The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebaggery

[SlimKlim]

A few weeks after the car show, my cooling system decided to start going out on me. I replaced the culprit hose, which simply got another one leaking. If you know E36s, you know its time for a radiator/hose refresh (my water pump has a metal impeller already and my thermostat is doing ok, or I would've replaced them as well).

First I detailed a Z4 for my co-worker, he thought I was just painting the grilles for him, so bringing it back looking like this had him grinning for a week.



Anyway:



All the supplies. I'm using peak coolant as it's allegedly one of the acceptable substitutes for the BMW branded stuff. I'm also using distilled water instead of tap water like I used to, and I'm going to add water wetter, which helps reduce running temps and further reduce the risk of corrosion.





Looks like the radiator was the source of my leak. The plastic on these things only lasts for a few years before it gets brittle, I'm lucky it started leaking instead of just exploding.





BMW decided the best place for the coolant drain plug for the block was right between the headers. That's all fine and good, but I have long tube headers with fiberglass wrap to keep underhood temps town, and I really don't want to smell pancakes for the next 3 months.



I shoved a trashbag in there to hopefully keep the majority out of the wrap.





My trash bag doubled as a funnel, so draining from the block turned out to be surprisingly tidy. Don't worry though, plenty more messes were made.



Fan clutch pulled using the specialty BMW tools. Its possible to pull it without the tool, but extremely frustrating.



Extremely delicate OEM radiator clamp that I wasn't smart enough to order replacements for. This one surived being uninstalled.



This one did not.







..wait so who makes this thing again?



Started going over the radiator, looking for differences from the OEM one. The shroud tabs are a little bent, so I straightened them out.



Swapped over the bushing from the OEM shroud, the holes on the new radiator are way too big for them, doesn't bode well for working with the remaining OEM clamp.



Used the old radiator to get the main thermostat hoses at about the right angle.



Found a cracked hose on one of the vacuum lines that goes into the throttle boot post-MAF. Since I didn't have a replacement at the ready its time for a little DIY-engineering.



Gooped some RTV around the fitting and then used a spare hose clamp to lightly snug it up, creating an airtight seal when the RTV dries. Should last until next time I'm in there no problem.



I actually decided not to replace the "main cooling hose" which is this complicated 4 way contraption that runs from the front of the block to the heater core and has vacuum lines that seem to run to the throttle body or something. Accessing it without removing the intake manifold is near impossible, and pulling and replacing the manifold is a 4 hour job that requires banging the delicate (and expensive) fuel injectors every which way.

A thorough inspection showed everything around that hose was dusty dry, so I opted to add that hose to my collection of new OEM parts for a later day.

Dropped the radiator in and thought it didn't fit, then just realized I forgot these little guys. They are bushings to hold the bottom of the radiator in place in its mount.





And the 2nd clamp goes down. Sigh.



Its not a project if you don't use a dremel at some point. The overall width of the cooling fins on this radiator are a bit narrower than the stock one, and the shroud mounts too high. I cut down the tabs and cut one side of the shroud off so that it mounts flat to the radiator and the expansion tank wouldn't be 2 inches too high.



"If it looks stupid, but it works, it ain't stupid." In lieu of an actual clamp, I cooked up a chain of zipties to hold the top of the radiator to the frame. They aren't supporting much weight since the radiator sits in the lower mount, this just keeps it from tipping back and hitting the fan.

I won't leave it like this for too long, I'll either get (and modify) new OEM clamps to work with this radiator, or if I get lucky I can find some more durable ones meant for an all aluminum rad.



Intake and plastics reinstalled. Started refilling the cooling system. I started with 1 gallon of distilled water and added one gallon of coolant. Then I used the empty containers to mix the remaining coolant and water for two pre-mixed gallons.

Before I started the car up and bled the coolant down, I also changed the engine and differential oil. Not much to photograph there though.



The diff change was over due. Also, Easy Open Seal my ass.



Turned out to be a pretty messy job. The old oil smells like burnt parmesan cheese, and a ton of the new oil spilled out of the pump when going back in. Its also about as thick as you'd imagine a 75W-90 oil would be, and covers everything it touches in a thick film.



Upper one is the level plug, lower is the drain. You pump fluid into the level plug until it starts to run out like so, then plug it up.