The Official Aluminum Radiator Thread!

[Mad Dog 20/20]

I sold my PWR57 for fitment reasons (upper hose was too close to my SC pulley). I ordered a Mishi yesterday and it was delivered today. Have not been home to inspect it yet.

I got a Mishi silicone hose kit delivered a few days ago. The quality appears to be much superior to the BW silicone hose kit I had previously. The hoses are much stouter/tougher, are of the proper OD's (the BW hoses are of one large OD throughout), and they incorporate a nomex inner liner.

Mishi kit certainly seems legit.

[M3Alpine99]

I sort of wanted to get the hose kit... they offer a crazy low temp thermostat as well!

[Schultz28]

Paypal $200 to boombop.racing@gmail.com and tell him it's for an E36 M3 Mishimoto radiator. My friend got his in 4 days and it was perfect fit with some upgrades from their older radiators (according to my friend and another M3 owner who has the older one... I don't know exactly what the differences were)

They're currently on backorder but I ordered mine today and they expect a shipment in 1-2 weeks.

alright well i just emailed him to find out what the deal is! if its 200shipped to my door i will for sure be buying it fromt him!

heres his email back:
"If you are looking for the E36 radiator then perhaps it is Zoheb or Ivan. That is the shipped price for anywhere in the US except for California. There is sales tax of 8.75% for all California customers.
The Mishimoto E36 radiator is actually sold out right now, we were informed by Mishimoto Automotive that the new shipment should arrive on Friday and we are hoping to have them back in stock by next Monday. We usually ship items within 1 business day of receiving payment if the item is in stock. Please let us know if you have any additional questions." "For MMRAD-E36-92 shipped to 95008 it will be $217.50."

still pretty cheap!

I have the VSL radiator, but I purchased mine cheaper than what the GB is on it now.

When those eurodyne's were not keeping in stock, I spoke with someone at bimmerzone for like half hr via quick messenger on their site, then called. $180 shipped, thing works like a charm. Going on 2nd year with it, no issues anywhere, had to make to small snips into the factory shroud to make it fit, but who cares.

Getting an aluminum shroud soon enough anyways (Zionsville w/overflow tank)

I see hot ass weather too down here in Louisiana, FDM as well, has never over-heated.

you want to talk to them for me too and get me it for 180shipped?

[Zaks]

alright well i just emailed him to find out what the deal is! if its 200shipped to my door i will for sure be buying it fromt him!

heres his email back:
"If you are looking for the E36 radiator then perhaps it is Zoheb or Ivan. That is the shipped price for anywhere in the US except for California. There is sales tax of 8.75% for all California customers.
The Mishimoto E36 radiator is actually sold out right now, we were informed by Mishimoto Automotive that the new shipment should arrive on Friday and we are hoping to have them back in stock by next Monday. We usually ship items within 1 business day of receiving payment if the item is in stock. Please let us know if you have any additional questions." "For MMRAD-E36-92 shipped to 95008 it will be $217.50."

still pretty cheap!




you want to talk to them for me too and get me it for 180shipped?

Yea I'm Ivan and even though I talked to the guy first my friend Zoheb bought one before me and I'm SOL now haha. Still should get here fast enough. Oh and sorry, didn't know about the CA thing... still not bad for a proven AL rad with lifetime warranty.

[Schultz28]

Yea I'm Ivan and even though I talked to the guy first my friend Zoheb bought one before me and I'm SOL now haha. Still should get here fast enough. Oh and sorry, didn't know about the CA thing... still not bad for a proven AL rad with lifetime warranty.

yea he said they will have them stocked by monday and if i ordered one it should be here before friday.

[Mad Dog 20/20]

yeah, the mishi is very nice for the dough and the warranty. Put mine in last night.

[bigpuppy]

I'd just like to add that as some of you may know I crashed my car a few weeks ago destroying my Mishimoto radiator. I sent Mishimoto some pictures, the police report, and the following day had a brand new radiator at my house. Mishimoto has AWESOME customer service! The new radiator also now has rivnuts on the top and bottom of it to secure the trans. cooler.

[KnudsonsM3]

If anyone wanted to know, The BimmerWorld radiator has PERFECT fitment.

[robcoe101]

The BimmerWorld radiator is only $260 on their site. Seems to be the cheapest, reputable alum. rad for our cars. Anyone verify quality? Definitely my next replacement with close to 105k on the stock rad/overflow I'm long overdue and riding on luck.

