"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
03/16/2018 at 09:45 • Filed to: Disco Inferno
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"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
03/16/2018 at 09:45 • Filed to: Disco Inferno | 6
| 8 |
Last night I did a good! As my helper was AWOL, I figured I’d tackle the radiator replacement (after I broke the inlet doing a pressure test) and might even be able to get it done in one go.
How hard could it be?
Our Lord and Savior Amazon ended up delivering the radiator a day early and while the package itself looked like hammered dog shit, I’ll hand it to Nissens, the packaging protected the radiator well and it only suffered a single bent fin.
I had previously been led to believe radiator replacement on this vehicle was a breeze, especially with how disassembled the car is already. “Basically just two bolts!” someone said.
That was (mostly) a lie.
To do the radiator on this car you have to remove the side lights, headlight finishers, grille, horns, transmission cooler, oil cooler, and a host of brackets and mounts.
There is at least one YouTube video of a shop doing the replacement without doing all that, but I’ve cut corners enough to know that you almost never save time by not going by the book. “All you have to do is...” pry this, jiggle that, use a stubby right angle here, be careful not to break that. Nah man... by the book.
With the exception of getting the horns out, which was a pain because the manual denies the existence of the foam they were embedded in, the job wasn’t that bad. The “quick disconnect” fittings on the coolers were stiff and dirty, but a shot of brake cleaner and PB Blaster had them off.
The fitting change over was messy and fraught, but didn’t really take that long.
The only real hickup I had was after removing the grill, the area around the top mounting screw, which had been cracked for a while, finally gave up and broke. Super glue gel and Shoe Goo got this back to being surprisingly strong.
Doesn’t look pretty, but by god it works.
Around 11PM the radiator was in, the grill was back on, and the Disco was shockingly buttoned up.
I won’t lie, I was impressed with myself.
The downside is, although I completed a task, the task wasn’t exactly part of the plan and didn’t make any progress on the main task of getting the head gaskets back in.
Ahh well. I now have a 100% new cooling system, which seems like a good call on a vehicle known for having cooling issues.
AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/16/2018 at 10:16 |
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I was hoping you wouldn’t have to do the radiator. Not a lot of fun on these!
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> AMGtech - now with more recalls!
03/16/2018 at 10:33 |
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Yeah, it took way longer than expected considering how disassembled the car already was. That said, it was slightly easier than the Yukon, which had the oil and transmission coolers integrated into the radiator itself. This required using that bastard flare nut fittings. Tighten them too much and you damage the fitting and they’ll leak. Tighten them not enough and it’ll back out and leak. I was chasing leaks on that bastard for at least a year after the replacement.
Though, that said, we’ll see how bad this is when I get the car back together...
AestheticsInMotion
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/16/2018 at 10:53 |
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Oh man. I think my radiator swap took 30 minutes and that was going in completely blind, learning as much as I went. Don’t think I had to remove anything other than the radiator itself...
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> AestheticsInMotion
03/16/2018 at 11:09 |
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Lucky! This will be my... fourth radiator swap on different vehicles. Ranks somewhere in the middle for difficulty. Trucks are generally harder as they usually have transmission and oil coolers to contend with and this one was no exception.
The Alfa’s was about as easy as you describe, which isn’t terribly surprising considering...
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AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/16/2018 at 15:46 |
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Trucks are harder huh? Try a 220 S600 it’ll make you think head gaskets are a walk in the park!
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AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
03/16/2018 at 15:47 |
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You’ll be fine with the lines on this as long as you remember to put the clips back in to hold them! (Pretty sure this uses Jesus clips, IIRC)
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> AMGtech - now with more recalls!
03/16/2018 at 15:53 |
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Yeah the cooler connections on the Disco were way easier for sure. One one of them is causing me any worry because it was a little more gummed up than the others. I think it’ll be fine.
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> AMGtech - now with more recalls!
03/16/2018 at 15:54 |
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Trucks are generally harder. Haha yeah, I’d bet some of the more modern, cleverly packaged stuff is a pain in the ass. Not sure I can even see the radiator on my Volvo.