akimoto

My OEM radiator sprung a leak at the seal between the plastic tank and the metal core, so I ordered a new Mishimoto rad.

I had no problems installing it, everything fit flush.

After everything was hooked back up I bled the cooling system. I didn't do a good enough job bleeding the system and ended up with some air pockets. My vents would only blow cold air, even though the knob was turned to full heat.

I also noticed that I was getting some steam from the right side of the rad.

After searching the board I solved the problem by doing a proper bleed of the cooling system. I have hot air blowing out of the vents and my temps are normal throughout the day.

Unfortunately I haven't fixed the steam that is coming from the bottom right of the radiator. I've read that it might be the fan switch, which can leak often if you reuse the old one.

Today I waited till the car was cool, then I removed the air box, took off the fans and tried to look for the leak, but I couldn't see or feel anything wet. I put a cloth under the fan switch hoping to see that it was leaking from there, but it was dry.

Do I have to look for the leak while car is running? From the top all I see is steam coming from below the rad cap.

At this point I'm not really sure what I should do. Do I just replace the fan switch?

FASTSIIK

I say your radiator cap is bad, a leak in the cooling system would be visable as coolant. the only place that steam would come from is the top of the radiator, so most likely your cap. is the OEM cap compatible with the new radiator?

akimoto

FastSIIK - The rad came with a new mishimoto rad cap. I'll call mishimoto and find out if I can use the OEM cap with it. I've inspected the rad cap area closely while it is steaming and it doesn't seem to be leaking from the cap.

All the steam is coming from the bottom, underneath the fan. I was thinking that it might be the fan switch that is leaking and the coolant that hits the rad just turns to steam.

Kirpich

I had to heat-cycle my car for the airpockets to go away. I drove the car, the engine temps went up like almost all the way, then shut the car off. As the engine was cooling, you could almost see the antifreeze just being sucked away by the engine from the reservoir. I added more, it didn't overheat anymore, but did suck a bit more of antifreeze. since then (February) it's been good.

FASTSIIK

try and find a coolant pressure tester, thats a sure way to find it. Good luck

akimoto

I'm not getting any steam from the rad any more. I think it may have been the spilled coolant burning off. I can still smell the coolant sometimes, but I guess the smell will fade with time.

I've been watching the coolant levels in the overflow tank and it seems to be dropping down just a bit each day. Since it isn't a lot of coolant, I guess that it might be getting some lingering air pockets out.

If I continue to lose coolant, I'll do a pressure test.

Thanks for the help Fast2IIK!

akimoto

As a side note: The mishimoto rad is working great. My engine seems to stay cooler, the temp bars stay at 2 during my city driving and stay at 3 when I'm zipping around. It was a great replacement for my leaky OEM rad.

From my 1 week of using the mishimoto rad, I would recommended it. It also looks pretty good under the hood.