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SVT Contour Radiator Discontinued??

Yea I came across those once too. They are still smaller than the SVT radiators and you get stuck with the tranny cooler for the automatic.

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Once I put this in my car it actually has always run cooler. I also have never had an over heating problem, when we were just at VIR I was going harder than joe (no offense Joe ;)) and it stayed at the same temp as if it was a normal cruise. Joes car was spitting coolant out lol. But I will say mine doesn't have a turbo.... Yet
 
Well when's the last time you guys power washed out the core on your radiator? I did that to my car which had 122k at the time and it dropped my temps a ton.
 
Well when's the last time you guys power washed out the core on your radiator? I did that to my car which had 122k at the time and it dropped my temps a ton.
Still running the factory rad at 15 years and 125K miles, knock on wood. The interior is clean as a whistle, have always kept up with the coolant changes, and only use Zerex G-05 formula.

The A/C condensers on these cars are so finely finned that over the years and miles, they collect crap and block airflow through the radiator. Couple of years ago when I had the bumper cover off for oil cooler plumbing, I unbolted the A/C condenser, rotated it out a bit on the lines and washed it out with the hose - unbelievable what came out of it.
 
I don't remember. Here is the exact one I bought. Was only half the cost when I got it though.

http://www.genesisautoparts.com/all_aluminum_radiator-ford-contour-1998.htm
I've had a few Genesis all-Aluminum radiators, and have come away unimpressed with their quality. Bought one for the wife's car, it sat in the box for a year before I needed it, and when I went to use it...

1. They'd forgotten to weld on one of the upper mounting posts. I emailed them about it and because it was past 1 year warranty, they told me to pound sand. F**k them, they made it wrong.
2. The drain cock on the bottom was wrapped with about 3 feet of Teflon tape, and it leaked as soon as I added coolant to the system, had to pull it and use pipe dope on the threads.
3. There was a plug on the driver's side tank with an O-ring under a flange head, but no retaining groove for the O-ring, so under pressure, coolant forced past the threads and pushed out the O-ring, big leak. Installed a proper plug with pipe dope.
4. At about 3,000 miles of use, it cracked one of the bottom tanks where a support post was TIG'd on and started leaking.

Went to NAPA and got a normal crimped plastic tank replacement, the Genesis radiator is now Aluminum scrap.

Frankly, I can't recommend Genesis radiators...
 
The above saga took place less than 6 months ago. I think the Genesis unit was maybe $50 less expensive than the NAPA replacement, I certainly lost that in aggravation dealing with the Genesis.
 
Maybe something changed in the 2 year period between but ive had none of your said problems. It does truly suck though.
 
It's just low quality imported stuff. I also have a Genesis Contour radiator in a box. Here's a few observations:

1. The TIG weld quality is passable, I'm an amateur at TIG and could probably do as well or better.

2. The radiator tanks are bent-formed boxes from thin Aluminum sheet. I can see stretch and cracking on the outside of the bend lines, this is a future failure, and is exactly why the radiator in my wife's car failed. This is from using the wrong alloy, not using annealed sheet, or using bending dies with too small of a radius.

3. No evidence that the welded parts were re-annealed to relieve the work hardening that occurs in the heat affected zones of the welds, this means you have soft substrates with rigid, un-yielding welded joints - also a recipe for future fatigue failure, and this is a real problem for a part that sees constant thermal cycling over a fairly wide temperature range.

These are just amateur mistakes you get when you pull inexperienced people off the farm and have them make complicated stuff. We want everything WalMart cheap, and believe me, we're certainly getting what we're paying for.

When you pay $400 to Griffen or AFCO for a radiator, you aren't just paying for expensive American workers. You're paying for experienced fabrication people who know which alloys to use and how to bend and form metal properly so it won't fail by using large radius bending dies. You're paying for people who know how to TIG weld properly. You're paying for annealing of the finished product to relieve stress in the welded joints.
 
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