[KnudsonsM3]

The BimmerWorld radiator is only $260 on their site. Seems to be the cheapest, reputable alum. rad for our cars. Anyone verify quality? Definitely my next replacement with close to 105k on the stock rad/overflow I'm long overdue and riding on luck.

it went down in price!!!!

[SmokedBMW23]

I just got the VSL alum radiator from bimmerzone and 5 days into it its great.

[darubez]

I have had the Eurodyne rad for a couple of months now. Fitment is good in the sense that no modification is required, but the welds are blasphemous and bulky. They make getting the hose clamps for the upper neck and overflow hose difficult to get on properly. I've had no issues performance wise with it, but I don't know about the 20-30% greater cooling efficiency (OEM dummy gauge is still in the same spot).

Honestly, if I had known I could get a Mishi for $20 more, I would have gone that route.

[NAZ1998BMWM3]

So from what I have read, this Mishi rad is the way to go. How do the welds look? Can someone post pics of it.

[robcoe101]

heres your pics

http://www.mishimoto.com/bmw-e36-alu...tor-92-99.html

[rirc]

I have searched and couldn't find anything about a brand called Mizu.
They are selling for around $250 bucks.
I just installed this on my car for a HPDE at Summit point. It is a direct fit with no modification. I don't have an aux. temp gauge but the needle didn't even move for a full day of track event.
I bought it from here: http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/part...Aluminum/16512

and the company website is here:
http://mymizu.com/bmwe36alra19.html

[E39SD]

HPF site says 3 rows; Mizu site says 2 rows.

[Fasterthanyou]

ECS tuning has a Stage 1 and stage 2 cooling system refresh kits for our cars that seemed kinda interesting, tho i heard ECS is kinda bad about shipping, seems it takes awhile for it to actually be shipped after order...

Stage 1- $124

• Metal impeller water pump
• Thermostat
• Upgraded aluminum thermostat housing
• Sealing gaskets
• 1 Gallon Coolant

Stage 2- $240

• Metal impeller water pump
• Thermostat
• Upgraded aluminum thermostat housing
• Sealing gaskets
• 1 Gallon Coolant
• Expansion tank
• Tank cap
• Upper & Lower radiator hoses
• Radiator hose clamps
• Accessory drive belts

And they want $236 bucks for a Mishi radiator

[Zaks]

Just a quick update. Mishis were on backorder for most of May, but the ebay seller I mentioned above sent mine as soon as he got it and I received it in 3-4 days, which I think is very fast shipping for this kind of stuff.

It came very well packaged in a big black box and it includes a radiator drain bolt (it's actually a big bolt at the bottom of the rad (not bottom on the side, but bottom) and iirc it's 17mm in size. It also has the holes for the fan shroud rivets threaded so you can attach the fan shroud with a bolt. Everything went together very well and it fit right in. I did have to trim off about 2mm of the fan shroud though... on the driver side where the small nipple is for the thin expansion tank hose... the fan shroud mounting tab there had to be trimmed the 2-3mm on the corner because it was hitting the nipple for that hose. Otherwise I'd say it's perfect in every way.

The one thing I'm going to be emailing Mishi about is including the M6 bolts in their kits so people don't have to go out and buy them at the hardware store. No $0.50 and a 5 min drive is not a big deal, but it would be nice for them to include it. I used a M6x16mm bolt and it fit perfectly.

[Erkinak]

Just a quick update. Mishis were on backorder for most of May, but the ebay seller I mentioned above sent mine as soon as he got it and I received it in 3-4 days, which I think is very fast shipping for this kind of stuff.

It came very well packaged in a big black box and it includes a radiator drain bolt (it's actually a big bolt at the bottom of the rad (not bottom on the side, but bottom) and iirc it's 17mm in size. It also has the holes for the fan shroud rivets threaded so you can attach the fan shroud with a bolt. Everything went together very well and it fit right in. I did have to trim off about 2mm of the fan shroud though... on the driver side where the small nipple is for the thin expansion tank hose... the fan shroud mounting tab there had to be trimmed the 2-3mm on the corner because it was hitting the nipple for that hose. Otherwise I'd say it's perfect in every way.

The one thing I'm going to be emailing Mishi about is including the M6 bolts in their kits so people don't have to go out and buy them at the hardware store. No $0.50 and a 5 min drive is not a big deal, but it would be nice for them to include it. I used a M6x16mm bolt and it fit perfectly.

