spoolinstyle

So here’s the story. I’ll admit it, I am cheap. About 2 months ago I got into a minor front end fender bender and ended up having to replace my hood, front bumper, driver side fender and radiator on my 2009 Lancer Ralli-Art. I know I didn’t want another OEM one as I was planning on stepping up to a full Aluminum radiator.

While searching, I found this company selling a radiator on eBay. It was a Blackworks Racing aluminum radiator. I received it from the eBay seller in a decent amount of time and figured this would be an easy install.

I took out the radiator, and all the packaging. (By the way, it was packaged in Styrofoam which needed to be picked out of the fins prior to install), and began searching for any type of pamphlet or guide, or anything. Zilch. Nada. Zero.












I set it down once out of the box and immediately realized that the bottom of the radiator was bowed down. Additionally, the fan clips were basically bent in way to far and one almost broke as I was bending it back out to fit the fans in. So armed with my knowledge and my Haynes manual, I attempted the install.

The install endeavor was more than tedious. Nothing lined up properly, the fans sat farther from the radiator on one side than the other, and the drain plug leaked until I applied some Teflon tape. I eventually said this isn’t worth it and removed the “upgraded” radiator.

Once I realized that this Blackworks Racing set-up wasn’t going to work out for me, I went ahead and spent some extra money (some of which was borrowed from my rents) and purchased a Mishimoto Radiator.

The Mishimoto radiator fit perfectly, fans lined up correctly. Before installing the Mishimoto radiator I made a side by side comparison of the two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qjDJ0tURco

Now, installed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvZg32eVcHs

The Mishimoto radiator was, by far, much better quality. From the welds, the sturdy fan clips, the fitment, even the drain plug was set up ideally. I’ll take a magnetic drain plug already lined with Teflon tape over this shoddy twist open plug on the Blackworks. I even looked and saw that the thickness of walls leading to the radiator hoses were thicker. Oh and by the way, the Mishimoto radiator included an instructional manual, warranty information, and a free sticker!

bigben

iTrader: (4)

I been rocking the Mishimoto ever since the stocker sprung a leak. I have no complaints so far. I couldn't justify spending twice the $ on other well known radiators.

RockmanX

iTrader: (78)

Mishimoto is beast i been rocking it for 1 year +. LOL you should have gotten that radiator first to begin with the first one you had was truely crap lol but you live and learn