Jeep Patriot 2015 2.4L and an All Aluminum Radiator

I was busy dealing with a P2007 code.  After removing the intake manifold, I happen to look down at the ground where I just come up from to pull the connector for the throttle body and noticed a puddle.  Following the trail of fluid, I ended up seeing damp spot on the radiator.  "Oh great!"... I have another thing to deal with.  Was this the time for an "all aluminum radiator?  Also, have you also noticed a shortage of reviews for this subject?

This is a sort of typical all-aluminum radiator that I purchased off the bay

Here is my review and I call it...

My Big Mistake and Discoveries along the way

(Warning!  I'm a DIYer and don't claim to have all the answers to whet is wrong, I'm also long winded with details of my journey to install this thing)

To start off, I understood that a more popular use of such radiators would be in a special purpose application... racing and high demand off-road use... towing too.  

Of course I've since discovered it was a waste of time and money... to the tune of $185ish delivered.  Did I need this fancy radiator?  Well, no.  Yet it was more the idea it would be great to not have to think about a radiator for at least the next six years and more than likely it would out live the vehicle and or would be repairable...as the hype seemed to be.

When the "All Aluminum Radiator" arrived, it looked hefty!  That's when I should have notice there was going to be a problem.  From pictures on the bay and after comparing it to the removed original radiator, I then should have noticed that there was very much a size difference of the two radiators.

At first look, there just wasn't much room to sandwich the radiator between the fan and the AC condenser. When you include the lower support and and upper bracket, things just get more tight looking.

If you would like to read the details of my preparations for separating the radiator from the fan and condenser, I've include that stuff separately at the end.  Up here was more the story of the radiator.  

A quick clarification first... From here on,  All Aluminum Radiator (aluminum tank radiator) from here on I'll refer to as the AA-R; Plastic Radiator (Plastic tank radiator or standard radiator) I'll simply say P-R. 

Image 1 - Orange line of fan flange.
Green 

The Review or when things went wrong.

The newly arrived AA-R compared to the P-R can be summed up as 28mm to 32mm extra girth.  What I mean is that the tank portion from front to back.  Although the AA-R included the same number of mounting lugs for the AC condenser as the original or the amount I needed.  

The first thing that indicated something wrong was my factory fan not being able to fit.  The fan has an overhang to its flange and this made the width of the lug very critical.  I should note the flanges on the fan are L-hook shaped (see image 1) and fan flange must rest across the bed inside of the AA-R's hook and no latch found compared to an original P-R types (image 5B at the bottom).  In the provided image the orange line shows the hook shape and is meant to stabilize the fan.  When I tried to mount the fan to the surface of the AA-R, it didn't fit at all, but that would not be the first problem...as you read on.

 

Image 2 - Orange outline of AA-R Lug and Post
Resting on lug is the block (orange dot) and post is too long
or the block and lines were way too short.

The OEM/factory transmission lines?... could be bent to go around this area towards the forward located condenser.  The best application would be with new hard lines and no refrigerant present in the condenser so as to do some heavy pushing and bending to align things.  My almost ten years old lines and condenser under pressure could not have withstood my bending the automatic transmission lines on the other side.  You could say I was better off emptying the automatic transmission side to do some bending, but I'm not too confident with that unless I had a backup set of lines ready.  It would be a substantial "re-route" of the tubes.  

Image 3 - After cutting the post
the transmission lines are tight against body
and still not fully seated down

I attemped to cut the post down to see if I could make it a more comfortable clearance.  However, all this effort achieved only enough to take some of the pressure off the block.  These hard lines contacted the AA-R body tightly and didn't allow enough clearance to seat the AC condenser as to drop on to the lugs on the front for securing the bolts.  Now the remainder of the tapped post shortened left less room for the would be fan unit flange to fit and more to the point was the final clearance was poor.

The extra thickness of the tanks portion was the chief obstacle for the proper seating of the condenser.  I could maybe custom bent the fresh hard lines to fit the dimensions.  

Out of the box, they just didn't fit.  If this was a quality control issue overall or just my example being flawed?  I'll never know unless I hear from others about this or from the company that sold it to me.  The argument might be that I might have crammed it on with a discharged system, however, the heating of the system might have expanded it?  The fan is plastic and I could have snipped off what didn't fit.  I could have cut down the lugs, but risk breeching the tank.  This would still be proof that this example of an AA-R was not a true direct fit.  If the tanks were just 20% smaller.  I might have had far less issues. As proved by the OE sized radiator part of the story below.

Normal mounting point for block
and awaiting the positioning of a clip to
receive the bolt.

Throwing in the towel

After much measuring, maneuvering and juggling, I had to come to the conclusion it will never fit without a saw and TIG welder and new hard lines.  The pushing, pulling and a mallet was still not able to coax it any closer than 3/4 of an inch or 22mm off from fully seating on the driver side (see image 4).  It was time to put the order in for the replacement unit I first looked at and book marked for purchase.

