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Some of you may recall that my radiator developed a terminal series of cracks in April this year.

After two attempts to buy an all aluminium radiator from a local supplier (at a price I could accept), I gave up and purchased one from the US after reading this discussion http://www.miataturbo.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13915&highlight=godspeed and this one http://www.miataturbo.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13882&highlight=godspeed

So, today the Godspeed radiator arrived from California in the Fedex truck. A total of $360 Australian - delivered. Search eBay for 'Godspeed Miata', or if you can get one, look for 'JVT Racing Miata'.

The Godspeed is a 2 row core, the JVT claims to be a 3 row core. Both seem to be 52-55mm thick. You can see in the pictures the approach Godspeed has taken to their radiator core.

Pictures of my recently arrived Godspeed....





Fitment to follow tomorrow night - I'm otherwise booked this evening. I will update as the fit progresses.

Looks good, fingers crossed the fitment is better than the PWRs.

I don't know about that chain on the radiator cap, makes it look like an old-style plug.

Makes it look like a bathtub plug.

The PWR fan holes often don't line up, leading to a little creativity to make it fit. Hopefully you won't have the same issue there.

Here's the radiator upgrade I did: http://forums.sabretooth.id.au/viewtopic.php?t=25

Same
http://pics.aus-cartalk.com/waclub/Okibi/Bling_25.jpg

Sux that holes don't line up. That would peeve me right off especially if you pay for top-shelf items like the PWR.

I would be very interested to find out if your Godspeed one fits without hassle as that is definitely on my list of important things to upgrade as mine has a slight leak at the top tank.

You were lucky to find someone who would ship this to you, as I've emailed about 6 sellers with zippo results.

Good price too, landed.

The mounting points for my PWR radiator lined up ok, with the exception of one for the cooling fan.

The added bonus of buying directly from PWR was that for a few weeks after getting it they would randomly sent stuff I had not ordered. It took several phone calls to sort that out.

The thing that really bugged me was that the radiator drain has a threaded plastic plug in it. I needed to drain the radiator one day, and was unable turn the plug. Tried a couple of different things, but never did get it all the way out. Of course it then start to leak. I called PWR and they said to sent it back. Of course that meant pulling it out of the car and sending back to QLD. At the time I was using the car almost every day and not having it on the road for a week or two was going to be a right pain. In the end I managed to re-tighten the plug, so no more leaks. I now pull the lower hose off when I need to drain it.

J

J

i just got my cooling pro radiator from mx5 mania, looks quite similar to the godspeed, even has the same bathtub plug i'm getting mine fitted tomorrow along with a transmission cooler

Adam, Croc ... what's the go with fitment?

After a large amount of back and forth, even more swearing and general loud noise the radiator is in.

Firstly, the fans....

The stock fans do not line up with the mounting bosses welded to the radiator. Some adjustment of the holes in the fan shrouds was necessary.



I also ran a M6x1.0 tap through the bosses to clean out the threads done at the factory.

In the end they looked like this (you will note the foam under the shrouds to ensure air is sucked through the radiator, not around the fan units)



Due to the size of the Godspeed radiator, one of the mounting brackets bolted to the side of the radiator must be removed and put in the car before the radiator. I removed the passenger side one as it is easier to get to once in the car. You won't fit it in otherwise. A 10mm socket will undo those bolts easily. You will need to do a little trimming with a file or tin snips to fit the brackets. They foul on the edge of the radiator core.



To get the radiator physically into the space, you need to....
1. Remove all the ducting across the front of the engine.
2. Get the support bracket still on the radiator under the chassis rail so the radiator will slide in.
3. Ensure that the AC condenser is not intruding into the space of the radiator, undo the bottom support bolts for the condenser and let it swing forward if this is the case.
4. Bolt up the support bracket already in the car.
5. Check for any contact points that should not exist.
6. Re-fit the ducting, connect the hoses, fans, etc.

These radiators are substantially larger than the stock ones. As an indication, the stock coolant system takes 6l of water, I refilled the new radiator with the water out of the old one (with coolant already added), and then ADDED another 3l of water from a watering can. Once the car was started another litre went in.

With the cold weather we have been having locally, I notice that the car is not getting as hot as it used to. I have fitted a cooler thermostat in order to try and keep the engine as cool as possible. With the stock radiator this made no difference as once the car was at operating temperature, the stock radiator could not shed heat quickly enough to keep to the lower temperature.
With this radiator, specifically it's extra coolant load, the engine is actually not reaching operating temperature on cool days. This is a problem I will poonder before winter returns - when it doesn't get above 10deg C the whole day, I may have to change the thermostat back to a stock one to protect the engine.

I just checked eBay....'godspeed miata' will bring up a number of radiators from the one vendor.

Price is $160 + $120 postage.

That works out at $330 Australian landed at your front door.

*screams* \"GROUPBUY!!!!\"

The $160 is already the group buy rate established in the US.

The $120 is probably pretty close to the exact shipping cost via Fedex. Bloody expensive IMHO, but it is a big box, and I wouldn't want it getting here with a hole in the box (and the radiator!).

Go ahead and get one individually, going the group route will not reduce the cost, and will increase the hassle.

I forgot to add....

I have one of those big tubular sway bars from Racing Beat, around 28mm in diameter. It touches the fan shrouds, but I did not need to cut the shrouds to get the radiator in and mounted. With nearly a week of driving there appears no reason to revisit that fitment decision.

Too much work for me. Begs the question, what template did they actually use to make the radiator.

installation is the same for the cooling pro

however i didnt do it, i payed my mechanic as i needed it done asap

is your radiator i dual core or triple?

mine looks a little bigger then that, i'll take pics later