FAQ 1988 BJ7X Radiator R&R - with pics (1 Viewer)

[Hugh Heifer]

There are a few threads out there about radiators for the BJ70 series and what to do or where to get them as they age. The clear solution IMO is to core your original. I recently discovered that my little '88 BJ73 was running hot and hated climbing hills. I overheated badly driving over Blowing Rock in North Carolina several months ago and knew it was time for a radiator.

Since then I moved from Virginia back to Rome, Georgia where we are lucky to have an old school radiator shop that I have had do work in the past (took care of a couple of FJ40 heater cores) and I have learned to trust. With that in mind I pulled the radiator and brought it to Rome Radiator Services at 208 W 3rd St, Rome, GA 30165. Rick is the proprietor and since his son got a job full time at UPS he is also the sole employee.

Without further adieu, here is the process for pulling your radiator (remember left is left side of truck sitting in the driver's seat - in my case, the passenger side) :

1. Drain the radiator form the petcock.

2. Remove the three 10mm bolts holding down the air cleaner duct and loosen the clamp holding it to the air cleaner housing and remove the duct. Be careful as this is NLA and has fragile joints.

As you can see, mine has some cracks I need to address. Not sure the best thing to use that will adhere to this plastic.

3. Remove one bolt and slide out the intake air resonator.

4. Carefully unplug the overflow tube from the over flow bottle and then remove the three bolts from the overflow bottle and remove it. Go ahead and unplug the other end of the overflow tube from the thermostat housing. Do not lose the little spring clamps. Be careful as there are some plastic clamps securing the overflow tube to the fan shroud. They are bound to be brittle. I left them in place with the hose intact to the shroud. I was lucky and did not break them.

5. Remove the upper radiator hose completely.

HINT: To remove radiator hoses I use an old screw driver I sharpened to a point an then bent at a 90 on the end. I can get this under the stuck hose and then run it around the inside to break the rusty seal.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Lemme see about resizing these pics....

Here an example of using the homemade tool on the hose:

A little better size.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

6. Remove the two bolts holding the overflow tank bracket.

7. Remove the clamp on the left side holding the lower radiator hose to the fan shroud. One 14mm bolt. It is easiest to reach from under the truck.

8. Remove the remaining bolts holding the fan shroud to the radiator. One of the bolts is on the left side inside the fan shroud. It is not hard to reach with an extension. Take care not to break a fan bade. Now push the shroud back and carefully let the shroud hang on the fan. (In the pic you can see I had not yet removed the upper hose.)

9. Next, remove the front grill. There should be six cross tip screws (Phillips) holding it in place: one in each corner and two down the center. Remove it and place it somewhere that you or your helper will not step on it and bend it.

10. There are two long bolts holding the radiator in place on either side of it accessible from the outside. Remove them. 14mm I think.

 

[OGBeno]

Nice work HH. Did MH help or did she supervise and laugh at you?

 

[Hugh Heifer]

11. Remove the two upper nuts on either side of the radiator. They are on the vertical studs on the two mounts.

12. Now this is where it gets fiddly. I found it easiest to get the radiator out by removing the left side upper radiator mount. It is held in place with one bolt and then one nut on a stud accessible from behind the grill. Another reason to remove the grill. Removing this gave me some needed clearance. Then, as I lifted the radiator, my helper sort of rotated the shroud clockwise ti give me the clearance I needed. There is not a lot of room to make this happen but with some shimmy-shake, it is doable. The radiator slides straight up.

13. Once out, you can remove the rubber mounts from the sides so they do not get lost.

14. Carry the beat up thing to your local radiator shop.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Rick pressured tested the radiator and advised it was "clogged slam up." We discussed putting a core in with additional rows but olde skool Rick said he was confident a three row of the same dimensions would make the engine plenty happy and would prevent any mods to the fan shroud do to the depth of any additional rows. He ended up finding some cracks in the tanks and fixed those from the inside and reattached the duct mount that had broken off. Out the door for $590.

And of course I forgot to take a picture of the finished product but I did get pictures of the old core. I guess it was ready to come out. All that scale was hard as barnacles.

Replacement is basically reverse of the above instructions. cleaned the shroud and I put a little soft weather stripping around the top and bottom to replace what was deteriorated ($3 from Home Depot).

Hang the shroud on the fan and have a helper rotate it into place as you slide the new radiator in. Then she (in my case) needs to hold the side of the radiator up while you bolt the left side mount back to the cowl.

I went ahead and filled it with green 50/50 coolant at Rick's suggestions. I used Peak becasue it was on sale. He said either the Toyota red or off the shelf green 50/50 is fine but do not mix them as they can gel and never use DexCool. He said that stuff is the devil. I too have seen that stuff destroy cooling systems.

Here is a pic of it mostly buttoned up. I went ahead and replaced the by-pass hose (16261-56012) - which was the most difficult part of this entire project- and the upper (16571-58040) and lower (16572-58040) radiator hoses as well.

A couple pics of it just going into place when I realized I had not taken any of Rick's fine work:

MH ( ) drove the truck to Cartersville, GA and back (40 miles total) and said it was perfect and happy with no indication of ever getting above about 1/3 on the gauge.

So that's a rap.
I call this a two banana job.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Nice work HH. Did MH help or did she supervise and laugh at you?

I was going to have her install it without me but she refused. She was my helper and did all the shimmy shaking to get the radiator past the shroud. I am sure I could have done this without her but it made it easy to have someone help. It also made it less risky to jam the new core into a pointy metal bit.