Image 4 - Passenger side & Driver side AC condenser bolt holes. 

The bitter, better ending... I should have stuck with the normal radiator from the beginning

If you are still reading this... thank you.  You looked into all-aluminum radiators and found this article some how?  I hope any of this helped you.  I took the risk of replacing my radiator myself.  I also refused to get my refrigerant emptied first.  This was my giant detour just to repair a leaky radiator while originally repairing a bad "runner is stuck open" code.  I may someday install the AA-R, but the wife wants the vehicle back on the road soon.

So, out of the abundance radiators in the plastic tank type category of  replacements... and I don't claim to know who's the best or even if I can tell later... I purchased the $74 TYC brand only because it had the highest rate or lowest complaints.  It arrived about two days after giving up on the AA-R installation.  I had fussed with the AA-R to try and fit it for over 3 hours with pushing and pulling and tapping with a mallet and then the newly arrived TYC/ P-R was fitted in about ten minutes as well as sitting on top of the lower supports.  Now I had to put it all back together again... look at the steps below.  It looked very much like the original OE radiator (see image 5). Working backwards in steps, I reassembled the fan, bracket, wires and fasteners as well as mounting the bumper back and wires, lights, then the nose.

Image 5 - TYC next to Mopar

Installation Prep work

This was all the step just to avoid having to empty out the AC R134a refrigerant. 

• Battery and Battery Tray - to give more room to access the hose
• Removed all Torx head screws and the 13mm bolts at ends for the top shroud and remove the under shroud cover via the plastic fasteners.
• Unwire harness around fan, yanking the 'christmas-tree' fasteners with trim tool
• Unwire fan via the two plugs using a small pick or screwdriver to wedge clips open
• Unplugged the fog lights
• Pop out fasteners for wheel well liner as part of nose
• As well remove the other pop fasteners for the bottom cover and 3 - 10mm bolts at front 
• 7mm screws along forward end of wheel well - 4 on each side, but three you can see and 1 is hidden until you peek under the wheel well liner
• Pull the nose out slightly to access the side marker lights to unplug
• Slowly pull forward the nose to clear any fasteners that may be hidden and clearing steel bumper
• Detached the hood release cable - pinch locking collar with needle-nose and then head of cable
• *My only added edge was that I had removed the Intake Manifold prior.  I was originally dealing with a P2004 code when I discovered my radiator was slowly leaking (this is optional), but certainly made fan removal easy.  Yes, skip this.
• Locate the cover pieces on either side - between lights and radiator and remove the "christmas-tree" style fasteners
• Unplug AC temp. sensor
• Carefully unfasten the steering cooler from bumper, if installed (my version was a simple loop of hard line) - secure with long 'chrismas-tree' fasteners for the short version or on hook lug on radiator
• Remove the bumper / 4-14mm bolts on each side and a 10mm bolt for the horn to get to one blocked bolt.  The bumper is held in place by hook lugs. Lift up and away
• Remove the upper radiator bracket / unwire ground wires and pull off hood latch cable head from slot and fastened collar end by pinching ears with needlenose.  2-13mm and 1-10mm on each side.
• Undo the AC condenser bolts in front / 2- 13mm 
• Undo the AC condenser hard line block - the driver side facing firewall 10mm
• Unlatch the fan unit from the radiator / slightly wedge (see image 5B) open and move the fan up a little to clear the latch, then do the same to the other side.  Pull straight up until clearing all lugs

Image 5B - Hooked lug that hold the fan flanges

At this point the radiator and AC condenser were no longer secured to anything.  The AC condenser was still hooked to the lug on the front side of the radiator and the radiator was still sitting on top of the lower bracket.  

I emptied some coolant from the radiator via the drain cock.  It was at the lower end on the passenger side and it didn't open with just a turn.  I found it was more an uncorking action by lifting out and twisting to coax it out.  With the catch basin in position at that point, a glug of about two quarts.

Unhooked hoses from the radiator with the assistance clamp springs tools and as well coaxing off the overflow tube.

Ready a support to help prop up the AC condenser later as I didn't feel right about leaving it dangle on the AC lines. I was minding the AC coolant lines always as I lifted up the AC condenser off the lugs/hooks and at the same time moved the radiator off the support and down towards the driver side to clear the AC hard lines.

Once the old radiator was cleared, either bungie or push a jack stands under the condenser at the thick end of the unit and not on the thinner fins to prop it up.

If your new radiator does not include the rubber bushing to seat it on to the lower support, save the originals for later.

To put it all back together was by working all this backwards for reassembly.  Remember, I removed the steal bumper as well as the nose piece of the body to allow all this work space.

I considered while things were opened and out to clean off ground connectors and maybe swapping out bulbs that are really old now.

AA-R after removed.  A smooshed lug and 
I cut more than 20mm off the post below it.

Another hour and a bit later, it was back to were I was with the original project...installing the cleaned out intake manifold.

The End?