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XJ radiators, a review.

Now onto the new Mishimoto MMRAD-XJ-89. [...]

This looks like a cracked weld? That's a little disappointing to find on an otherwise beautiful $400 radiator. Given the location I don't think it would stop me from installing it, but it would have stopped me from shipping it.

20181002_160341-me.jpg

Makes you wonder what they are doing to make that weld crack. And are they doing the same bad thing(s) on important welds.
 
OK, I got down to the CSF or Mishimoto unit.

In all of my reading, 'the experts' say it comes down to what has the most core/fin contact. More is better, period.

So I started measuring.

Mishimoto:
15 fins per inch
31" wide cores
1" deep core
26 rows
2 cores

15*31*1*26*2 = 24,180 inches of fin/core contact

CSF
16 fins per inch
30.5" wide
.437" core
25 rows
3 cores

16*30.5*.437*25*3 = 15994.2 inches of fin/core contact

Running that through a calculator, the Mishimoto has 34.29% more heat dissipating surface.

Even if you want to factor in copper being 20% more efficient than aluminium, the Mishimoto is still far superior.

So we'll see how that goes tomorrow. ;)
 
Makes you wonder what they are doing to make that weld crack. And are they doing the same bad thing(s) on important welds.


I have to agree, a crack like that isn't typical in aluminum -- I'm wondering if the bowl is compromised and going to leak right there

Are there any other welds holding that crossmember to the bowl?
 
It's a shipping charge yes, you pay both ways for their failure. The rate goes up over time.

I couldn't even find a listing for modine.

I didn't have to send the bad ones back. Just shipping on the replacement. Scrapped the old one.


I didn't notice the difference between 2 and 3 cores on the 2 you narrowed down to. I'll take the 2 larger cores over the 3 any day.
 
Apparently my math above is wrong with a "call me and i'll explain"

that guys smarter than i am, so let me get back to this in a bit.. :)
 
I have to agree, a crack like that isn't typical in aluminum -- I'm wondering if the bowl is compromised and going to leak right there

Are there any other welds holding that crossmember to the bowl?

stress crack isn't it? didn't think they were that uncommon. weld shrinks but the base doesn't, but I'm rusty on AL welding.
 
Apparently my math above is wrong with a "call me and i'll explain"

that guys smarter than i am, so let me get back to this in a bit.. :)



Well, my math was fine. What I didn't take info consideration is that one radiator may have .003" of fin contact to the core and the other may be .005" of fin contact. Which he's right, I didn't consider.

That lead into a long conversation about efficiency, fin design, volume, etc etc. After the discussion he thinks i should go Mishimoto as well (and by a large margin). Considering he designs high end intercoolers for a living, I'm have a lot of respect for his opinion.
 
I'm disappointed in the CSF.

The Mishimoto does look good, besides the cracked weld.

Very good review of the options available.
 
I msg'd Steve at Mishimoto and invited him to participate in this thread. Seems unlikely he will, they haven't logged in here in over a year.

Wonder if I can track down his email addy.
 
Just got my mishimoto in this week but it's sitting in the box ready for a trip to the mechanic. i will definitely look at the welds after seeing this thread. thanks! overall i've heard really enthusiastic reviews on it and considering the price vs more expensive high end radiators, i got a coupon at morris 4x4 that brought it down to $360 shipped couldnt pass on it. previously i overheating once on a long climb with AC on--by overheat i meat 235 didn't like that. will definitely do a review on it once i get it in provided no cracked welds.
 
I haven't gotten around to writing it up yet but my Mishimoto is installed.

A few fit and finish issues. Only have 10 miles on it, can't say it performs any better or worse than the Mopar yet.
 
i was getting up to 218-220 at idle in the summer here in CA. jeep is stock, new to me so not exactly sure how old the radiator and pump are but i did flush the coolant and it's nice and clean. i did replace the clutch with no help on idle temp. hoping the mishimoto, new mopar pump/thermostat keep my temps in line.
 
I was at 227 in my driveway idling.

Also possible I have a blown engine. Drove 3-4 miles at 70 with no coolant.
 
For the most part, you've already read the testing. ;)

I just wanted to put my hands on them and not pick off of advertising material. The rest of them go back this weekend.

Drove the jeep to work today. Suspecting i have a cracked head, so my high temps are probably not the cooling systems fault.
 
Hey everybody,

I just wanted to jump in and answer questions / respond to comments here. Sorry I didn't see your PM Cal, we usually transfer forum responsibilities to our customer service team after product release, so I didn't get the email notification, and they've been swamped lately with a lot of product releases going on.

