Nearly pristine radiator cracks at top WTF!???

[jsbenami]

1992 Sup, manual 94k miles, and Lo and behold a 3 inch horizontal crack starting to juice is at the top facing foward from on the opposite side as the tube inlet on my radiator. What is scary is that all around the top minute leaks are being 'squeezed' out the seams. This is a plastic radiator, but has the official Toyota part # stamp on it. Has 'OR' on it vertically, does this mean it's original to the car? Probably is considering the low milage I got this car with, guess it was it's time.....the dang turbo and all it's heat! .....what kind of pressure could do this, just wear n' tear? It's no coincidence summer's heat is here and it went 'snap'.

What's the best new rad to order, who's making the goodies? Can a replacement facilitate a significant performance (cooler running engine) enhancement with a new raditator?

[bgrieger]

time to upgrade. There are several options that should make you happy. The overall temperature won't drop, as the thermostat controls that, but the water temps drop far faster with a larger rad when the thermostat does open.

CSF, Fluidyne and PWR all make drop in versions that are nice. Koyo also has a nice racing radiator, though some modifications are needed to run it in a MA70 as they were designed for the JZA70.

[toyomoho]

Does this radiator have plastic uppers and lowers? If so, suggest replacing the radiator soon. These cracks can get longer, the leaks more severe and as usual when you are on the road away from home. Suggest you carry around a few gallons of water until you change it.

The radiator plastic cracks and leaks over time, nothing you neither did nor excess pressure inside. CSF makes an all-metal radiator. As bgrieger states, the T-stat will maintain a constant temp. If you didn’t have a radiator-cooling problem before, you won’t improve on this with a new radiator.

[bgrieger]

forgot to mention that...they do crack and leak over time. The pressure, the heat and vibration all contribute to fatigue failure of the plastic. Mine went the same way. I picked up a Koyo all aluminium one to replace it with, but any of the above mentioned should serve you well.

[jsbenami]

Thanks for the help! Well, I just got another OEM styled one....I figured if no big improvement then 15 years per radiator isn't too bad Although these whack-offs gave me the radiator for an auto tranny Supra with trans cooler lines, and so my car sits till' tomorrow evening pending another. Sadly, as much as I love this car I doubt it will make more than another 2 years with the mileage and ledfoot I put down, (although I'm planning a valve reshimming this summer or fall) Anyways, 17/23 mpg is starting to hurt at these gas prices.

[jsbenami]

These parts numbskulls sold me one for an auto trans, so it has trans cooling lines at the bottom. They claim not to make one for the manual. Can it be run without the lines used?

[bgrieger]

Yes it can. Some aftermarket companies cheap out and only make the automatic one to save stocking 2 sets of parts, especially older cars.