This past Friday (6/11/2021) I dove in and swapped out my original radiator with the Mishimoto "Hi-Performance" all aluminum unit that I picked up last October. Original red had ~185k and looked ok, but the top tank was starting to brown and the upper hose inlet, was very degraded. I also took the time to put in new OEM heater-ts, hoses, and clamps. The heater t's had been replaced about 4 years ago, but I hadn't done the hoses, and I am glad I did as the hoses had hardened and I could see signs of minor seeping at all hose connects on the t's. I also replaced the lower radiator hose and thermostat housing cover. AS you can see from the photos, there was leaking at the connection. Not major, but enough, that over time the level in the reservoir very slowly dropped. I had installed new OEM thermostat, but it was bad out of the box and was not opening all the way. The scan gauge was showing coolant temps in mid to upper 190's, while running around town after the install was complete. I could even put my hand on the lower tank of the rad and lower intake hose with the system completely up to temp. Saturday morning I swapped in the OEM thermostat that I had removed, which only had ~21k miles on it. Once I installed and bled out all the of air, I didn't see temps over 188* while driving around town, with this exception of 190* once while sitting at a red light. Ambient temps were in the mid to upper 80's.
One other note, I did not use the Mishimoto provided radiator cap (19psi/1/3Bar), I used a new OEM radiator cap (16psi/1.1Bar).
A special thanks to
@ramangain for assisting on install on Friday. His help and knowledge made things much easier and enjoyable.
New parts;
Bad thermostat housing (inside of the hose looked just as bad);
Trouble shooting for high coolant temp post install;
New (old) thermostat installed and bleeding system;