ea82 radiator okay with ej22?

[Subinoobi]

So I eventually plan on doing an ej22 swap, but for the time being I'm slowly collecting parts while keeping my ea82 running. The thing is, she likes to get hot in white stuff up hills. so I've been thinking about swapping the radiator for a 2 core for the ea82. Would that be okay for the ej22 in the future? I would rather not buy the radiator for the ea82 and then have to get something when the swap comes around.

[86 Wonder Wedge]

Using the EA82 radiator is going to be your easier choice. You will either have to find a copper/brass one and have different hose ends brazed on to match the EJ hoses (good luck finding a copper/brass) OR just use adapters for the EJ hoses onto the EA radiator. The 2 core should handle the EJ22 just fine.

[idosubaru]

sounds like a good plan, i'm sure the EJ22 swap threads and such have covered lots of radiator questions.  it's done all the time, so i'd see what they're doing/recommend. 

 

much depends on what you'll be doing with the EJ22 as well.  if you're racing, towing, carrying huge loads up mountains...etc then it might tax the weakest part of the cooling system.  if yo'ure just doing basic daily driving and playing it won't matter.

[ivans imports]

I used the ea82 rads not ideal but will work fine

[wagonist]

Why is it getting hot?

 

air flow through the rad blocked?

needing to run the engine at high revs (which will be less of a problem with the EJ22)?

current rad is blocked?

[Subinoobi]

Why is it getting hot?

 

air flow through the rad blocked?

needing to run the engine at high revs (which will be less of a problem with the EJ22)?

current rad is blocked?

I'm suspecting the radiator is clogged.  just bought the car, I have no idea of it's history but I can say that the rad doesn't look pretty. I would say I have to run a bit higher revs, but I also hear the ea82's like higher rpm's due to it's short stroke.

[WoodsWagon]

The ea radiator will work fine. I had a 150k mile old single core with my EJ22 with a single pusher fan out of a saab or something wired backwards to work as a puller mounted on one side of the radiator. I beat the hell out of the car and the only time it got hot was when I was stuck in a valley with foot deep slush snow that I just couldn't climb on top of and it was snowing. It was an hour straight of backing down to the bottom and doing full throttle runs up trying to cut ruts. Plus winching to pull it out of the ditches. One of the longest 1/2 miles I've ever fought a vehicle through. That one time it got hot, it got really hot. It pegged the EA temp gauge with the EJ sender. It was so toasty it was getting severely down on power. Of course there was snow packing in front of the radiator too limiting airflow, but what really did it was the lack of a good fan.

 

If you can ditch the A/C condensor there's a lot more space for fans in front of the radiator. The EJ crank pulley is too close to the rad to fit a fan in between, so you're kind of stuck with a thin single fan offset to the drivers side in the engine bay if you go that route.

[Crazyeights]

I have been running an EJ22 on an EA81 radiator for quite a while now without any trouble. I would think you'll be fine with the either of the EA82 radiator styles as long as they flow well.