Thanks for the helpful post. I just turned 80k miles on my M and I'll be tracking it often so I think it's time I upgrade the radiator. Is there another fan shroud that can be used with the Mishi radiator that doesn't require modifications?

[Zaks]

Thanks for the helpful post. I just turned 80k miles on my M and I'll be tracking it often so I think it's time I upgrade the radiator. Is there another fan shroud that can be used with the Mishi radiator that doesn't require modifications?

I think Mishi actually has their own aluminum shroud, however I wouldn't consider what I had to do a "modification" per say. It was a 2 second job of putting a utility knife blade to an edge of the tab where the rivets/bolts go to hold on the shroud and cutting off a small triangular piece. That's it.

[Erkinak]

I think Mishi actually has their own aluminum shroud, however I wouldn't consider what I had to do a "modification" per say. It was a 2 second job of putting a utility knife blade to an edge of the tab where the rivets/bolts go to hold on the shroud and cutting off a small triangular piece. That's it.

Great, that's easy enough. I have a dremel tool and everything in hand. Thanks.

[Zaks]

Great, that's easy enough. I have a dremel tool and everything in hand. Thanks.

This is what I was talking about... http://www.mishimoto.com/bmw-e36-per...ud-kit-92.html

I remembered it wrong I guess.. it's an electric fan with their shroud. I honestly wouldn't worry about the trimming. It is as easy as I made it sound. A few secs to trim off the 2-3mm piece. Plus it might not be the same on every radiator, so you might not have to do it anyway.

[el_bobbo]

So after some reading, it seems like the Mishimoto is a good product at a good price.

How have you guys been doing your installs? Keeping the fan/clutch assembly seems like it could be snug. 12"+ Spal fan perhaps?

Also read the OEM fan shroud can be re-used after some trimming. How do the new radiator hoses run, and is the expansion tank actually used still?

[Zaks]

So after some reading, it seems like the Mishimoto is a good product at a good price.

How have you guys been doing your installs? Keeping the fan/clutch assembly seems like it could be snug. 12"+ Spal fan perhaps?

Also read the OEM fan shroud can be re-used after some trimming. How do the new radiator hoses run, and is the expansion tank actually used still?

I don't have any long term experience with the Mishimoto but it looks very well made, has a lifetime warranty and fits well. Plus it's only $200 shipped from the guy on ebay I mentioned a few posts above, which is very hard to beat for a similar alum. rad.

I did the fan delete mod when I overhauled my cooling system a few days ago. I went with the 80*C tstat and lower temp fan switch.

The fan shroud is used just like it would be on the OEM radiator, but it's bolted in with 6mm bolts (I used 16mm long bolts from a local hardware store). I honestly didn't have to trim it as it would have still bolted fine to the radiator, but I trimmed the small piece as described above just so it sits perfectly. Other than that everything fits really well. Hoses fit fine and there's room for all the clamps to tighten down well. Expansion tank is used unless the radiator has it's own.. I think Zionsville has it that way. The Mishimoto is just a replacement for the stock radiator, so yes you re-use the expansion tank (or get a new one, like I did).

[apirkle]

I had a Zionsville that was installed by the previous owner. It probably had ~30k miles on it when it developed a pinhole leak where the topmost baffle meets the end tank.

Removed it and found out that the previous owner had failed to install the rubber isolation mounts that the radiator sits on. So the thing had been sitting directly on the frame, which I'm sure is what led to the cracking.

I called up Zionsville since the radiator has a lifetime warranty. I believe I talked to Dwight. He pointed out their policy: "Zionsville Autosport guarantees our radiators for life to the original purchaser. Purchaser must provide proof of BMW coolant use at first installation and once every two years thereafter."

He offered me the following deal: I pay shipping (both ways, probably >$100), $40 for a pressure test and then an amount TBD for the repair. He wouldn't give me even a ballpark estimate on the repair, even though the explanation of the leak location and size was pretty cut and dry. He also told me that if it was a pinhole, they would probably just put epoxy on it. I don't recall if this was explicitly said, but I seem to remember that there was no guarantee on the repair. Long story short... I'm back with a shitty stock radiator.

I'm not too disgruntled with Zionsville since the radiator failure was caused by the PO's bad install, but potential customers should be aware that they don't exactly bend over backward to support their product.