Runner and its working good.