How many litres of coolant for a new radiator(cooling system)?

[MrMann]

I've had a cracking day!
The top tank of my radiator has gone kaput.
I'll be needing to source a radiator ASAP.
So in preparation for the easy swap over of a radiator. I need to know the total amount of coolant I'll be needing to buy.
I was thinking 7 litres to be safe.
As I am filling the whole cooling system with fresh coolant.

Any advice would be deeply appreciated.
Coolant recommendations for 2023?

Who knows, there might even be a 6A13 non TT engine for sale... if it limps home.

 

[MrMann]

Obligatory pics or it didn't happen.
Normally I'd take you out to dinner before asking you to look for my crack.

 

[Baba Galant]

Radiator For Mitsubishi Legnum VR4 Auto Import 1996-02 New | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Radiator For Mitsubishi Legnum VR4 Auto Import 1996-02 New at the best online prices at eBay!

www.ebay.com.au

This is what I used about 3 years ago although my crack was/is tiny compared to yours.
I think about 7 to 8 litres is right. The correct antifreeze is the blue type for our engines.

 

[BCX]

Been there, done that! I went all alloy rad after mine cracked.

7 litres is about right for capacity for oem style rad if your block is completely drained (there is drain plugs on the side of the block).

if your buying concentrate and distilled water, mix between 30-50%. More water content is generally provides better performance for cooling, but less corrosion protection. From memory most premix stuff is usually around 30%.

The correct antifreeze is the blue type for our engines

Colour is brand specific... each manufacturer does something different, no standard for colour which is really annoying.

So blue for Penrite.
Green for Nulon.
Green for Castrol, etc

 

[djb160]

Also - passing on hearsay, just in case it's true, but don't mix yo coolants as some can react and turn to sludge.

 

[MrMann]

She's had Penrite Red in her
It's worked fine for the past 200,000KMs I guess.

Radiator replacement easy as, I'm gonna have to do the whole replace a radiator on the side of the road 3-hour drive from my place. I wanna drive her home. She didn't go nuclear (Hit the top of the temp gauge) bitta luck she'll make it.

Any friends in the Dunedin area...?

Stuff like this builds character as they say.

 

[6A13TT TYPE S]

Also - passing on hearsay, just in case it's true, but don't mix yo coolants as some can react and turn to sludge.

Correct. There is no "right" coolant but various different coolants are incompatible. Toyota OEM red for example will crystalise and gel up when mixed with regular glycol green for example

When in doubt flush with water completely and refill from scratch with your coolant of choice.

She's had Penrite Red in her
It's worked fine for the past 200,000KMs I guess.

Radiator replacement easy as, I'm gonna have to do the whole replace a radiator on the side of the road 3-hour drive from my place. I wanna drive her home. She didn't go nuclear (Hit the top of the temp gauge) bitta luck she'll make it.

Any friends in the Dunedin area...?

Stuff like this builds character as they say.

In your case id just drive it with water home. Then flush and refil when your home.

 

[Baba Galant]

I think the hardest part of the job is the lower radiator hose clamp. Mine is an auto but with a cooler and Derale thermostat so no connections for trans fluid. Lots of fresh clean water, heater on full and probably a quick check and refill after it warms up to expell any air pockets.

 

[MrMann]

Hey team thanks for the replies means a lot. Being down on your luck all of a sudden sucks, met some really nice people who helped me out and asked for nothing in return. Even the posters here in this thread help more than you guys know. Good news is she's home. Myself and a mate trailered her home. Here's a quick pic taken a couple hours ago.

Good news is I have my own Garage now so I'll park her in there and do the radiator swap.

The only thing that worries me is, just how badly did I cook the engine?

Technically it never hit the top of the temp gauge it came about 25% from the top of the gauge. I just worry about the seals, rings, rubber bits, oil, I won't really know till I swap a new radiator in and service the oil. Then drive her and see if she's leaking past the rings, burning oil etc.

As to what failed? I can only speculate but a puff of white steam then the top tank of the radiafor split pissing coolant everywhere. Perhaps a fault in the radiator cap? She just hit over 200,000KMs and is only 300KMs off a decent service.
Yes it did have coolant in it! Due to the crack there was no pressure on the radiator cap so I took it off and looked in to find it very near the top. Expansion tank was full too. From memory the expansion tank both expands but can suck back coolant if it has too? Or I'm just stupid and it literally is an extra reservoir that overflows coolant when the radiator/cooling system reaches capacity.
Either way I'm sure you folks will correct me on either theory.

Thanks to ProjectVR4 (how do they not have account on here yet?) sourcing another 6A13 engine shouldn't be too bad. But I'm thinking big things doing an engine swap. But it would be a good bit of fun...

Might bring out the laptop, and get some sensor data from Evoscan and see if anything looks too peculiar.

 

[6A13TT TYPE S]

Haha Project VR4 did have an account. But he got banned for abusing people and ripping people off.

I doubt you caused any lasting damage, top tanks splitting isnt uncommon, and if it didnt go completly thermonuclear you'll be sweet

 

[MrMann]

Haha Project VR4 did have an account. But he got banned for abusing people and ripping people off.

I doubt you caused any lasting damage, top tanks splitting isnt uncommon, and if it didnt go completly thermonuclear you'll be sweet

I've heard some interesting things about Mr Miller. On the Facebook groups too, in some of the legnum general chats etc.

 

[MrMann]

Hello again, I've installed my new radiator now and have been driving around for a few weeks.
All is well and my temp gauge sits a few millimetres lower than before!

Hindsight being 20/20 I'll tell you about it.

My only regret: I didn't turn the A/C on high with the ECO Mode setting to get the radiator fans turning as soon as I noticed the temp gauge rise.

Overall, it wasn't a bad job, the worst parts about it were the trans cooler lines that went into the bottom of the radiator. I couldn't get them off so I cut them off. Lost a little bit of fluid there which was annoying.
The plugs for the fan control unit, were a bastard to get off. In the process of pulling it off you walk a line of "Am I going to crack the plastic or is it going to slide off?" a very small spritz of contact clean and lube helped but again it had me sweating bullets. I just took the bolt off for the fan controller off to get a better grip.
Since I was changing coolant types I flushed the cooling system literally 5 times to get the water running clear enough to where I was happy. What can I say both my Legnums are Facebook marketplace cars, so service history is thrown into the wind a bit. Ended up buying a hair dryer to heat some of the old rubber and plastic to help in the process of taking stuff off.

I'll post below some of the part numbers for my replacement parts, had to re-use the thermostat gasket which was very annoying. SAS didn't have radiator hoses or thermostat gasket part numbers on their system. It was my first big job working on cars and it went relatively smoothly to be honest.

1997 Legnum STR - Non-Turbo

Radiator - FloKool RAD1826

Thermostat - Dayco DT21A-BP 82 Degrees

Thermostat Gasket - Tridon TTG49

Radiator Hoses - Mackay Moulded Hoses CH3865(Upper) CH3946(Lower)

Transmission Cooling Hoses - Cut off the old ones took it to the local supercheap found radiator hose spool and got the one that was a couple millimetres smaller.