Mizu Cooling Solutions Rad/Fan Pack install
 

07/29/12 Update: Read the end of the thread, one of my Mizu fans burnt out after a year and they don't push enough air so the FAL shroud setup is a much better option or just get factory replacement motors.

Okay guys/gals I will be documenting the install of the Mizu aluminum radiator, fans, and shroud setup. I will be getting before and after data VIA my Cobb AP and posting up my findings. I currently have the Cobb tune turning the stock fans on earlier. I will go to a stock tune to get the initial data.

I received the items in perfect condition from Spark plug, Spark plug wire, spark plug gap, spark plug cross reference and ignition wires at Sparkplugs.com. My initial impression is good. The radiator and shroud kit look awesome and fitment seems spot on. I put everything together and had no issues.

I will post up as I proceed with the install.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757480586/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756935607/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757481284/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756936437/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756936721/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756936937/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756937179/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757482546/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757482654/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757483082/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757483268/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756938311/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757483430/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756938665/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757484280/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757484524/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756939413/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757484816/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756939857/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757485266/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756940495/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756940599/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756940945/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757486378/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757487820/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756942809/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757488366/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757489140/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756944273/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757489732/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5757489932/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5756945061/

Other than the drain plug not at stock location, everything else looks pretty good.

I dunno about the fan shroud, it looks really nice tbh. but for me I'm sticking with stock, other than it looks ugly cuz its plastic ... there is nothing wrong with it really.

Lets see how the install goes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774182494/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774183086/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774183640/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773646117/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774184536/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773647007/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773647435/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774185918/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774186942/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774186138/Also remove under tray.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774186646/Remove mounting bolts for condenser and pull forward (if you have one)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774187200/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774187432/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774187882/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774188200/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774188662/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774189052/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773651257/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773651583/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774190048/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774190386/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773652697/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773652901/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773653175/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774191552/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774195416/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774191986/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773654469/
Radiator and fan pack will go in as one unit.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774192836/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773655605/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5774194288/
Fill and burp the system as referenced in the FSM. Start the car and bring it up to operating temps and check for any leaks.

Not related to Mizu :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773656415/http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5773656735/
I have before data and I will get some logged data tomorrow or Tuesday in near 100F driving conditions. All in all it was a easy install and the only gripes I have are the location of the drain plug and the fact that two wire weather safe connectors are not included with the fan shroud kit. The hole in my aluminum under tray is significantly larger than the hole in the stock tray. This will make it a bit messy if you plan to drain the fluid with the tray on. My tray is easily unbolted from the uprights but those with the stock tray may have a difficult time.

It's not really important but it should be noted that the Mizu fans are quiet in comparison to the stock fans.

why did ya remove the wheels ? ;)

pics are so clean. nice :)

Thanks. They are so beautiful, I don't want them anywhere near radiator fluid :)

Yeah, post the "test" results whenever you are ready.

It was about 90f degrees today, maybe 70-80% humility ? I have RB flash so my car's radiator's temp was around 82-95 Celsius(do the math on ur own! :lol) Temp goes up pretty fast when going uphill. drops really fast when down (duh) but it stayed around 85 Celsius the whole time. Coolant should be about 45/55 (EG/Water) and my Radiator is Knight Sports Rad made by Koyo. as far as I remember its 53mm (almost twice the size as stock)

Yeah, my "tests" are just taking logs in similar weather conditions with thee car up to normal operating temps and then driving the same course. I also have Hoss-05's stock RX8 to compare too and in this type of weather in normal driving to the auto parts store, etc. His runs about 190-200F when driving normally.

Id love to see if it has any effect on cooling. I run about 180-190 DD with no undertray, 200+ in traffic with ac.

:wallbash:

Not for long... Nice pics!

I have a mountain of parts to put on. I'm gonna have to take like two weeks off when I get back.

We shall see how well it all works together, especially when the inter cooler comes into play. One other thing is that my condenser was filthy. I washed it out twice and there was still dirt and tiny pebbles coming out of it. A dirty condenser could affecting cooling the same way a dirty radiator can affect cooling on off road vehicles.

Remember the job of controlling operating temperature is not what the radiator does. The thermostat does that. The thing of interest is looking at how effective the radiator is at cooling down the engine once it exceeds normal operating temps.

