ALUMINUM MISHIMOTO RADIATOR REVIEW

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About Mishimoto Radiators:
Mishimoto offers car and race enthusiasts of all levels and interests quality upgrades from aluminum radiators to racing thermostats to enhance the performance of their engine. Daily drivers behind the wheel of a diesel or gasoline truck to track racers in a sport compact vehicle to motocross riders can all trust Mishimoto products to hold up no matter what conditions they endure. The research and development team at Mishimoto is comprised of devoted automotive professionals who naturally anticipate the needs of drivers looking for quality cooling system upgrades.

Each sport compact racing radiator is specifically designed as a direct OEM replacement for flawless installation and optimum performance. Mishimoto dirt bike racing radiators deliver top-notch cooling for riders who venture off-road or race on the track, guaranteeing optimal performance from their bike. Mishimoto truck radiators are made from high-quality aluminum for dependable performance you can count on time and again.

Information obtained from manufacturer's website.

Warranty:
• 'No questions asked' limited lifetime warranty.
• Replacement regardless of the defect.
• Warranty claims must be accompanied by the original sales receipt from an authorized dealer.
• Includes vehicles involved in accidents, if claims include pictures of the accident and an official police report within three months.

Average Price: $260

Date Established: 2003

Website: www.mishimoto.com

Radiator Review is not associated with the brands reviewed on the site.

ALUMINUM MISHIMOTO RADIATOR REVIEW

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I got this radiator to help with the addition of a supercharger. The installation was tight but all mounting lined up perfectly.I highly recommend this radiator if you plan on hot rodding your mustang.Huge difference in quality than stock.

I purchased a mishimoto X line aluminum Radiator and aluminum fan setup for my 06 sti and have had Zero issues. I was happy with the quality of both products... even the mishimoto radiator hoses fit perfectly. The wiring went smooth... emailed the mishimoto rep and he got back to me within the same day with wiring info.... I just wanted to put this out there because when I decided to upgrade there wasn't much positive info. I have been researching on how to wire up the fans and people said keep your stock fans bc you'll overheat!... so not true... these fans work way better then stock fans...IMHO and according to the temperatures shown by my access port... comparing both equally ... thanks

The radiator was easy to instal and works great, the price was especially great for the quality that it is and it looks great too!

Well recently i was in a front end collision. It punctured my radiator so i figured that would be a good excuse to upgrade to a all aluminum 2"" dual core rad i had been wanting. So i searched around on h-t and some websites trying to find one under the 300 dollar mak. It wasnt happening, so i turned to ebay. I was searching and i found one it looked identical to the koyo and pwr rads i had been looking at but for about 1/3rd of the price. So i messaged the seller to get the dimensions and specs on the radiator he sent them to me and i began to compare them. I very quickly found out that these were pretty much the same rad just marketed under different names.

Well i went out on a limb and ordered it, it was 115 shipped and i would recieve it in two days, needless to say it met all requirements; cheap, fast, and quality. Well i received it it was packaged nicley, a cardboard box with multiple layers of foam inside to protect it in transit. It also had rubber caps on the inlet outlet to prevent debris from getting into the core. It even included a new cap. The core is ant corrosion coated to prevent rust from forming in the radiator/engine due to the corrosive characteristics of coolant.

I installed it, for the most part it was very simple, however it did not include mounting points for the drivers side a/c fan and the pass side cooling fan shroud had to be trimmed to clear my jdm itr 4-1 header. I ended up having to make an aluminum mount to mount the a/c condenser fan onto the front side of the condenser, it was simple and took about an hour to fab/mount. I ended up trimming about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch off of the pass side cooling fan shroud on the side closest to the header so i wouldnt have to worry about it getting hot and melting. No major fab work and basic install done with basic hand tools.

