Back to the Bus: Rad Swap (Part 1)

It's been a long time coming, but today, I cover the removal of the under-belly mounted radiator in the TDI-powered bay-window bus. In a subsequent post, I'll cover the bracketing retrofit and install fun. First, some background.

Background

disconnected front chains

Last Summer Boo and I had three incidents with the bus getting too hot. We couldn't keep up with GratefulEd on the way home from 4Peaks (See 4Peaks 2017 Road Report). Then, we were stranded on the side of the road climbing the foothills on our way to Frog Lake (see Almost Frog Lake). Last, we barely scratched out a round trip into central Washington for Chinook Fest (See Chinook Fest 2017 Road Report). First, I thought it was because I let the coolant level get too low. Topping up with water didn't help. Then, I thought I had caused irreparable damage from using the wrong coolant, and did a complete flush and fill. It didn't fix the issue. On the drive home from Chinook Fest, I promised Hapy that I would replace his radiator before we took another drive. After emptying the bus of camping gear, I parked him and winterized him. He has sat with a Bus Depot bus-cover ever since.

Radiator - (almost) 9 Years Later

draining the coolant

I had to reach pretty far back into this blog to figure out when I originally installed the radiator. My earliest references to it date back to November of 2009, and I already had it in hand. If I remember correctly, I bought it used off of CL that summer for $40. It could have been the summer of 2008 or even that spring, I suppose. I just know that it was a nice warm dry day, and that definitely doesn't happen in November. Regardless, this used radiator from an early 90's Jetta gave us 6 years of service, but I believe it has served it's last trip. Looking back through the posts, I detailed location thoughts (here), how I constructed the frame/bracket (here and here), the cowling, test fitting and final fitting, the routing of the coolant lines, etc. I did not change the design with the new radiator, in fact, I reused everything except a few fasteners and zip-ties.

photo nabbed from JEGS,
where I bought mine

Meet the New Rad
I figured that if I was going to buy a replacement radiator, I had 2 options: direct exact replacement (aluminium single-pass core with plastic sides) or an upgraded (multi-pass) all-aluminium one. I considered that I can't say for sure that the original radiator was powerful enough to cool the TDI pushing the bread-loaf down an interstate. When I first did the swap, I babied the bus and I still had my eyes on the temperature gauge. I would really like to stop doing that, so I looked a little deeper into the all-aluminium ones which are supposed to have considerably better cooling capability.

The interweb can't decide if the all-aluminium models are any good. In the mixed reviews, most of the issues appear to be with drop-in fitment, not with performance once installed. Since my fittings are completely custom anyway, I was not deterred. The performance ratings are across-the-board positive, with some actual numbers demonstrating the quality. Of course, not all manufacturers are equal, so I looked to what online vendors sold. There are many radiators which appear to be only sold on eBarf by drop-shipping companies direct from China. That is, except for Mishimoto. The Mishimoto radiators are sold through Summit Racing, ECSTuning, JEGS and a few others. That was enough for me, and I ordered one that was supposed to "fit my vehicle" when I said it was a Jetta3.

It arrived in a very well packed box, designed for shipping and typical shipper mishandling. The extra thick cardboard protected it very well, and it looked so nice and shiny. It looks pretty much like the picture, actually, though instead of "MISHIMOTO" emblazoned across it, there's a big "M". Before I could get too excited, though, I needed to see how the mounts compared to the one I was removing... which meant I had to remove the old one first.

Removal

removing the cowling
and frame mounts

Like so many things, removing is so much easier than installing. I know some folks feel the opposite, but just about every project on this bus starts with an hour of removal followed by a couple of days of trying to get the "exact replacement" installed. This project was no different. Like any radiator removal, we start with draining the coolant. I have a large black catch-pan used just for this purpose, so I slid it under the bus, got myself under there with a slotted screwdriver and had the hoses off and draining within 5 minutes of walking out to the bus. Next, I unplugged the fans. This, unfortunately, was not completely clean. Some of the wires separated from their plug-ends, and the extra wiring for the fan switch complicated things. Last, I had not done a very clean job with the dash fan switch wire when I installed it, looping it around the radiator framing. I had to cut that wire. Grr.. present "me" is not thrilled with past "me". With the wiring in a heap, I kept moving.


The radiator is suspended from the underside of the bus with chains: one on each corner. The top of the chain is attached to an eye-hook that is mounted to the frame just under the floor. The chain and eye hook are connected with a thread-closed carabiner. The same combination is at the bottom of the chain, with an eye hook at each corner and a threaded carabiner attached to it. In between is a short stretch (3 or 4 links) of high-test chain. To remove the radiator from the bus, I slid my orange floor jack under the front rail of the radiator frame and lifted the unit until there was sufficient slack in the chain for the bottom link to slide out from the threaded carabiner. Once free, I lowered the front down, and shifted to the driver-side rear corner and then last the passenger side (I was lying on the passenger side so this order kept things within my sight and reach). Once the radiator and frame were on the ground, I slid them to the driver side so I could pull it out, and took the whole operation into the garage.... just as the rain started.

Radiator Off-Frame

about to remove the fans

Once in the garage, I needed to get all the frame bits and the fans taken off the old radiator. The frame was held on with 10mm screws, 4 on each end  (2 top, 2 bottom). Once removed, the frame and cowling fell away.

Each fan was held on with 4 one-use-only custom zip-ties. On the bottom end was a plastic square that crudely fit into a spot on the bottom of the fan. Connected to that is a zip-tie-like plastic stick that fits through a foam bit, the radiator fins, another foam bit and then another plastic square that clicks along the zip-tie. This last bit is what holds the zip-tie tight. To remove, I cut the custom zip-tie off with wire-cutters, retaining all of the pieces. I had thought that I could drill a hole through the bottom plastic square, and re-use all the rest (except the zip-tie stick part) by using a basic zip-tie. I didn't drill or reuse that bottom plastic bit, but I'll get into that during the re-assembly.

Like so many of my topics, this is too big to fit into one post, so I'll continue this later on. At this point, the old radiator is completely removed and stripped bare. Thanks, as always, for following along,