My 2000 5.4l Eddie Bauer 4x4

[ExplorerTom]

A couple years ago I was a moron. I bought some LED pod lights to mount in my rear bumper. I measured them and got them nice and even. I started cutting.

Then I decided to look behind for clearance.

Oops.

A big chunk of steel was back there part of the bumper support/bumper hitch. Since then, that exposed metal has been rusting.



I picked up a "new" bumper at the local junkyard.


I spent the next several weeks deciding what to do with it: leave the chrome or paint it black. Well, I decided to paint it black. And I think I'm glad I did.


I just hope I sanded the chrome enough so the primer/paint has taken good hold and it doesn't chip if I look at it funny. I've seen some crappy painted bumpers in traffic.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Well, my radiator is leaking.

AGAIN.

I replaced it just over a year ago (2/19/17). I haven't taken the fan shroud off, but it appears to be leaking where the fins meet the plastic end tank on the rear passenger side. Same reason I replaced it originally.

I'm extremely tempted to go with the Mishimoto all aluminum radiator. Or I could throw another $100 piece of crap in there and hope to get another 12 months out of it. And repeat that for 4 years straight and I'll have the same cost as the Mishimoto.

 

[1955moose]

We used to have unbelievable radiator failures on our Ford crown Vic's back when I worked with the Taxi company about 11 years back. Our service manager had a stack 15 high with old ones that leaked. I asked him what brands he tried? He said all of them including from Ford themselves. Apparently the Ford, and Mercurys that we had back around 2005-2008 had big time problems. Personally I think it was a mounting/ support issue, but he had his crew just keep throwing in one after another. Tom let us know how the other brand your installing holds up, if you do go that route. You could spring some big bucks and put in something top shelf like Ron Woods, or equivalent, but that's big Dinero!

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[JExpedition07]

We used to have unbelievable radiator failures on our Ford crown Vic's back when I worked with the Taxi company about 11 years back. Our service manager had a stack 15 high with old ones that leaked. I asked him what brands he tried? He said all of them including from Ford themselves. Apparently the Ford, and Mercurys that we had back around 2005-2008 had big time problems. Personally I think it was a mounting/ support issue, but he had his crew just keep throwing in one after another. Tom let us know how the other brand your installing holds up, if you do go that route. You could spring some big bucks and put in something top shelf like Ron Woods, or equivalent, but that's big Dinero!

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We still have these issues on our work trucks (Super Duties). Mostly the 6.7L ones, many leak out the corner of the radiator from new to this day.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Well, finally got the Mishimoto all aluminum radiator installed today. It was on back order for about a month. I probably added a gallon of coolant over the course of that month as it slowly leaked out.

Install was fairly straightforward. I did need to trim the fan shroud some, but it was fairly minor.

Quality piece for sure.




It's no bigger than the radiator that was in there.


Hopefully this one won't leak. If it does, it has a lifetime warranty. And I'm keeping the old one for awhile. Just 'cuz.

 

[ExplorerTom]

I had a hell of a time getting the fan shroud on/off with the new radiator. The mounting tabs for the shroud were hitting the hot side transmission cooler line. I think it's because the bung for the transmission lines stick out farther than on a plastic radiator.

During one of my iterations, I had everything installed but I had a small transmission fluid leak. The flare fitting was tight, but not tight enough to keep it from leaking, but tight enough that when I loosened it, the piece that screws into the bung also turned. This caused the transmission hard line to rotate- which caused the hard line to develop a small kink. Crap. The fan shroud was preventing me from getting a wrench on the bung fitting to hold it tight at the same time.

I drove it for a day like this. It still leaked because I didn't remove the fan shroud to tighten up the bung fitting. And I noticed that my transmission temp rose up to 195 in some minor stop-n-go traffic in 50 degree weather.

I decided to cut off the upper fan shroud mounting tabs. The shroud is now held in place with some metal straps and a bunch of self locking fasteners.

Now the kinked hard line. What to do there? I decided that since the new auxiliary cooler I installed almost 3 years ago has been holding tight using a rubber transmission line clamped over the flared hard line, I would do the same here. I cut out the kinked section and made a couple flares on the ends and used a short piece of transmission line to connect them.

Seems to be a success. No leaks. And transmission temps never got above 140 degrees yesterday (although air temp was only 30 degrees).

Pics later.

 

[1955moose]

Tom, it always amazes me how a company that makes such a high end product, like your radiator doesn't take the time to make it a drop in fit! I've run into this so many times with aftermarket parts that their too long, too short, too this, too that. Don't these people install their product? Probably not. They take an oem unit, kinda copy it, and say, that's close enough. It might be my old age talking, but back in the day, parts fit. Yeah the cheaper ones failed sooner, but at least they bolted up, without having to break out hammers, pliers, or whatever to make it fit. Sorry you went through this. At their price point, this is unacceptable!

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[ExplorerTom]

Yeah. Certainly pushes the required DIY skill level a little higher. One good news is this radiator did away with the complicated lower radiator hose attachment that the OE replacements use.

Other than that, the radiator seems to be working fine. Just drove 200 miles while watching the engine and transmissions temps. Air temp ranged from 57 to 31. Speeds were mostly 65-75. I'm kicking myself a little for not knowing the transmission temps with the old radiator (before the kinked tube), but today the temps were mostly right around 150. It did climb to about 165 while going up a small pass but then cooled off afterwards. I know in the heat of the summer, I've seen trans temps in the 190s in normal driving.

 

[1955moose]

Sounds like your dialed in. Just hope that hose repair holds out. Let us know how it works out. Always trying to put another aftermarket part in the win category.

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[Andy J]

Mishimoto makes a good product. The only concern i have had with them is how they design their transmission cooler inlet and outlet ports on their radiators. If you look at the picture of mishimoto radiator what was posted, you will see that inside the ports where the tranny lines hook up, it looks like there is a small reducer in there preventing the fluid from being able to use the full diameter of the port. Its the same thing on their diesel radiators also. Its part of the tank and is not removable. I was concerned about running the one i bought for my 6.0 because a have a fully built trans with a modified pump, but supposadely the fluid flow on my cooling circuit is the same as the stock pump.

Not trying to be a buzz kill, just something to be aware of.

Andy