Miata Mailing List: July 1998, Message #165

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After installing the FM II a couple weeks ago I found that the big
intercooler blocked too much flow for the stock skinny '90 (5 speed) radiator
the hard way, driving home from work in 90 degree heat with the top down.  We
aren't talking 4th gear at 13.5 psi either, just spirited driving on I-95,
even constant, no boost driving.  I had to blast the heater to draw the heat
off.  Nothing like 120 degrees in the car and a nice humid Baltimore day!

This was last Friday, and I knew I'd be driving up to the MMM alternate
picnic thing at Hickory Park in PA.  2 1/2 hour drive with the heat on, no
thanks.  So I got on the phone with Dealer Alt. and ordered their aluminum
race radiator.  Luckily they just got 4 in from the supplier.  I had to 3 day
ship it to get it here in time to install it.  This is a nice piece of work! 
I was surprised how light it is and the core is probably twice as thick as
the original.  Also it would look great with a polished valve cover which I
don't have.  The install went pretty well except the bottom right fan bolt is
hard to remove after the I/C pipes are already installed.  I didn't want to
loosen the I/C pipes so I was able to get to the bolt with a 10mm wobble and
a short 10mm box wrench.  The only other problem I had was with the mounting
brackets which must be taken off the original radiator and put on the new
one.  The new radiator had to be filed down about 2mm because the small clips
that the mounting bolts bolt into are slightly short when slid onto the top
of the radiator, so the holes don't line up.  This was a really minor fix. 
Everything else went on without a problem and I was able to do the whole
install without removing any of the I/C pipes.

The radiator probably has 1/2 gallon more capacity than the original.  After
driving the car in 88 degree heat with some full blasts from 4K to 7K at
13.5psi the temp needle didn't go past it's original center point.  More
"testing" will be done on the trip to MMM-alt tomorrow.

I highly recommend the FM race radiator.

Frank Mowry