• JP Magazine
  • Dirt Sports + Off-Road
  • 4-Wheel & Off-Road
  • Four Wheeler
  • Get A Print Subscription
  • Get A Digital Subscription
  • Gift Subscriptions
  • Subscriber Services
  • Back Issues
  • Personalized Covers

cool In A Box Bolt In Aluminum Radiator With Fans - grille Clearance - Photo 46542860

Back to Article
Share this
  • If you’ve got A/C you will see how tight this cooler is between the grille shell and the A/C condenser. Because we had the second one ever, we had some issues with the brackets and it took us a while to get it to fit. However, based on our feedback and experience, Flex-A-Lite has redesigned the bracket so by the time you get a production piece it will bolt right in. We were worried about airflow across the radiator but so far both the Jeep and the transmission are running cooler than they were before. We’ve had a few days in the low-to-mid ’90s and so far so good.
If you’ve got A/C you will see how tight this cooler is between the grille shell and the A/C condenser. Because we had the second one ever, we had some issues with the brackets and it took us a while to get it to fit. However, based on our feedback and experience, Flex-A-Lite has redesigned the bracket so by the time you get a production piece it will bolt right in. We were worried about airflow across the radiator but so far both the Jeep and the transmission are running cooler than they were before. We’ve had a few days in the low-to-mid ’90s and so far so good.
The fully welded construction should resist vibration better than our old copper-brass tanks did, and the heat sink fins of the tank itself will help shed more heat than a non-finned tank. We were also happy to see the radiator shipped ready to drop in and every orifice had caps taped on to prevent debris getting into it. We double-checked all the screws and bolts holding everything together for tightness before dropping it in. We also noticed holes in the shroud to allow more airflow when on the highway. Flex-A-Lite makes radiators for CJs, YJs, and TJs in addition to the new XJ radiator. All its aluminum radiators feature the same finned tanks. On the open-top Jeep line, the tanks are often used to bolt shrouds or overflows on to the tank itself rather than poking through the core with Christmas trees. In all versions there are the external fins you can see as well as internal fins which also help to grab heat. We got some cutaways of the extrusion so you can see inside the tanks. On the left is the open-top Jeep tank and on the right is the XJ tank. You will need to reuse your upper radiator mounts, but Flex-A-Lite provides new stainless steel screws to reattach them with. Also, we had to tweak the included aluminum bracket to attach to our A/C condenser. We had to make the step bigger by bending it a bit more than it was as-delivered. Out of two installed (on our Jeep and on the Flex-A-Lite Jeep), one had to be tweaked and one didn’t. It wasn’t a big deal and two seconds with two pairs of pliers got us what we needed and it fit just like the factory intended it to. Flex-A-Lite offers two options for the fan temperature sender. The stock, base-level option is on the right and intended to simply push into the radiator core between the fins and tubes. Due to worries over vibration, we weren’t down with that, and went with the optional 11⁄2-inch inline hose adapter (PN 32082) shown on the left. It took some struggle, but we got our upper radiator hose over it and now our temp probe is directly in the hot fluid coming out of the engine. On our automatic-equipped Jeep we needed the optional cooler to keep our transmission happy. Unlike other radiators, the Flex-A-Lite units don’t offer internal coolers. That’s fine with us because most internal coolers don’t do much anyway. Instead, this large cooler comes with the kit and is held to the XJ-specific brackets with large plastic clamshell-style clamps. On the back side, there isn’t enough clearance to get a wrench in there, so we used the old screwdriver cheat. The Flex-A-Lite controller brings the fans on at 60-percent speed when it hits the preset point. The preset can be set from 160-240 degrees. The controller features override inputs for A/C, fan-on bypass, and fan-off bypass so no matter where you wheel you can override the automatic controls if you need to. The kit includes wiring and we mounted the control module high and dry on the firewall. Because of the way we routed the wires, we had to extend the temperature probe wires. If you end up having to extend yours, make sure to solder the connection because the turn-on/turn-off set points are resistance-dependent. If you’ve got A/C you will see how tight this cooler is between the grille shell and the A/C condenser. Because we had the second one ever, we had some issues with the brackets and it took us a while to get it to fit. However, based on our feedback and experience, Flex-A-Lite has redesigned the bracket so by the time you get a production piece it will bolt right in. We were worried about airflow across the radiator but so far both the Jeep and the transmission are running cooler than they were before. We’ve had a few days in the low-to-mid ’90s and so far so good. Here is the finished install just before we put the grille back together. Note how the finned tanks are just hanging out there in the breeze. And when we are crawling and there is no breeze, the triple electronic fans pull quite a bit of air through the radiator. One interesting bit is that when the Jeep has been worked for a while and is at temperature, the first fan is blowing air so hot we can barely hold our hand there, the second just hot, and the third fan is merely warm. Also our temp gauge now stays on the mark below 210 degrees. For the five years we’ve owned this Jeep, we were happy if the temp gauge stayed at 210. And cooler than 210 just wasn’t possible, so that is a good improvement in our book.
Back to Article
< 1 - 9 of >

Related Galleries

Connect With Us

Newsletter Sign Up

Subscribe to the Magazine

Sponsored Content