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