2000 4cyl OBW radiator replacement DIY?

[J A Blazer]

2000 4 cyl OBW, automatic, 125K. Radiator has just developed a crack, in the plastic near where the upper hose enters. Can someone point me to a DIY for the R&R? TIA.

[lmdew]

Pretty straight forward.

 

Jack the car and place jackstands under

Crawl under and unplug the 2 fans

Disconnect the lower hose, with a bucket under to catch the fluid. You can do this at the thermostat housing or even remove the 2 bolts that hold the theromstat.

 

Remove the generator and AC belt covers for clearance

 

While it's draining, Go back to the top and remove the bolts holding the overflow tank

 

Remove the bolts holding the fans

 

Remove the top radiator hose

Remove the Transmission hoses

Remove the top radiator support and pull it straight up.

 

Reinstall in the reverse order. Search for Burpping the coolant system on the USMB, you want to make sure you get all of the air out when you put the new radiator in.

 

PS, this is a great time to change all the coolant hoses and flush the system.

[idosubaru]

yeah, replacing a radiator is really easy. as easy as this is, if you need instruction it might be more than you want to tackle. wouldn't cost much at all to pay someone to do it. then you don't have to worry about rusted clamps, bleeding the system, and the transmission fluid lines. but if you want to do it:

 

the only hard part is burping the system, this particular engine is notorious for being hard to bleed and overheating any time the coolant is refilled. on many (all?) EJ engines there's a plastic bleeder screw on the top passengers side. have that open as you fill with coolant. keep pouring until bubbles no longer come out the bleeder screw and it just seaps all coolant, screw it tight then finish refilling. helps for the nose of the car to be higher than the rear.

 

keep your eyes very intent on the temperature gauge afterwards and any sign of running hotter than normal (it'll shoot up obviously) means there's still air in the system.

 

do a quick visual to make sure you have all the parts you need. now is a good time to replace any clamps/hoses that look suspect. you'll need new radiator hoses/atf hoses if they're rusted and don't easily come apart. take an inventory and have them on hand.

 

any suspect clamps (radiator hose and ATF hoses) can be sprayed with a penetrant like Liquid Wrench or PB Blaster to help them come loose.

 

other than that - just remove the drive belts, fans, electrical connectors, and hoses and such.

 

if it's an automatic then your transmission fluid lines also run through the radiator. the clamps will need replaced if they're rusted bad. often the lines are hard to get off the fittings and very hard to get back on the new fittings.

 

to get them off - use a wrench and rotate the lines "around" the fitting before trying to pull them off, this breaks the bonding. then try and slide them off with a screw driver or pliers.

 

getting them on can be a very tight fit, you almost certainly won't get them on as far as they were. i use a screw driver or other large object to ream the end of the hose...working it all around it to stretch it out for the reinstall.

[94Loyale]

Also, when refilling the coolant. The best way I've found is to remove the upper hose from the radiator side. And fill the motor up with coolant first. Dump the coolant right down the hose into the motor first, it will take just about a gallon to fill up. Then reinstall the hose to the radiator and fill that up also. Then bleed like everyone else said. This way you ensure that the motor is filled with coolant first, and won't overheat.