AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Fitting a Koyo Rad! HELP!!!

[RemarkLima]

I\'m about to do a Basil Fawlty!!!

Just spent the whole evening trying to fit this fecking rad back into the FD but all to no avail.

Tried with the brackets the nromal way round and it wouldn\'t go low enough to bolt on with out fouling on loads of bits and the AC rad brackets. So spun them round and now it sits far too high so everything fould on the rad fans casing and the rad itself!!!

Just doing my f**king head in!!! Everything I read said it was just a pop out, pop back in but it seems without a different I/C and such like it\'s a complete PITA!

I\'m getting the brackets modded tom so that it can sit a bit lower still, but surely everyone hasn\'t had to go through all this just to fit a bigger rad???

/Spleen now vented... Thank you!

[Warthog]

Modding FD\'s.............don\'t you just love it.:Party

[RemarkLima]

Gimmy a N/A engine any day of the week!!!

*pulls some more hair out*

[efiniste]

I had similar problems fitting mine a while back. I ended up cutting back some of the brackets around the front crossmember just to get it in. I think I might have removed one of the air-con rad brackets too.

[RobbieRX-7]

I know exactly what you mean. There is no need to modify or remove any other brackets though. You take the little black brackets off your old rad, and put them on your koyo, turn them round slightly and tighten the bolt into the rad. Also i had to trim the corners off the fan casing because the AC drier was fouling on the bonnet and it wouldn\'t close. It took me over 2 hours of pi$$ing around too!!!

BTW i took these pics from the drivers side

[RemarkLima]

I trimmed some of the fan housing with the trusty dremel, but didn\'t get the rad low enough...

...But I think I see what you\'ve done there, you\'ve put the brackets on the same way as the old rad but then turned to face down (to the front of the rad) just to get them a little lower, so it should sit parrallel to the AC rad? And no chopping of AC rad brackets or anything???

*prepares self for round 2 tonight*

[RobbieRX-7]

No mate i didn\'t mess with any other brackets. I just chopped a huge chunk out of both corners off the fan case with the hacksaw

[RemarkLima]

Cheers Robbie! You are an absolute star! Really appreciate the help.

I assume you lost the bolt for the fans on the passenger side as well?

[shaunwil]

Gimmy a N/A engine any day of the week!!!

*pulls some more hair out*

Lol, doesn\'t get any better on n/a. The uprated rad in the 1st gen didn\'t come with any holes and i had to chop lumps out of the mounting brackets to get it positioned. Then I struggled to get the hoses on !

Is the rad stood up or in the stock position ?

Shaun

[RobbieRX-7]

Cheers Robbie! You are an absolute star! Really appreciate the help.

I assume you lost the bolt for the fans on the passenger side as well?

No problem mate:Thumbs-up  I didn\'t lose any bolts though. You can\'t see the passenger side mounting bracket because the battery box is in the way. Just make sure you cut enough corner off the fan casing for the AC drier to sit low enough, otherwise you\'ll be back at square one lol

[RemarkLima]

Shaun, it\'s in the stock position, so getting the ducting for the Intercooler is what finally made me give up last night

Robbie, there\'s a bolt holding the fan casing on at the top of the Px side, so you didn\'t have to leave that out? The bottom of the AC thingy (condensor?) was going to foul on that... But I think if I can get it another fingers width down then stuff "should" start to fit... I hope!

[RobbieRX-7]

I put the bolt back in to hold the fan casing onto the rad. When you install the koyo with the fan casing attached, the AC Drier/condensor/round cylinder thingy sits too high and the bonnet wont close. I had to cut the corner off the fan case so this cylinder would sit about 1inch lower. If you look at my earlier pic, the corner is cut off. I did this to both top corners and thats it, no more cutting or shaving anywhere else.

[RemarkLima]

Cheers for all the help Robbie! Some good rep coming your way

But what an ar$e of a job! Before I left work I was reading on rx7Club and how loads of people were saying the mazdaspeed and fluidyne rads fitted so much easier and everyone with a Koyo had a total nightmare getting it fitted... Kinda wish I\'d read that first now

But it\'s in! So thanks to all your help... Just need a new spine now! No leaks that I can see, but all the hoses are so hidden it\'s hard to tell! I just don\'t wanna be taking all that off again!!!

So in conclusion, get someone else to fit your Koyo rad

[Initial-D]

I had to weld additional brackets to the existing ones from the roll bar mounts and then fabricate two L shaped brackets for either end of the core so its sits almost upright behind my FMIC.

[RemarkLima]

Ah, but that\'s with a FMIC It was fitting all that fecking gammy ducting that was the problem... Well, one of the problems