so its about time for a new radiator in my 86 4cyl 4runner. i was about to buy a new replacement and thought hmmm i wonder if a radiator off a v6 4runner would fit. Ive looked at a v6 4runner and it looks like 3 core opposed to the 4cyl 2 core, and living in florida i want all the cooling i can get lol.
so my questions are...
-has anyone done this?
-does it bolt up?
-will the stock fanshroud and fan work?

 

From what I've read, it mounts up but the shroud holes are in different places, that and since the rad is thicker the fan sits deeper in the shroud. I gotta replace mine soon but I'm gonna order from this place:

http://www.radiatorbarn.com/

I'm sure someone who has done the swap will chime in

 

www.rockauto.com is a great place to check out part interchangeability. They also have pictures and cross-listings of all their parts.


Nice sales pitch, Nick.

 

IIRC, they are a direct replacement...???

Looking at the rad, low left and upper right? As long as those two are the same or close? Gopherit!

 

You can get a new all metal three core radiator from radiator barn for 175.00.

 

I was gonna start a thread for this and saw this while searching. Noone on here is running a 3.0 rad in a 4cyl truck? If so post up some photos.

Now I do know the 3.0 rads are too tall for say an 83 body style.

From another thread I was involved in, however not sure if the 86-95 rads are the same as what he was using.

 

ran a v6 radiator with efan in my 84 runner with a 22re bolt in

 

which efan Blake cus when I go get my rad, I think I am gonna switch to a taurus/vilager/mkviii fan.

 

im pretty sure it was a taurus fan, got it at the yard but it was like ten years ago. it was 2 speed. i wired it through relays to run the low speed while driving and kick on high when it got a little too warm. napa sells cheap thermostat kits to control it, however i just used it to control the relays

 

Yes it will bolt right up. The shroud will bolt up,but doesn't cover the whole rad because the v6 one is taller. You will have to rotate the bottom hose a little too because it is taller and the top hose will be a tiny bit kinked unless you get creative with it. Mine still cooled great with a slightly kinked hose until I found a random hose that fit better. The top hose connection on the v6 one points slightly to the pass side instead of straight. I built my own aluminum fan shroud to mount a 16" spal fan on with a spal fan relay kit that kicks the fan on automatically at 185*. They also have one that kicks on at 195*. This setup bolted right up on my 1990 and 1987 turbo pickup (had to silver solder turbo coolant line in top tank for turbo p/u)

 

I can work around any issues with the hoses, that won't be a problem. Now you did bring up another issue I didn't think of and that's the height difference vs fan shroud. I know the Taurus Fans/Shroud almost fit perfectly height wise on the 4cyl rads. I guess I would have the same height issue as I would have with the mechanical fan with the Taurus fan?

Maybe I should search to see if anyone on here is running the Taurus on a 3vze truck. I don't think many of us are though.

 

Don't even screw around with some junkyard fan then. Just get a good 16" fan (spal) and thermo relay kit (spal) and do it right. If I ever get around to it I'll take some pics of the shroud I made and try to post them up here. My friend copied my shroud design and put the same setup on his 91 p/u and hasn't had any issues either. There's not much to the shroud,especially if you have access to a plasma cutter. Oh, and definatly do not mount an electric fan with one of those plastic "zip" kits that go through the core to mount the fan to it. You will more than likely end up rubbing holes in the tubes of the core that may,or may not be repairable. Some people run those and somehow never have an issue with them,but we have a lot come in that are not so lucky. If it only rubs a hole in an outside tube then we usually can fix it,which is usually the case,but if it's a tube in the middle,not as likely.

 

Can you post the Spal part numbers you used on your 3.0 so we can get a setup?

 

These Taurus fan swaps aren't all that uncommon actually. From Researching them a little, looks like the Heep guys use them alot. Also the MK VIII fans seem to be somewhat popular in the domestic street car crowd. I still haven't gotten any CFM numbers on the Taurus fans but that MK VIII fan puts out like 2500 CFM on low more then a SPAL 16" and 2750 on high. Now granted the MKVIII fan is an 18" fan and also has roughly a 100 amp starting current.

 

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CEQQ8wIwBg

This is it the 195 in the part# indicates that it has the temp switch that kicks the fan on at 195* They have another one that kicks it on at 185*. Don't remember # on the fan though. They have so many 16'' fan options,even the low profile one the doesn't pull as much cfm seems to work great on my friend's truck. The v6 rad is already great cooling on the 4cyl,and the stock fan is only a 14'',so even the low profile weaker 16'' spal is great.