Hmm I'd have to disagree, the tstat is either open or closed, I consider it the supervisor and the radiator/fan/waterpump the workers.

Once the tstat opens it doesn't do much else except close again, the radiator is what will keep it at 180 or 190 or 210 tstat has no control over that.

So if the radiator/fan/waterpump setup is more efficient it can keep it at an optimum temperature once the tstat opens.

As always I am open for learning and I could be wrong.

I guess it's up to interpretation, but I generally agree with this statement. We could get 160* thermostats, but if the rad/fan/pump is only good at keeping 190~ degrees in adverse conditions then having something open earlier then that is a bit pointless, except maybe prolonging the point at which it reaches 190*

I'm interested in the results of this because I just put in the Mizu rad in my car when the radiator had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction; but i'm still on the stock fans/shroud

Answer this question:

What controls the temperature of your house or apartment? Is it the heating/cooling system or the thermostat?

Hey.........you got nice legs! :rollingla



On a more serious note, rad looks really shiny.
I like the shot of the coolant out of the engine drain!

Did you have some major rad leak? In other words, is that old nasty coolant all over those old fan blades? I do seem to remember you had a crack at the top radiator hose mounting point right?

My main point is this, once the tstat opens its up to the rad/fan to cool down the temps. That thing will stay open until it hits its closing temperature again.

If the rad is to small or has blocked airflow it wont be doing much cooling and the tstat will continue to stay open.

Similar to a house if your coils are dirty and caked with dust you will see higher temps coming out of your supply and it wont be cooling down the space. The tstat will call and call all day long and will not stop calling until its set point has been met.

So yes the tstat does control the "operating" temperature, but once its open there's nothing more it can do.

he had Koyo rad, guess he wasn't too happy with its performance.

(I had no problem when I had Koyo rad tho, still have it in my garage collecting dust :lol:)

:lol: thanks, I work out :lol:

No actually the old dried up coolant is from when my water pump belt busted at redline on a 90F day running through the canyons. This resulted in a crack at the little nipple that goes from the radiator to the reservoir. I replaced it with a Koyo and for the most part it worked fine but it always ran a little hotter than it did with the stock radiator until I sealed it up real good and then it worked fine. I just did this because I was already considering a fan shroud kit and I was given an opportunity to do so through www.sparkplugs.com so i did the rad and shroud kit.

I agree.


Also, I really think the system as a whole is more important than anything else. Having a great radiator doesn't mean much if all of the other cooling system components are not in order. I will get some data tomorrow and then I plan on working on getting some duct worked ideas worked up for when the turbo kit goes on.

Okay guys, I have some longer logs, from before the install but it is way too much data to post so here is a quick snapshot. Basically this is with an ambient outside temp of 99F at cruise on the highway. My oil temps were a consistent 203-205F (they tend to run inline with coolant temps at cruise).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5782219287/

Great DIY dude...

Okay here is a shot from the max temps I saw in the longest log I took. I was driving in a hilly section trying to get the temps up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5782317613/

Thanks dude! Now for some logs post install.

Dude whats up with your afr's?? That looks extremely rich for an NA, also your air intake temp seems super high...

In any event do you see any differences in the temp?

203 the whole time? interesting.

it was 93 degress 2 days ago, I was cruising down in Jersey highway (was it 17 or 3? I forgot)

the speed was about 70-80 the whole time for maybe 15 minutes or so. the Coolant temp (my gauge) shows 83 Celsius almost the whole time.

on the 2nd graph, and why is ur AFR like 11.xx for so long? my AFR is about 14-15 almost all the time.

My intakes temps have been unusually high so I did remove my "cold air intake duct" and went back to the stock setup. I am getting a new MAF just to start with a fresh one before the turbo. My AFR's look okay in all the other logs, not sure why I was seeing low 11's there but better rich there then lean.

I only drove the car down the street to the car wash and never really exceeded 4,000RPM on Sunday. On the drive to work this morning I didn't log but the Good Box was reading about 185F all the way to work and I did bang through the gears to redline up to 90MPH on the access road and my max temp was 194F a few seconds after I let off and slowed to pull into the office. Ambient temps were in the high 90's according to the stock AMB temp gauge.

hahaha, your "cold air intake duct" clearly fails !!!! :crazy:

well, get some more logs ~ so we can see how your fan/rad goes.

