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Hi guys, I'm about to buy a fresh radiator for my NA6 and I was just wondering what your thoughts are on core thickness? I'm currently considering either a 50mm PWR item or a 53mm Koyo. I'm aware that these are probably overkill, but I love to drive my car hard through the mountains and am after some peace of mind. That and pretty much no matter what I do to the engine I will never have to worry about the radiator again. My only concern with a radiator if this thickness is that the airflow may stagnate part way through the core, effectively beginning to re heat towards the back of the radiator, meaning that a thinner radiator would be more effective. Has anyone ever experienced this? Also has anyone ever used either of these radiators and encountered any fitment issues? I basically just want to be able to rip the old one out and bolt the new one in without any hassles.

Cheers.

The fact that you can get a PWR shipped from the states for cheaper than you can buy one at a shop in the same city that they are made in puts me off PWR.

Id buy an ebay alloy 42 or 52mm and duct it.

Dann

Have you run either of those sizes yourself? What was your experience with them? I'm not really interested in 'eBay spec' parts, I'd rather pay more for quality and peace of mind.

Yep, probably... 70% of my MX5 customers run one of those 2 exact parts.

The experience with the ASI radiators, and the other non branded (yet identical, literally) ebay alloy radiators is 98% positive.

The pwr radiator for NA is like 800 dollars and if you want to take a look at for example, pats NA6 which has a pwd radiator, electric water pump, reroute etc, and STILL overheated every track weekend, the proof was that it was all in the ducting. (it got ducted btw, now it's fixed.)

Dann

Fair enough, thoughts on Koyo?

Of the 2 NA's I have here, here are the radiators.

This one has a 52mm, this was a daily beater I used for 18 months, this radiator cam out of my previous daily/weekend racer, so far probably 70k many club motorsport events, not a problem ever. 150 delivered.


This one is out of a locals NA6 turbo which is in to fix a dodgy oil pump. This again is a 52mm for 150 from ebay, never a problem with it.



The next most recent mx5 here has a 42mm ebay one, and my mate coming over this arvo has an ebay 42mm in his racecar.

The only MX5 Ive ever known with overheating issues has a PWR, thats not to say the PWR is crap, just that throwing a 1000 dollar cooler in with no other thought isn;t the right recipe.

Dann

Yeah I realise that and no matter what radiator I buy, I'll be ducting it myself. What fans are you running on the cars with the 52mm radiators? I'm aware clearance isn't exactly going to be huge so I'm assuming the factory fans are either going to be a VERY tight fit or will need to be replaced with slimline fans?

I have the PWR MX5 with Attached Oil Cooler '90-'97 Part No: PWR5119 (with a custom shroud and 2 x SPAL fans) on my NA6 and it works a treat



My review thread of it is here http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=55396&p=698760&hilit=SPAL#p698760