build diary

June 10, 2004: The radiator arrived and I've done some test fitting.
It's a BIG radiator and only barely fits inside the nosecone! Beautifully made and light to boot. There should be no cooling problems with this thing. Now, it's my understanding that this is the big radiator that is sold by CMC although I didn't get it through them. If it is the same one, it's not used with the Miata frame. The lower outlet interferes badly with the front suspension mounting points. This will be fixed by moving the outlet to a different place - not cheap, given that the radiator is epoxied together at the bottom. It would have been cheaper to get a custom radiator made by this point. I also had to modify the radiator mounting bracket fairly heavily, to the point where I think I'll just cut it off and start over. My frame was supposed to be prepared for the big radiator but it obviously wasn't. The verdict? I should have bought the rad from CMC - assuming it's different - or just gone with the smaller, cheaper economy rad that they've used in all the other "Miata" builds. Still, I do live in the desert so cooling is important. The modified radiator will be ready by the middle of next week.

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