ResearchGuy007

1994 4Runner 3.0 4x4 VIN J w/AC.

(Many edits, please excuse my sloppy dictation earlier)

Radiator with its mounting brackets fits perfectly into chassis, but the bolt holes in the fence row (Edit: fan shroud; 'scuse my dictation) don't line up with the holes intended for its bolts on the same mounting brackets. There are two upper holes on both sides and one lower hole. The holes on the right side work okay but on the left, if I line up the other holes, there is no lower left hole lined up. If I could slide the shroud down about an inch, four holes would line up, but I can't do that because the shroud hits the lower radiator hose outlet on the driver side and the transmission cooler inlet on the passenger side. It looks like I'm going to have to cut semicircles out of the bottom of the shroud in order to slide it down, to align all the mounting holes.

Has anybody ever done this? Is the plastic flexible enough to do this with tinsnips without disastrous cracking? Or should I use a soldering iron to make the cutouts? I already received one replacement shroud because they sent me the one for the four-cylinder, and I've also received a replacement radiator because I didn't understand that I needed to remove the mounting rails as well as the old radiator. I'm tired of ordering new parts and waiting for them to arrive on a slow boat. It's time to just "make it fit" one way or another.

Thank you so much in advance!

P.S. In a post from several years ago someone here said they had attached their shroud with zip ties because it didn't fit their radiator either. I'm wondering how that worked out for them. I tried "rigging" office binder clips in place of the proper Toyota clips to attach the lower shroud attachment. There was a catastrophic failure at speed because the clips came off and the lower shroud got sucked into the fan.... Which is why I'm now having to do all this. So I am in no mood for another "half-fast" rigging job. But from all the posts about the crappy radiators that are being sold nowadays and the misfit shroud, some level of rigging seems required.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

I have never owned or seen a Toyota with a fan shroud unless it was either thrown behind the seats or in the bed

either make it fit buy the correct radiator so it fits .

After market radiators one size different brackets

ResearchGuy007

Thanks for the reply.

A few months ago when I didn't have the lower fan shroud attachment attached, my 4Rrunner would run hot when going up mountains in temperatures above 90°. Had to stop several times. I can't imagine how anybody would keep the engine cool with the entire fan shroud removed -- or why they would remove it.

I have also been running with the engine cover removed, but I think it might be designed to help with airflow through the radiator rather than around the radiator, so I'm going to reinstall that as well.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

It seldom gets hot here in Pa much over 100 degrees for weeks on end and we have no mountains

Most times I have 800 to 1000 or more pounds in the bed

Never had any cooling problems then have no idea just what radiator your using

What pray tell is the Engine Cover ?? Upper timing belt cover ?

To why the covers are removed first time the radiator comes out no one takes the time to put them back on here abouts in any case

ResearchGuy007

I got the new radiator from Partsgeek.com.

The cover I'm talking about is evidently more properly called a splash plate or skid plate or something like that: https://www.ebay.com/itm/GENUINE-OEM...-/152356885547

It makes sense to me that you wouldn't want water in a puddle on a dirt road splashed onto a hot exhaust manifold. I fully admit that I am as lazy as the next guy, so I didn't think much about that and had gotten tired of removing and reinstalling the plate every time I had to do anything under the vehicle.

But to more fully explain how I got here, which could benefit others here:

By the time I decided to reinstall the fan shroud extension (AKA "lower fan shroud"), I had misplaced the clips that held the lower fan shroud onto the main shroud. The proper dealer-supplied clips have a sort of notch cut out of them. Those notches fit around tiny protrusions ("tangs"?) on the fan shroud. The binder clips that I took out of an office drawer to substitute for the proper clips have no such protrusions. In retrospect it was obvious that they weren't going to indefinitely withstand the vibration and airflow that the proper clips were designed to withstand. There is a reason for just about every aspect of every shape of every part that is on a car. Engineers don't add parts, or aspects of parts, for no reason. So I'm happy to take my lumps. But I have no way of putting any lumps onto these Chinese parts makers who similarly ignore details of the designs that they obviously have access to, to make bigger profits. =:-/

scope103

For what it's worth, the binder clips I am using have worked well for the past 80,000 miles. Yeah, I'd prefer the real-deal, but it's hard to get too excited about tracking down right part when the substitute is working so well for so long.

ResearchGuy007

So it wasn't as bad a decision as I thought? Good to know, thanks! ;-)

But the proper clips were only about $1.49 each from the dealer, special order.

scope103

That puts me $1.45 ahead!!

(Actually, last I looked, I thought I had broken the end of the lower fan shroud, so without the binder clip I would have needed a new plastic piece. Now I'm wondering ...)

old87yota

Oh come on Scope103! Aren't you the one who is always showing people to replace parts with genuine factory Toyota parts?!?!

Kolton5543

Something like a fan shroud some good zip ties oughta hold fine. Use as many bolts as possible and tie the rest. Other wise get a radiator that fits right or ditch the shroud. I got tired of having to remove mine every time I did something under the hood so I ditched it with no adverse affects. Yours might be different but mine was hardly even a shroud. It had no sides or bottom that surrounded the fan in any way to seal it. Just a vented section on top that acted as a finger guard. It gets hot here in the summer. 115 degrees is nothing out of the ordinary. Running with a plain replacement 2 core radiator and A/C on it always ran at a fine temperature.