[Whit45]

Will you have some warm weather for testing?

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by Whit45

Will you have some warm weather for testing?

Buy me a track day ticket for Circuit of The Americas at Texas in the middle of July, I can get you all the hot weather testings you need

[Cloud9blue]

Everything looks good. I test fitted with the left over old hose from my PPK aux. radiator install a month, everything is nice and tight and mated up with the stock clip-on connector perfectly.

There are total of 40 rows of tubes counting from up to down, and two rows from front to back. The first front row is larger "B-tube", while the second row is a slightly shorter standard tube. Interestingly, stock radiator has higher density of tubes, at 50 rows counting from up to down.

Drain hole is at the stock location, which is useless since our intercooler is block it once it is installed. I have never seem a stock radiator in person, so can't comment on the increase in core size until I get this installed this Friday. My guess I have to trim the fan housing just a little due to the coolant line that is running directly behind the housing due to my PPK aux. radiator.

Overall, the radiator looks great. Only complaint so far is they should include plugs for the 4 connectors. There was a bit of debris fallen into my particular unit, which I had to flush out with degreaser and soap.

[Whit45]

[QUOTE=Cloud9blue;17504813]Buy me a track day ticket for Circuit of The Americas at Texas in the middle of July, I can get you all the hot weather testings you need [/QUOTE
How about a ticket to disney world

[M-Steep]

Originally Posted by Cloud9blue

Everything looks good. I test fitted with the left over old hose from my PPK aux. radiator install a month, everything is nice and tight and mated up with the stock clip-on connector perfectly.

There are total of 40 rows of tubes counting from up to down, and two rows from front to back. The first front row is larger "B-tube", while the second row is a slightly shorter standard tube. Interestingly, stock radiator has higher density of tubes, at 50 rows counting from up to down.

Drain hole is at the stock location, which is useless since our intercooler is block it once it is installed. I have never seem a stock radiator in person, so can't comment on the increase in core size until I get this installed this Friday. My guess I have to trim the fan housing just a little due to the coolant line that is running directly behind the housing due to my PPK aux. radiator.

Overall, the radiator looks great. Only complaint so far is they should include plugs for the 4 connectors. There was a bit of debris fallen into my particular unit, which I had to flush out with degreaser and soap.

Thanks for the great description. I've been following your posts, and researching CSF, but I'm still unclear as to what claim (if any?) to increased cooling is made by CSF, and on what the claim is based (larger, denser, "better"?)? The website doesn't really say. What has CSF said to you, or what else do you know about it? Really hope this proves out.

BTW, I like the way you think - can't have too much cooling! I ponied up for PPK 2 primarily for extra rad. Would like to add Dinan oversized OC, if I can work it with M-Sport bumper and ducting.

Anyway, nice scouting report!

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by M-Steep

Thanks for the great description. I've been following your posts, and researching CSF, but I'm still unclear as to what claim (if any?) to increased cooling is made by CSF, and on what the claim is based (larger, denser, "better"?)? The website doesn't really say. What has CSF said to you, or what else do you know about it? Really hope this proves out.

BTW, I like the way you think - can't have too much cooling! I ponied up for PPK 2 primarily for extra rad. Would like to add Dinan oversized OC, if I can work it with M-Sport bumper and ducting.

Anyway, nice scouting report!

There website/catalogue is lacking. Aside from the all aluminum and two row design, they haven't claimed anything. But by judging from pictures, it looks core is 1/4-1/2" thicker than the OE counterpart, and the all aluminum end tanks definitely have a lot larger capacity than the plastic ones from the stock unit.

I noticed some weird coolant/corrosion residue on my lower passenger corner of the stock radiator last month while doing the ppk and oil cooler install, which I suspect is due to a pin hole leak at where the plastic end tank and aluminum core meet. So I am more than happy to replace it with an aluminum one

Anyway, I have a track day booked on April 4th; hope I can get some comparison on the coolant temp with and without jb4 max cool mode. However, real hot weather testing will have to wait until summer since I am at Midwest.

[TT-Tom]

in for results! looks amazing!

[Cloud9blue]

FYI, this is the dimension of the stock MT core, as measured by Mishimoto. I assume MT and AT radiator has the same core size.



I measured up the CSF core last night. the width and height is exactly the same as the stock unit, while the thickness is 1-3/4", a decent increase from the stock core and nearly identical in size to the Mishimoto MT core.

[Cloud9blue]

Got mine installed just now. Fitment was pretty much spot-on. It took some wiggling to get mine in since PPK coolant lines made things extra tight. But it went in without a problem. Glad the core wasn't any thicker, or else I would have no more room to run the PPK coolant line behind the fan shrouding.

