I am looking to upgrade my radiator, car is a 92 with an H22 (original radiator) so I was thinking, why not go with an aluminum radiator. Started poking around, ebay has them for rather cheap all the way up to Koyo radiators. Is there a huge difference between the two? I know somebody is going to say (you get what you pay for) but I am not looking for the best, I just want something that is going to outperform my crappy radiator and keep my car cooler in the desert. Anybody have any luck with a generic aluminum radiator? What CAN break? welds?? Just curious, I already have slim line fans so they will got right on the new radiator, I am also gonna replace all my sensor that turns the fans on and the temp gauge on the dash as they are both screwing up plus with 110+ degree summers I need very little margin of error. Oh and is there REALLY a difference between the Si trim and the base trim model in terms of the radiator?Thanks guy!

 

The $100 2" core Civic radiator I installed in my Prelude 4+ years ago is just now starting to show quality problems. I had to fix 2 small hairline cracks in it the other day that where starting to leak pressure.

I don't think i would spend less than $100, but you will get what you pay for in a sense. Mishimoto is a good value in my opinion

 

mishimoto makes one for the 5th gen, but i didn't see any for the 4th? Is it the same thing??

 

my mishimoto cracked in offroad duty, but its still a pretty good radiator, i'd go with it over the ebay stuff

the koyos seem pretty thick though, my friends koyo is at least 50% thicker then my mishimoto, both 1/2 size radiators

 

anybody know if its worth the $ to go with a performance radiator on something that goes to the track maybe 3 times a year? The more I look at it, I might as well buy a stock replacement for 1/3 the price and invest that money elsewhere... thoughts? I guess what I am trying to consider is, if a "high performance" radiator and a stock radiator both keep your car at the desired temperature as controlled by your radiator fans, then what is the difference? Weight? Speed of cool down? I don't want to get a 1/2 size cause I have dual slim fans that I paid wayyyyy too much money for! lol I gotta use em till them die just to feel like I got my moneys worth lol

 

well the stockers have plastic endtanks, but they're copper core which is a better heat transfer metal then aluminum. but aluminum is much lighter.

but the race radiators generally hold more fluid, which is heavy, but have a thicker core and better cooling ability because of size

so its your call, but i think a stock rad would be fine, if the bling factor means nothing to you, try the radiator barn, i've ordered from there and have had great experience

 

radiator barn? is that a website?? Yeah I don't really care about the bling factor, thanks for the good advice! I will def go with a factory replacement cause its rather inexpensive. Thanks for the help guys!