First, the fan shroud and fan are unbolted and removed together. This is the easiest way to get them in and out.
Next, the coolant is drained, the top clamps are removed, and the hoses are disconnected. Now the radiator can be removed.
Here are the leaking plastic tanks and the barbed hose bibs of the stock radiator. There is an o-ring seal for the tanks to the core with the core crimping onto the tanks compressing the o-ring. The o-ring gets hardened with age and shrinks and the tanks gradually lose their seal. A warning sign is a faint smell of coolant and some dried-up coolant residue around the base of the end tanks, eventually, coolant will just start visibly leaking out.
The CSF radiator core is 1/8″ thicker than the OEM core. This isn’t that much but you need to remember that the B-Fin core is much more efficient than stock. The CSF radiator is installed in reverse order of its removal. We replaced the radiator hoses with new BMW parts while we were in there.
1 comment
That’s so rad – and cool.