Some other nice features of the radiator were the metal drain plug, on the oem rad the drain plug located on the bottom was plastic and to be quite honest it felt rather flimsy and i worried about breaking it when i would toghten it down. The mishimoto rad had a metal drain plug that is much easier to grip than the stock drain plud and feels much more sturdy. also it has a metal barb fitting for the overflow bottle to attach to, much more sturdy than the oem plastic piece. The welds on the rad were top notch every weld looks like a stack of dimes and i found not one flaw in any of them. The entire rad is polished to a nice mirror shine and is very nice lookin under the hood.

The oem rad stays worked fine with the thicker rad, no rubbing on the core support or anyother areas. They also hold it in place very firmly.I have been driving on it for about a month now with no problems, i will try to update in six months, then one year etc to keep you guys posted on how long the quality lasts."

The radiator was easy to instal and works great, the price was especially great for the quality that it is and it looks great too!

I've been doing this review over on DRZforums and decided to move it over. If you've ever had to replace the radiators on your bike, like me, you may have wondered just how bad the china brand radiators on ebay could be. Well instead of spending $100-$175 per side for used oem radiators, or $400-$500 a set for fancy fluidyne units. For the cost ($109 shipped) it seemed worth it to give the cheapo's a shot and do a review!

First of all the seller I purchased from was located in the US was more than happy to answer all my questions concerning fitment, warranty's etc.

The radiators I ordered are to fit 00-08 DRZ400S models. They are fully tig welded/brazed 40mm 2 row and supposedly have a 30% greater cooling efficiency than stock. When the radiators arrived I was surprised to find they are made by a brand named Mishimoto and proudly display their ""lifetime warranty"" on the box.

As far as visual appearance the radiators are polished to a mirror finish, though they do have some blemishes and pockmarks on the surface. Right out of the box a number of the cooling fins were slightly bent as well. Overall the manufacturing quality seems sufficient considering the price but the lack of attention to detail is readily apparent. The mounting tabs have rough uneven surfaces and all seem to be slightly bent. Also some of the mounting holes are, well, less than round...

Pros: aluminum end tanks vs plastic end tanks (no brainer), bling factor, the affordable price of $249 shipped (massimopower.com), and finally getting to drive again after the car sitting for nearly 2 weeks.

Cons - If reusing the stock fans, be prepared for a very tight fit. If you aren't careful when removing the pipe, you could puncture the radiator core, like I nearly did . The a/c lines near the coolant overflow tank were touching the radiator so I used part of a rubber hose to put some space in between the two. Also, the middle coupler of the UICP is almost being scraped by the radiator fans, this being brought on by the thicker radiator core.

To help with the tight fit, you could opt for the mishimoto's slim fans, but I'm going to get ETS's I/C pipes & intake to free up some room in that part of the engine bay. I've read that there really isn't a noticeable difference in the temps, but we all know aluminum is great at heat dissipation. I'm mainly happy just to be driving again.

Hope this helps with anyone's questions about this product.

The reason I decided to go with an all aluminum radiator was for the mere fact that my oem radiator had reached it's life and had cracked. Why not purchase something that should outperform an oem radiator and improve cooling right? Size: If I were to compare the koyo and mishimoto side by side, it would seem that the koyo was a bit larger and I had a bit of trouble getting it in the engine bay. I was however able to use my stock fans and bolt them on to the koyo radiator. Mishimoto's website however states oem fans will not work with it's radiator Build: Both aluminum radiators look quite durable and seemed to be able to handle the cars cooling efficiently. I cannot speak for turbo set ups or superchargers as I have only tried these radiators on a N/A car. When I drive, I do the occasional spirited driving at best. Problems w/Koyo: The koyo radiator was purchased June 2006 and within a year, there seemed to be coolant spilling from the engine bay. Had it checked out and it had sprung a leak so I got it welded. Early 2009, there seemed to be another leak coming from it. I was getting frustrated by it and decided it was time to either go back to oem or switch to another radiator. It is also possible that the koyo radiator I received was just a defective model that just wouldn't last. If an oem radiator can last for 10+ years, so should any aftermarket radiator right? Problems w/Mishimoto: Well I opted for a Mishimoto radiator in May 2009 next since there were good deals on them and gave it another go for an all aluminum radiator. After a month or two of driving, there was coolant spilled in the engine bay once again. Just my luck? The radiator hoses were all brand new by the way so I knew that those weren't giving out. Turns out the mishimoto radiator caps were faulty and wouldn't hold the pressure. I sent them an email about the problem and they sent me a new cap right away for free. So far, no further problems. Currently I'm still running the mishimoto radiator with 2 slim aftermarket fans, a new radiator cap and it's running like a champ. And like I said before the mishimoto is not as thick as the koyo so dropping it in was a breeze. Cheers.

