I was driving to work this morning and the heat gauge rose dramatically, I pulled over and steam was erupting out of this tiny crack on the upper left hand side of the radiator. anyone know what caused this?.....my guess is that its stock since 1988.

 

probably just old and brittle.

or you had to much water mixed in and it froze up over night

just make sure you mix your antifreeze right when you put a new radiator in

 

My stock 93 radiator only made it to about 2002 before it developed tiny pin holes along the top from corrosion.

 

I don't know where you're from, but here in the NW, its been extremely cold, maybe your antifreeze isn't the right mix.

 

yeah tacoma, wa. its been freezing

 

oh well, 130 bucks for a brand new radiator, not bad

 

I bought one from Oreilly's and when it came in I was shocked, It was a 3 core! Paid $125.

 

you might check out rockauto.com

sometimes they have very good prices

 

Well..is 20 years old u cant be mad at it for braking.

 

I did remove and reinstall the radiator when i did my engine swap, but that was a while ago, how long will it take to take the old radiator out and install the new one, work is going to give me 2 hours to do it.

 

I think the book rate allows about 1.2 hours

 

25 mins for the " in and out" probly another 15 to burb it

 

my stock 89 rad only made it till 2008. pos. easy swap out in 2 hours if you have any skills

 

easy swap in a max of 2 hours



barring catastrophic event

 

Make sure your anti freeze mix is right, I run about 90/10 anti freeze/water but that's what I've always done. Check the manual to be sure.

My factory 86 rad only made it until 08 so these things do fail after a while. It took me about 30 minutes to drain/pull/replace/fill/burp the new one.

 

Manual says 50/50. 90/10 is a bit rich on the coolant, though. IIRC, 60/40 is the most one should even need.

 

......that is, in most situations.

 

There is a writeup in the tech section on how to change your rad. Pretty easy job..

I R&R the rad on my girls 22re runner, that was easier then on my truck.
Partly because my rad is bigger and my truck is about 8" higher...

I run a 50/50mix of Toyota coolant and distilled water