While I did not expect it, preparing for Tulsa has turned into a last minute thrash to have the car ready. I left work a little early and started work around 4:30 but did not finish until almost 9 o'clock. Tonight, I have a work event for almost all of the evening so there really is not much opportunity to drive before leaving Thursday. Needless to say, I'm not especially confident without at least a little drive time.
The radiator installation took a while as there was quite a bit to do. I had to move the trans cooler plugs to the new radiator, adjust my new lower radiator brackets, mount the radiator, drill fan holes in the shroud, mount the shroud, connect the temperature sender, mount the shroud, install a new upper hose, mount the temp controller and relay, find a new place for the overflow tank, fill up the system, run it some, and then fill it up again.
A new upper hose was needed because my original hose was too short to stretch to the new port location on the radiator. I used a Gates 21953 which is especially long so you can cut it to fit. I ended up cutting about four inches off so there is plenty of material to work. The hose seems to be of good quality so it is likely better than the factor lettering one I was using.
Mounting the shroud to the radiator on the battery side is a chore. There is not much way to get to the back of the bolts without removing the battery. There really isn't much room to work around the much larger radiator. I'm hopeful it is worth the work and expense.
The front of the radiator was previously entirely covered by the AC condensor. There are now sections visible on both sides of the condenser although the receiver/dryer covers some of the driver side. While it does not look like much, I hope that helps with my cooling troubles. I figured it before and I have 25% more surface area but switching from a 1" -2 core to a .63" -3 core likely cut surface area of the core by 5%.
It is barely visible below but the new upper radiator hose is contoured slightly differently. I noticed as the hose I was using almost made contact with the tension pulley for the AC. This one is routed a little differently which is good as it provides plenty of room around the pulley.
At some point, I'll get a new overflow tank. I've used this piece of junk for a while but it works. I'm glad I've not purchased one of the types which mount to the side of the radiator as I no longer have any room. Luckily, I could remove the washer tank and it mounted using one of those bolts. I'll call this good enough for now as I don't see another option.
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