2nd gen. radiator options?

[2.5GT]

With over 145,xxx miles and hard driving. The oem radiator has taken its toll. It's starting to leak at the plastic endtanks. So if I'm going to buy another oem radiator, I'll be at risk of it leaking again, from the stupid plastic endtanks. Why not upgrade to a beefier aftermarket aluminum one? so...

Koyo makes aluminum radiators for '90-94 Turbo Legacy. I've searched but no confirmation on it being a direct fit.
Then there's the '93-98 Impreza radiators, and only found it to be 2" taller than the Legacy. So that won't work.

Fluidyne has it for '01-03 Subaru WRX and '03-04 Subaru WRX-STI. I'm not sure if the newer style Impreza radiator fits or not. From the looks of it, their endtanks are on top and bottom. That option is out.

Mishimoto also has it for the '93-98 Imprezas. MT only, but with will have to purchase a tranny cooler separately for the AT. They claim direct fit for the Impreza, if that's the case..then it won't work on the Legacy.

Nothing model specific for the '98 Legacy AT. Is there anything out there that's direct fit? or come close to it? If not, I'll just end up ordering a Koyo replacement. And yes, the koyo replacement does have plastic endtanks. Doh!

[mike-tracy]

The 1st gen t-leg's shouldn't fit since they are taller. They don't even fit in the non-turbo 1st gen legacys. plus there's no radiator cap (on the radiator) :smile:
Your OEM one lasted 145k miles, so if you got another and it lasted the same amount of time, that's 290k right? I don't know about you but that's longer than I'll have my legacy. Just sayin.

But for those of us with the KOYO's on the turbo legacys, there were a bunch of us whose welded seams on the aluminum let go around the same spot, myself included. Others never had any problems.

[2.5GT]

Yeah, it sucks that no one actually make a model specific radiator. I was looking to upgrade the radiator, looks like it's either Koyo or oem right now. Thanks for the reply.

[Reason]

I have a OEM Koyo radiator that I will be dropping it. I also have a radiator in my my car that was originally had the plastic end caps removed and tossed in my scrap pile. The plastic end cap exploded on me and I had to put that other radiator back together. It's been in my car since fall with no leaks.

[2.5GT]

I've placed an order through ebay for a Koyo replacement. I'll see how long this sucker last.

[Black Sunshine]

I've been considering measuring the clearances and the size of the original and just ordering a universal aftermarket aluminum. Creating the brackets isn't that complex. All I have to consider with mine is the trans-cooler and maybe I'll just put a separate cooler in for it.

[Patrick Olsen]

I'm not sure why you're so worried about the plastic end tanks when your OEM radiator lasted 12 years and 145,000 miles. Ideally it would never fail, but nothing's ideal. My OEM radiator lasted ~195,000mi before I decided to replace it just to get one with straight fins and that didn't have a couple blown head gaskets worth of mung inside it. I went with a Spectra Premium off ebay. Not the greatest, but about 60% the cost of a factory replacement. The only real issue was that the top bracket on the radiator (where the hold-down brackets attach) had posts instead of holes. I just swapped the top bracket from the original radiator onto the new one and called it a day.

http://www.submariner.org/thepno95/Pictures/For%20sale/spectra%20radiator3%20-%20innie%20vs%20outtie.jpg
(Picture is upside-down, but that's the Spectra bracket on the bottom and the original bracket and fans one my OEM radiator.)