save money on a radiator install for a 1994-95 thunderbird sc

FrankenBird

Registered User
I am writing this to save some people money and hard times hunting.
This will guide you in an install of a 1989-1993 radiator in a 1994-1995 thunderbird super coupe. why you ask? its about a 250$ price difference.
I have run the rad and this setup for over 1000 miles and the car runs cooler than any other mn12 on any platform I have ever owned.
Parts needed, about 3ft of coolant hose from ur coolant overflow tank to the radiator cap, and a drill and bit and remove the hood insulation or trim the lower rubber tabs the radiator sits on. THATS IT !
The difference in the 2 radiators in design is on the pre 94's the coolant overflow faces towards the passengers side and the upper mounting brackets are a bit different and the pre 94 radiator seems to sit a bit higher.
after removing the 94+ radiator from the car you will need to transfer over the support tabs for the cooling fan, attach the intercooler shroud wich is essential for support and the radiator cap.
The pre 94 radiators bottom mounting tabs will line up perfectly, once they are in line up look at the radiators passengers side mounting tab and mark and X in the middle of it on the front header panel / front support to drill a hole for a bolt to hold the radiator on top it. I reused the old bolt that held on the 94+ bracket and it was strong enough to make its own threads. Then on the drivers side attach the intercooler shroud to the intercooler and don't worry about mounting bracket for the top drivers side, the intercooler supports it just fine.Now with the extra long coolant hose you can run it to the coolant overflow tank from the rad and just have it loop at the top and follow the old path of the old hose. THATS IT. on a 95 degree day at 25mph the car runs 1 cm above the lowest line and 2 cm below the N or normal, and at idle it only reaches a bit above the N and then the cooling fans kick on and it instantly drops !
IMPORTANT! befor I did the swap I did a coolant flush, it was as simple as once the radiator is off hook a hose nozzle into the filler neck ontop of the engine and squirt it through until it runs cleans through the bottom coolant hose. I also cleaned out my over flow tank, installed a stock thermostat AND I REMOVED the ac condenser because of how much it restricts the radiator and intercooler. used 50/50 green coolant and ever since its been running amazing.
heres a link to the radiator I used, I got it on ebay and it cost 106$ shipped only as aposed to the 94+ costing a minimum of 304. the lower priced ones they ship you the n/a 3.8 rads or inform you once you 2x check the oder that its a n/a radiator. trust me ive called all over trying to find a pre 94+ radiator new for under 300$

http://www.ebay.com/itm/89-93-Ford-...iter_Display:3.8L&hash=item23522d5204&vxp=mtr

passengers side modded mount

routing and direction of modded coolant hose

drivers side modded lack of mount

and a ebay photo of exact radiator I used
 
Last edited:
Back
Top