I’m just about to swap out my radiator, that has been leaking for some time and I’m wondering if anyone has done it and if it ispreferable to remove it from the top or the bottom. The mountain bolts on either side (to my surprise) are screwed in from the bottom.
Thanks.

 

I just did it this weekend on my '99. I found it best to pull the radiator out the top since I was doing this without help. The AC condenser didn't want to stay attached to the oil cooler (which I had suspended with string) so I propped them both from below and blocked the lower exit. Therefore I went out the top. One thing that was difficult was getting the cooling fan and shroud out/in at the same time. I had to be a little creative there. Overall, it's not a difficult job. Good luck.

 

Did you pull the shroud out with the rad? All together?

 

No, I pulled all components separately. I separated the cooling fan from the shroud then pulled them in this order:
[ol][*]Shroud[*]Cooling Fan[*]Radiator[/ol]During installation I had to use the reverse order:
[ol][*]Radiator[*]Cooling Fan[*]Shroud[/ol]I only had to disconnect a few electrical connections (that were rather obvious when working) to be able to pull everything out the top. It was the only way that I could get all three out of there. I hope that is useful for you.
-sven

 

Hey thanks for the advice. I just finished last night but here is the kicker. You know the 2 bolts on either side of the rad that bolt it up top the support plates? Well the integrated nuts came apart from the support plates. They must have beenrusted to the bolts which meant that I now had a bolt that was spinning from the bottom and a nut that was smooth round and impossible to get to on top. Solutions… Reciprocating saw! I cut the old rads support off allowing it to come out the bottom and then had a clear shot at the round nuts. After flattening the sides of the nut with a dremel and gripping the Sh#*@%t out if it with a brand new Vise grip, they came off. The rest was ok.

 

Hehe. Thanks for the update. It's never as easy as it sounds I guess. On my car, those nuts weren't integrated so they still had the flats on. Reciprocating saw?! Classic. Nice job. I'm glad it worked out.
-sven