my dad ordered me one of these Mishimoto radiators for a late birthday present…and cause I’m pretty sure he was tired of hearing me talk about wanting an aluminum rad. It shipped quick and installation was simple… didn't have trouble with it at all!! I called their customer service just to tell them how happy I was!

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I was experiencing some overheating at the track in my Evo, and I decided the stock rad just wasn’t cutting it. I wanted to see if an aluminum radiator would help with overheating. I saw a few good reviews on forums for Mishimoto so I decided to pull the trigger. The X-line rad was a little snug with the stock fans but I purchased their slim fans a few months later anyway. I have since tracked the car several times and have seen my temps go down by 10 degrees or so, which is impressive to me since the rad was fairly inexpensive. I have been using it for several months and have not had any issues.

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I’d been looking for a good deal on a new radiator (for my 240sx S14) and I’ve seen a lot of good reviews for Mishimoto so I decided to try them out. From the beginning everything went really smooth. It wasn’t the cheapest one I could find, but the quality really seems better and worth it. Still the best overall value around. The radiator shipped quickly and everything looked good and was packaged well.  Really clean install. If you have a problem with it you must be doing something wrong, everything fit perfect.  I didn’t have to modify brackets or drill any holes and it didn’t take much time at all. I had a Koyo before but it was too thick and I wasn’t able to get it to fit properly. The Mishimoto is thinner and is sized right to be larger than stock but not have fitment issues. Definitely easier to install. The radiator itself is a quality build and the welds were first rate. Overall, I’m pretty impressed. For the quality you get, the price is really not bad at all and I’ve been using it for about a year and haven’t had any problems yet.

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My experience with Mishimoto has been pretty positive in general. I bought a Mishimoto radiator last month, don’t really have any complaints. Showed up quick, pretty straightforward install. I was using stock fans and it was sort of a tight fit, so I got their slim fans too and it made a big difference. Everything fits great now. Don’t have temperature numbers but even with added heat from the turbo setup it has worked really well. Like I said, I just bought it recently so I haven’t had a lot of time testing it out but so far I’d definitely recommend.

I’ll be honest I really only bought from Mishimoto because I saw that ACP and Chris Forsberg use these products. I’m a bit of a fan boy, I guess you could say.  I guess since they are so cheap, I figured the product would not look as good as the one in the picture does but I was definitely wrong. The quality is surprisingly nice.

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I installed a Mishimoto radiator on a ’92 Supra. It’s my DD but I have put it to the test a few times and had great results. Everything looks really nice and it was a great deal. You can find them on eBay for $225 shipped, and the fit was perfect. I have a friend who loves them and I’ve never heard anything bad about the company so I trusted their reputation and it paid off. If you’re in the process of making a decision, go for this one.

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Have a Nissan SR20DET and saw an issue of DSPORT where they did a lot of testing on this radiator so I had faith in it and it paid off. Didn’t do much research besides that but it’s been great ever since. I know there’s cheaper stuff out there but probably not tested as much. I did have one small issue but I called and they fixed it right away. No problems. No complaints.

After finally giving up on Koyo’s lack of customer service, I gave Mishimoto a call, just to see if I could actually talk to a real person. The technical department really went out of their way to help me choose universal products, since I have a car they don’t make products for. They even offered to do the research for me. Anyway,  this was a few months ago, and am happy to report that everything was easy to install, and it all fits and looks great!