All the hoses fit just fine. No leak or anything from my 25mi driven home from the shop. But the all aluminum construction made things a little louder when the coolant flow through the core and end tanks; I can hear the water trickling and hizzing through radiator when the car is off but with the water pump still running to cool the turbos.

I have a track day booked a month from now, will see if I have any problem with this before and after. Will keep this thread updated as I put more miles on this unit, particular on after a few track days during the summer.

Oh, it might be a good idea to clean out the fins of your radiator after few years of DD, especially if you track it. Can't believe all the crap that has build up on my stock unit after just 40k miles...

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by Cloud9blue

Got mine installed just now. Fitment was pretty much spot-on. It took some wiggling to get mine in since PPK coolant lines made things extra tight. But it went in without a problem. Glad the core wasn't any thicker, or else I would have no more room to run the PPK coolant line behind the fan shrouding.

All the hoses fit just fine. No leak or anything from my 25mi driven home from the shop. But the all aluminum construction made things a little louder when the coolant flow through the core and end tanks; I can hear the water trickling and hizzing through radiator when the car is off but with the water pump still running to cool the turbos.

I have a track day booked a month from now, will see if I have any problem with this before and after. Will keep this thread updated as I put more miles on this unit, particular on after a few track days during the summer.

Oh, it might be a good idea to clean out the fins of your radiator after few years of DD, especially if you track it. Can't believe all the crap that has build up on my stock unit after just 40k miles...

Wow! Thanks for the update. So far are you glad to made the leap? And I might get out there with you for the track day April 4th. Dropping her off at LukeG's Weds night to get Koni's/Eibachs/M3 Control arms, whitelist inserts etc. installed. It couldn't warm up soon enough!

[Cloud9blue]

Some unconfirmed bad news. I think the core has a pin hole leak.

I can hear some hissing from the radiator after a drive and there is some minor vapor coming from the fan shroud. Maybe it is from the some the spilled coolant that collected on the intercooler? All the pipes are nice and tight and no steam coming from there, but with the fan shrouding on, I can't see much else.

Coolant level looks fine for now. But I will keep an eye on the level over the weekend after putting more miles on it. I really like this unit since the fitment is perfect, so hope I can work this out.

You can't go wrong with Luke. He did my install and did my auto trans pan replacement and fluid change in just under 4 hours.

[M-Steep]

Glad to hear it fits in with PPK hardware, but I guess we need to wait and see what you find out about possible leak. Hmmm.
Thanks again for providing all the info

[Cloud9blue]

Well the good news is that this radiator WORKS! I went for a hour drive on my way home from dinner. My OIL temp never exceed 190F, at both city and highway speed. Yes I know it is still below freezing (around 25F this evening) out there at Chicago and I have Dinan oil cooler and PPK. But even with all those things, my oil temp always stabilizes at around 220-230F even when it is below ZERO FAHRENHEIT. FYI, I am still running with stock oil thermostat.

Still have the hissing noise coming from the passenger side radiator region (even the car is cold and has been sitting outside for 2.5 hours in 25F ambient temp), but no steam or anything, coolant level is steady. Maybe the AC condensor is leaking from the install?? But it is hard to imagine we could have damaged that from the install, since it all went pretty smooth...

[Cloud9blue]

good news... radiator is fine... bad news... I need a new AC condenser if I want a working AC again... Meanwhile I can just pretend my car is a 335i GTS with no air conditioning, lol...

Those stupid air scopes that I put on years ago finally rubbed a hole through the AC condenser... I guess the movement from today's radiator install was the final stroke.

If you have one of those drop-in scopes. TAKE THEM OFF NOW!!!

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by Cloud9blue

good news... radiator is fine... bad news... I need a new AC condenser if I want a working AC again... Meanwhile I can just pretend my car is a 335i GTS with no air conditioning, lol...

Those stupid air scopes that I put on years ago finally rubbed a hole through the AC condenser... I guess the movement from today's radiator install was the final stroke.

If you have one of those drop-in scopes. TAKE THEM OFF NOW!!!

What was it that rubbed a hole? And was the A/C condenser the source of the draining noise as opposed to the radiator?

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by sirdaft1

What was it that rubbed a hole? And was the A/C condenser the source of the draining noise as opposed to the radiator?

those drop-in air scoops, mine was from MFD back they were still in business 4 years ago; but they are similar to this: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289187

FYI, you can see the rub marks from over the years on the back of the scoops.

I guess they just weren't secure enough, and rubbed on the condenser when enough air pressure build up in front of them at high speed... FML... BMW wants to charge $500 for that damn condenser, but I found a cheap aftermarket one for $60. Who cares, if it fit and doesn't leak, it is good enough for me. It is just annoying that I have to remove the radiator to get to that again.

