Keeping The Party Cool! Mishimoto's Fiesta ST Radiator R&D!

[mishimoto1]

Yeah sure thing. What I did was remove all the bolts that hold the radiator support to the crash beam. There are 2 up top and 4 on the front. Of those 4 on the front, 2 sit behind the intercooler. Once all of those are off, the radiator support should be free of the crash beam, this allows you to articulate it up, down, left, and right. My next step was to loosen the Crash beam, there are 4 13mm bolts on each side, I loosened up all of them so that I was able to pull the beam back about 1-1.5 inches. This gave me enough space to pull out the fan shroud first then the radiator. Granted there is limited space, so much precaution was taken to not damage the radiator fins on the AC condenser. After the OEM fan shroud and radiator were pulled, I slid in the new radiator first, this took a bit of finagling with a friend because we didn't want to damage the Mishimoto Radiator or the AC Condenser. Once the condenser and radiator were mated (The ac condenser clips to the radiator), I bolted in the fan shroud assembly. I did bolt on the fan shroud on the radiator outside the car to make sure it fit and also to line up the metal brackets, then I removed it and reinstalled it once the radiator was in place. All in all it was not that bad, it just takes a lot more caution to not damage anything, but it can be done. I didn't want to pull off the Crash beam because of the Oil Lines from the Oil cooler, I didn't want to disconnect or stretch them.

Radiator works great. I haven't seen a coolant temp over 192 yet.

Thanks for the explanation!

-Sara

 

[Rejeme]

I was concerned about installing this radiator and clearance issues with my Boomba intake manifold/TB spacer. All I can say is that it fit, but it didn't. I was able to button everything back up, but I noticed that the upper hose clamp on the sound symposer contacts the Mishi fan shroud. I still have the stock symposer in place, with a DHM unit on the way, but I can't see the DHM unit providing any more clearance. Any movement of the engine would cause interference issues with two parts leading to who knows what down the road. I ended up just removing the manifold spacer. Also, if you have just the manifold spacer without the TB spacer, I think you would have even more interference issues. The fan shroud would then contact the symposer rubber hose and could possibly wear a hole through it after a while. I left the TB spacer on. Either way, installation was pretty easy. I do recommend getting a clip removal tool if you don't have one. The unit appears to be well made/engineered. The comparison between the OEM radiator and the Mishi is almost comical. Does Ford use the same radiator across the entire Fiesta line? I think they dropped the ball in regards to this cars cooling system. Hopefully it solves my problem, I still need to see how it performs on the road as I was starting to overheat in normal stop and go traffic on the freeway in 105* temps.

 

[mishimoto1]

I was concerned about installing this radiator and clearance issues with my Boomba intake manifold/TB spacer. All I can say is that it fit, but it didn't. I was able to button everything back up, but I noticed that the upper hose clamp on the sound symposer contacts the Mishi fan shroud. I still have the stock symposer in place, with a DHM unit on the way, but I can't see the DHM unit providing any more clearance. Any movement of the engine would cause interference issues with two parts leading to who knows what down the road. I ended up just removing the manifold spacer. Also, if you have just the manifold spacer without the TB spacer, I think you would have even more interference issues. The fan shroud would then contact the symposer rubber hose and could possibly wear a hole through it after a while. I left the TB spacer on. Either way, installation was pretty easy. I do recommend getting a clip removal tool if you don't have one. The unit appears to be well made/engineered. The comparison between the OEM radiator and the Mishi is almost comical. Does Ford use the same radiator across the entire Fiesta line? I think they dropped the ball in regards to this cars cooling system. Hopefully it solves my problem, I still need to see how it performs on the road as I was starting to overheat in normal stop and go traffic on the freeway in 105* temps.

Thanks for the review! If you can PM us some photos of the fitment concerns that you had I will be sure to have our engineering team take a look at them. Let me know if you need any additional assistance!

Thanks,
Sara

 

[Pete]

I installed the mishimoto radiator and thermostat this weekend. Wow does it make a difference. And the size between stock and the mishimoto is laughable. After the install I went to test it out for a canyon drive. 102 degree day, ran with the ac on at 67 degrees. My coolant temps got to a max of 220 pushing the car for around 10 mins of driving. I would say it has done its job very well. In stop in go traffic with this 100+ degree weather my temps are never higher then 185 from what I have seen so far. I am running a 50/50 coolant mix as well.

 

[mishimoto1]

I installed the mishimoto radiator and thermostat this weekend. Wow does it make a difference. And the size between stock and the mishimoto is laughable. After the install I went to test it out for a canyon drive. 102 degree day, ran with the ac on at 67 degrees. My coolant temps got to a max of 220 pushing the car for around 10 mins of driving. I would say it has done its job very well. In stop in go traffic with this 100+ degree weather my temps are never higher then 185 from what I have seen so far. I am running a 50/50 coolant mix as well.

Thanks for the kind words, glad the radiator was able to help!

-Sara

 

[Pete]

Thanks for the kind words, glad the radiator was able to help!

-Sara

I recorded the entire install process so I'll post the video up in the next week or two.

 

[mishimoto1]

I recorded the entire install process so I'll post the video up in the next week or two.

Awesome, we would love to see it!

-Sara

 

[ShadowInDaNight]

I recorded the entire install process so I'll post the video up in the next week or two.

Have the install vid that you made? O/W Mishi has theirs I can go off of. I have my new radiator still boxed up in the garage. Hopefully will install it in the next few weeks, as I just received my DHM fmic + crash bar. Figured do one giant install. Hopefully save some time in the process.

 

[Pete]

Have the install vid that you made? O/W Mishi has theirs I can go off of. I have my new radiator still boxed up in the garage. Hopefully will install it in the next few weeks, as I just received my DHM fmic + crash bar. Figured do one giant install. Hopefully save some time in the process.

There are three parts.

Part 1 bumper removal: https://youtu.be/PdmkJQmjtYk

Part 2: radiator removal: https://youtu.be/BxX75v_qixs

Part 3: thermostat install and reassembly: https://youtu.be/Z9G2_1soVDE

 

[FiestaTexas]

I can vouch for Mishimoto's install video. I used theirs for the rad and oil cooler, and they really do a good job of making it very easy to follow. Plus, they put it all back together too so you dont have to backtrack. The videos made me look real good haha.