Mishimoto or Koyo?
 

Originally I just bought a stock replacement radiator for my BRZ - and today I noticed after firing it up that it's leaking in two locations from the core... POS.

So now I'm going to break down and buy a Mishimoto or Koyo with some aftermarket fans. I'm looking for feedback on which is the better choice from other people that are already turbo.

i never tried mishimoto or koyo, but i have installed a couple of mishimoto onto various brz and frs and i would say Mishimoto.

I'm personally running a Fullblown radiator and slim fans on my brz and its holding up well and keeps my car running cool.:burn rubber: @FullBlown

I am also using the FullBlown radiator with their shroud and slim fans, turbo as well no issues with multiple track days.

People are racing on stock radiators. I myself have been using the stock radiator on track with no issues for 2+ years turbo and NA. Two of my friends just went back to stock radiators from koyo and robispec radiators.

Why is your core leaking? I have yet to hear of a stock one leaking. You can get them for very cheap.

Couldn't tell you why it's leaking, only that it is. All my turbo cars in the past ran stock radiators without any issues, but I'm not going to take the chance again with this brand of getting it in, installing it and having to re-do the entire install all over again because it's leaky... Granted I face this dilemma with any radiator, I'm just hoping the probability is less with a "better quality" model.

The reason I use better quality in quotes is that the full blown 12" electric fan is $79.00 - it is the same one on ebay for $21 from other sellers with a different logo. It's not higher quality, it just costs more because it says "Full Blown" on it instead of saying nothing... I know all about re-branding Chinese products with a new logo and I hold nothing against Full Blown for doing it (we all gotta make money), but I know better than to buy most components based on name alone.

I went ahead and ordered up a Koyo radiator with a pair of 12" cooling fans that cost $43 (actually the fans I bought are a slightly better design with more CFM than the one FB sells). I'm thinking about modifying my stock fan shroud to accommodate the fans rather than buying some over-priced aluminum shroud I could have custom-built by a local fabricator for half of what the FB one costs. I can also design it in CAD.

Interesting, we have not heard of frequent failures of the OEM radiator. Is this leaking from the connection between the core and tanks or in a tube within the core?

Thanks for the recommendation!

Interesting to see how the fans work out for you! Modifying the stock shroud to accept a universal fan might end up being more of a challenge than you want to take on. Starting with some bare material is likely to be quicker and less complex. If you have the means to design such a component and have it constructed, I would certainly say go for it.

We are working on a plug-n-play shroud at the moment and will be launching a discounted pre-sale in the near future. Not sure what type of time-frame you had for the shroud. Our development thread is linked below if interested.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89940

Good luck with the project, interested to see what you come up with for the shroud!

Thanks
-John

It was leaking near one of the weld points and then dribbling down onto other parts of the core to make it appear as though the core itself were leaking.

I would be very interested to see what your shroud costs when it is done. I have worked with a few local fabrication shops in the past who only do sheet metal, and I think I could get the shroud made for about $100-$120 locally including materials, which means it would retail for at least $250. The CAD design is the easy part.

For me I would make the shroud height as small as possible to allow more room in the engine bay. The stock shroud takes up too much space with a lot of the front-mount turbo setups like mine.

I love my Mishimoto! Fit great, and works like a charm :thumbsup: