I’m hoping someone here can shed some light on this whole ordeal I’ve been dealing with for the past month.

I recently went to replace the radiator in my 88 pickup 3vze because it started leaking coolant. I ordered a unit from Mishimoto and after installing the hood wouldn’t close due to it sitting too high. Mishimioto said it should be a direct fit for 88-95 pickup/4Runner v6. After going over measurements with them and showing them a review from Amazon saying the same thing they didn’t seem too interested in figuring out what the problem is and just gave me a refund. I suspect this is because the replacement radiator isn’t actually made by them its just a rebranded parts store radiator.

After this I went with the much better CSF all metal radiator that looks exactly like the one that came out of my truck to begin with. This is CSF-2056 for reference. It fit exactly the same as the Mishimoto it sat too high WTF. I look at my old one and i notice that it has extra holes drilled on it to begin with to get it to sit lower. So my old radiator isn’t even the right one. The funny thing is that my grandpa (original owner of the truck) kept extensive records of everything done to the truck and when they replaced the radiator they got the part from Toyota. So even the Toyota replacement wasn’t right.

Here’s where things get even stranger. Oh and not to mention the part that Toyota says is the actual replacement radiator is long discontinued great. Before even changing my radiator my upper hose started leaking. I replaced it with a Gates hose and it didn’t fit perfect but I made it work and I figured that it was just because it’s not OEM. Side note: OEM hose is discontinued. Now after forcing my CSF to fit by modifying the holes on my brand new radiator my upper hose starts leaking. I realize it’s because the angle of it is pushing the hose off so its starting to leak despite the hose clamp. All of the replacement hoses I can find have the same angle that is wrong for my truck. Then after looking at a few diagrams and looking at my dad’s 89 4Runner V6 I figure out I’m supposed to have an angled radiator outlet which none of the radiator’s have. All of the radiators I can find have a straight outlet coming off the top not an angled one.

I don’t understand what the problem is here? How are there multiple companies that make replacement radiators for these trucks and none of them are right? Even if all the radiators are copies of each other they had to have test fit one of them at some point when designing it? What truck are these supposed to fit for because it’s damn close but just enough off to cause problems.


Notice the angled outlet for the hose.


These last 2 pictures are from my dad’s 89 4Runner V6. I tried looking up the part number on there but nothing comes up.

Hoping I can get some insight from some of you all that have this generation of V6 Pickup/4Runner I can’t be the only one with this truck who has replaced their radiator in the past few years. I also tried calling CSF just now and they told me to talk to the distributor that I bought it from (Summit) and that there was no one at her office that I can speak to in regards to technical questions.

TLDR; None of the replacement radiator’s on the market fit in the engine bay correctly, nor do they have the correct water outlet for the upper hose. Toyota has long discontinued the OEM stuff.

 

After a few hours of digging it seems like there’s been a few people with the same issue but they always just modify the hood to force it to clear. Seems like the radiators being produced for 88 V6 pickups/88-89 V6 4Runners are actually meant for 89+ pickups and 2nd gen 4Runners but the bolt pattern is the same. All of the radiators I can find for sale all say 88-95 which means it won’t fit. Despite the holes lining up it will sit too high and the inlet tube will be at the wrong angle. I’ve done all I can to make mine work but I really wish there was a direct replacement.

 

I ordered two of these from last year for a 92 4x4 PU and 88 4Runner, both 3VZE's(they were $125). Both were too tall for the hood. So I cut new holes to mount them. I didn't have to mess with the shroud holes because they matched up.

On the P/U the radiator got in the way of the skid plate, but on the 4Runner it did not. Didn't really investigate why.

Are there still radiator shops that still repair old radiators? Maybe that's an option.

 

I guess I should add that I laid the original radiator next to the new non fitting radiator and could see the mounting holes were wrong. So I used the fan shroud holes for reference.

 

Yeah there are still shops around that do that but the thing is the radiator I already had in my truck is the wrong one to begin with. The original one is long gone. Weird thing is that the radiator I had in the truck was from Toyota but it was the wrong one. I can tell they had to modify the mounting holes and the inlet neck isn’t quite the right angle.

I current have a flexible accordion style hose on the upper hose so I kinda fixed that problem. And I made 3 out of the 4 mounting holes line up. So at some point when it comes out again I’ll have a tab welded on to make the last mounting hole work.

I spent like 3 hours last night looking for any company that sells what looks to be the right one and all of them look like they are set up for the 90’s pu/4Runner

 

Neither of my radiators look like the one you have. They did look like the one in the diagram you have. Now I know why they didn't fit.