[M-Steep]

That sucks - sorry for your loss.

But great that rad is not the problem. It looks like a quality piece; would have been disappointing to find shoddy QA in it.

About those temps your seeing: thermostats ought to be keeping oil and coolant temps in "normal" range. That's the theory, right? Sufficient capacity to cool (keep things from getting *too* hot); control to desired range with t-stats. Is it just that freakin cold there? Something seems amiss.

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by M-Steep

That sucks - sorry for your loss.

But great that rad is not the problem. It looks like a quality piece; would have been disappointing to find shoddy QA in it.

About those temps your seeing: thermostats ought to be keeping oil and coolant temps in "normal" range. That's the theory, right? Sufficient capacity to cool (keep things from getting *too* hot); control to desired range with t-stats. Is it just that freakin cold there? Something seems amiss.

Yeah, this sucks, but I don't need AC until June here at Chicago, so this is not a critical problem at the moment.

I am having a little trouble fully comprehending how the coolant is routed in a N54 on a Saturday morning... But here is the doc providing the specific information: http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...8&d=1165592709

Looks like the coolant pump/thermostat is programmed with 4 different operating temps for different driving condition. My guess is that because I always drive the car in manual mode, and with the heater on, the car is probably operating in "HIGH-map-thermostat", which is at 90C. Since the oil filter housing acts as a exchanger between the oil and coolant, it is possible the cooler flow of coolant is enough to cool down the oil. Just my guess anyway. I will do the unlock the diagnostic menu sometimes today so I can see the coolant engine on the dash display.

[M-Steep]

Originally Posted by Cloud9blue

Yeah, this sucks, but I don't need AC until June here at Chicago, so this is not a critical problem at the moment.

I am having a little trouble fully comprehending how the coolant is routed in a N54 on a Saturday morning... But here is the doc providing the specific information: http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...8&d=1165592709

Looks like the coolant pump/thermostat is programmed with 4 different operating temps for different driving condition. My guess is that because I always drive the car in manual mode, and with the heater on, the car is probably operating in "HIGH-map-thermostat", which is at 90C. Since the oil filter housing acts as a exchanger between the oil and coolant, it is possible the cooler flow of coolant is enough to cool down the oil. Just my guess anyway. I will do the unlock the diagnostic menu sometimes today so I can see the coolant engine on the dash display.

That's a good point.

I have that BMW tech doc saved off, as I've always thought the heat management info was intriguing. I meant to check what the lower range (High + map - lower coolant temp) was. My hunch lined up exactly with yours - in your situation, oil temp is really factor of (same temp as) coolant. Weather is so cold, oil cooler is redundant, as is oil cooler t-stat.

I've always wondered why none of the tunes exploit the cooling modes more fully. I know JB4 and Dinan spin the water pump full on, but seems like there is more to it than that. Cobb doesn't do anything; I've asked them directly. One reason I've stayed with mild PPK.

[shadow191]

Cheap condenser should be fine. I used an $80 one two years ago and it's still working. My AR oil cooler rubbed holes in the condenser, didn't think scoops would. But it is pretty delicate.

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by M-Steep

That's a good point.

I have that BMW tech doc saved off, as I've always thought the heat management info was intriguing. I meant to check what the lower range (High + map - lower coolant temp) was. My hunch lined up exactly with yours - in your situation, oil temp is really factor of (same temp as) coolant. Weather is so cold, oil cooler is redundant, as is oil cooler t-stat.

I've always wondered why none of the tunes exploit the cooling modes more fully. I know JB4 and Dinan spin the water pump full on, but seems like there is more to it than that. Cobb doesn't do anything; I've asked them directly. One reason I've stayed with mild PPK.

Exactly, I have yet to have a limp mode with JB4 max cool even at 80f track temp, and this is an AT car while running stock radiator and oil cooler last season. Did hit the JB4 protection mode at 270F a few times, where it drops the boost to stock level, but that's about it.

You need to cool both coolant and oil to keep the engine cool, or else you will just max out the thermal capacity of the coolant even if the oil temp is below limp mode temp, especially on a AT car. Plus I was never convinced running those ER dual oil coolers wouldnt cause any drop in oil pressure...
Take at look at this thread: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096549

[M-Steep]

Only tracked mine once ( hard to find venues that allow verts). I'm rookie slow, so car wasn't working too hard, but I only saw about 270 oil temps, with PPK aux rad.

I have been more impressed with cooling potential on a couple road trips; wrote a thread but can't ref now on iPhone. Short take - the hotter the ambient temps, cooler the car seems to run. That's when I researched cooling modes and that document. There's a lot there to exploit to keep these cars cooler.