Dude, you are in America, why do you force me to calculate C to F ? :lol:

I have compared the temps to hoss-05's car and grungepups and in late afternoon 99Fish weather with some high loads, 200F coolant temps are pretty normal.

good so far--right?
what temps are you activating the fans?
OD

Great thread, beautiful pics!

Actually, my foam insulation blew off which is surprising because the adhesive is pretty sticky. So Saturday I will find a permanent solution. My fans are being turned on at 185F IIRC. I am open to any ideas on what to use.

Thanks man.

The fans are much quieter but I don't think they push as much air as the OEM ones. I haven't actually logged yet because I had to redo my EPS wiring last night. I guess I didn't secure one of the plugs all the way because when I pressed it it clicked and then the steering was fine after.

I do constantly look at my Good Box and the temps seem to be about the same if not a couple of degrees higher but I attribute that to the area around the radiator not being sealed. Most of the foam insulation was gone.

Do our fans push or suck ?

If they are on the inside of the radiator they are puller fans :)....or suck I guess :)

Yes, they pull air in from the front, you can feel the air being pulled in if they are on and you put your hand in front.

Weird thing is that my stock fans seemed to stay on longer after the car was shut down when hot. These only stay on a couple of seconds and then shut off.

It was a rhetorical question, but thank you Dan.

Gotta get you working on a few smileys or something...otherwise it is difficult to tell ;) LOL Seemed like a dumb question :)

that's your problem :rofl: I know the formula in my head so I can convert the temp back and forth pretty quickly.

I think the Mizu fan is somewhat slower than the stock fan. I think the stock fan pull 1700 cfm of air ~ correct me if wrong.

Which tells us absolutely nothing.

How would a proper (or near as one could get on the street) data log be conducted?

Yeah, until I do the same drive again and log. It the max temps reached are are lower then I would suggest the raditor is an improvement. If the temps are the same or higher then well there was no improvement/benefit in installing this combo. I realize this is very unscientific.

It's not so much a case of being scientific because you would need data from your stock radiator to really have a balanced look.

Again, what needs to be looked at is the amount of time it takes to cool down the car to operational temperature with a given ambient temp.

With summer coming up it would be a good opportunity to test this because you'll have a higher ambient temp. This means you'll be able to push the car into higher temps quicker and get a better sense of how much cooling capability the radiator has.

For example:

Find a stretch of road you will experience a good amount of load (hills or what not) and get the temperature up there. I'd say 220 is a good spot because beyond that the heat system becomes saturated and you start getting into the danger zone. Once you have reached your target temp start your logging. Return to normal driving/cruising. See how long it takes for temps to fall under 210 degrees.

Someone who has a stock radiator that can perform the test in similar ambient temps can provide the amount of time necessary to get temps under control. The smaller the amount of time the better the radiator.

^^^What he said^^^ Great thread BTW!

Okay,

I went ahead and pulled the bumper and tray today. The foam I used to seal around the radiator had blown out, the tape backing had come apart and the foam blew out under the radiator and on the drivers side. There were also some other gaps between the under tray and where the wheel shrouds meet the under ray. So I ran to Lowe's and found some that was much larger and fit in there really snug along the sides and top and I shored up all the other potential air leaks. For the bottom I made a panel the basically filled the gap between the tray and radiator. The air really wants to escape under the radiator, that foam was gone completely.

Anyway, I took her out for a ride and drove hard, held a lower gear on purpose, embarrassed some young dude in a brand new C class, etc. My max temps were 208F. This wasn't really comparable to a track day or canyon run in 100F+ weather but it's good. Tomorrow I will do what Flashwing suggested and compare it with Hoss-05's car. But this is good news, I was worried this radiator was another Koyo. The jury is still out but with it all sealed up it is definitely performing better.

Pretty hot here in South Texas :lol:

I was up at my bosses place out in the hill country and went the back way back to the office from lunch yesterday and beat on my car for while. Hills, tight sections, straights, etc.

These were the max temps.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5806260926/

It took a seven mile drive back to the office at 70MPH for the temps to drop down to 190-194F where it usually sits in this weather.

thanks for the DIY