First, I wanted to say thank you for reviewing our rad and providing feedback!

One of the comments that I wanted to address was the coverage of the warranty for our products bought on Amazon. We do fully honor our warranty for products purchased from Amazon. As long as you have a copy of your receipt, we can replace the product under our lifetime warranty.

Where Amazon gets tricky is if the customer were to request a refund more than 90 days after purchasing from Amazon. When we issue refunds for products under our warranty, we work with the vendor to issue the refund. After 90 days, Amazon is not very cooperative in that process.

But, we will always honor our warranty on products purchased through Amazon as long as you have that receipt. Registering your product on our website also gives you the option to upload a copy of that receipt to our system so that it will never be lost and our CS team can speed up the warranty process.

Also in regards to our warranty, we do charge a shipping fee for the replacement product, but we do not ask that you send the failed product back to us. The shipping charge for this particular radiator would be $15 within 90 days of purchase, or $30 after 90 days.

You can see our entire warranty policy here: Mishimoto Lifetime Warranty

Finally, I did ask our engineering team to check out that weld. The crack most likely happened from the heat cycling of the brazing process. That weld is a tack weld whose only purpose is to hold that plate in place during brazing and should not penetrate into the end-tank. The welds that make up the end-tanks are TIG welds with much deeper penetration. All of our radiators are leak tested before they are shipped to our customers.

On many radiators, you'll see a top and bottom plate that is not a coolant tube. This plate's main function is to support the tubes and fins and hold the end tanks in place on the core during the brazing process. One end tank is welded to each of those plates, the tubes and fins are inserted into the end-tank, then the other tank is tacked in place. It is the brazing that actually holds the components in place, including that top plate. In fact, many manufacturers will cut all the way through this plate to allow the radiator to naturally expand and contract.

So, while the crack might look bad, that weld serves no purpose in the actual structural stability of the radiator after the brazing process is complete. It's the brazing that holds the end-tanks to the core and provides rigidity to the radiator mounting.

Sorry for the crazy long post; I hope that answers your questions, feel free to let me know if you have any more!

-Steve
 
Thanks Steve!

I installed the radiator yesterday. Generally very impressed by it compared to the others. I have a few notes (i had to go buy hardware for the top studs as they were a different size from my mopar and griffin radiators), and the shroud mounts on the bottom are a hair taller than my OEM radiator, so i had to open up the upper holes in the shroud a bit to bolt it up.

Also the barb for the quick disconnect on the trans line was a bit too long and the disconnect wouldn't clip in - i ended up cutting about 1/8" off the end of that barb.

Took pictures, will post them this afternoon.
 
Thanks Steve!

I installed the radiator yesterday. Generally very impressed by it compared to the others. I have a few notes (i had to go buy hardware for the top studs as they were a different size from my mopar and griffin radiators), and the shroud mounts on the bottom are a hair taller than my OEM radiator, so i had to open up the upper holes in the shroud a bit to bolt it up.

Also the barb for the quick disconnect on the trans line was a bit too long and the disconnect wouldn't clip in - i ended up cutting about 1/8" off the end of that barb.

Took pictures, will post them this afternoon.

I completely forgot to ask what the fit and finish issues you ran into were; thanks for letting me know! I'll pass this on to our team so that we can make sure everything is QC'd properly. What size hardware did you end up having to get? I'm wondering if maybe there was a change in hardware at some point or maybe the HD MOPAR rads use a different spec?

Thanks again!
-Steve
 
I ended up buying M5-.8 nylocs and some small fender washers. The studs may have been #10-32 machine thread, but the local hardware store didn't have that and its *really* close to M5.

20181004_161611-me.jpg


Hard to get a clear shot, but the quick disconnect wouldn't quite clip in.

20181003_184411-me.jpg


Tip to rib, all of the other radiators were 3/4" and the Mishimoto was 7/8". That's something you probably want to look into, but it was 2 seconds for me to address. This may be an issue with an aftermarket radiator line, but the others were all consistent at 3/4"

I was really impressed that you included the tabs for the ac condenser, and that you gave a solid plug for the overflow in case this was installed in a closed system car.

20181004_161309-me.jpg


Looks like I didn't take any pictures of the shroud, but it basically sat about 1/8" proud of where it did on the prior radiator, and wouldn't bolt to the upper core support. I just brushed the bolt hole on the shroud with a file and it went together.
 
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