AE92 with Civic radiator -- anyone done this?

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Rogue-AE95
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AE92 with Civic radiator -- anyone done this?

Postby Rogue-AE95 » Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:01 pm

I posted this on another forum but figured I should try here as well.

I've seen several pics of AE92s with Civic aluminum (or otherwise) radiators. Most seem to place the Civic rad toward the left side of the car (gearbox side). In doing this, is the LH rad mount bracket used to hold the Civic rad? What is usually done to get the other side of the Civic rad in place? The other side ends up right above the cross brace. I pulled the lower rad brackets from an EK Civic in order to experiment with getting the Civic rad into my AE95.

Just wondering if anyone knows more details before I start drilling, cutting, or removing things. I was looking at the stock rad brackets, and it looks like there's some epoxy or seam sealer type of stuff around the edges of the brackets. They couldn't be "glued" to the radiator support, rather than spot welded...?

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This is what happened to my radiator recently that sparked this decision. What can I say, I have upgrade disorder and don't want a 4A-FE radiator replacement since I have a 4A-GE build in progress! Besides that a GT-S alum rad isn't easily obtained (or as low cost as the Civic ones -- or as small as them!).

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New upper tank piece from Toyota is about $150. I could buy two new radiators for that much :lol:
'88 Corolla All-Trac x2 (manual, auto)

ae82hybrid
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Re: AE92 with Civic radiator -- anyone done this?

Postby ae82hybrid » Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:56 am

Never really seen it done but have heard of it, but just don't get ahead of yourself and start chopping away at brackets and welding new ones because when you get to the 4ag swap your probably gona be switching back to a 4a radiator due to the water outlet coming from the passenger side around the front of the timing belt. Unless your going to extend the upper radiator hose to reach that water outlet, in which it will look horrible.

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Rogue-AE95
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Re: AE92 with Civic radiator -- anyone done this?

Postby Rogue-AE95 » Wed Apr 08, 2015 3:42 pm

I'm already done! I have an aluminum fitting that I could get welded to the side of the upper radiator tank in order to have a straight shot to where the AE92 GT-S hose ends up. That or a 90° elbow right off the existing upper inlet, and run it over to the other side.

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'88 Corolla All-Trac x2 (manual, auto)

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Re: AE92 with Civic radiator -- anyone done this?

Postby gotzoom? » Thu May 14, 2015 8:35 am

Make sure you block off the opening that would have been covered by the factory radiator. Air chooses the path of least resistance and it will not go through the radiator effectively if it can go in the opening on the side.

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Re: AE92 with Civic radiator -- anyone done this?

Postby Rogue-AE95 » Sat May 16, 2015 8:47 am

The AC condenser(?) is in front of the radiator, so I don't want to (or need to?) block off that area. But it's been running fine like this for weeks now.
'88 Corolla All-Trac x2 (manual, auto)