Cold Case All Aluminum Radiator

I've searched around and haven't found any information on this radiators and was wondering if anyone has some direct experience with them.

https://www.coldcaseradiators.com/product/95-04-tacoma-4wd-22-58-aluminum-performance-radiator

P/N: TAC100A for the 3.4 4WD w/ Auto

Long story short, it looks like my wife took a rock to the front of the OEM radiator on her 2003 4WD Double Cab Tacoma last week. I did a coolant pressure test and found the leak in the front just above the A/C condenser. Not a big fan of the plastic radiators so I don't really want to go that route (inb4 multiple people say the OEM radiators are fine).

Searched around on the forums to try to see if there's a good upgrades for the radiators out there. However, as far as all aluminum rads goes I only found two options, Champion and Koyorad. The Champion didn't look like it had very positive reviews and some reported failures. And unfortunately the Koyorad doesn't come with a built in trans cooler. Kinda a deal breaker for me. At first I didn't want to run a stand alone trans cooler, but I think I'm going to take the opportunity to throw in a Hayden 698 aux trans cooler as well since I have to remove the trans cooler lines and the grill will be off anyways.

Anyways, in my googling Cold Case popped up in the google shopping ads. Cold Case claims their radiator is a direct bolt in for OEM parts. They're only a two core radiator, however they're oversized cores (1.25") creating more surface area and better air follow.

I ended up ordering one from JEGS, because it looks like Cold Case has a minimum advertised pricing so most of the third party vendors have the same price, but JEGS had a coupon.

If no one has experience I guess I'll be the guinea pig.

Side note, since I've have the radiator out and be messing with the trans cooler lines I think I'm going to take the opportunity to throw in a Hayden 698 aux trans cooler as well.

 

Never heard of COLD CASE radiator brand. Why not stick with KOYO, a well known brand? Is it that much cheaper? Most of the time, you paid for what you get and their advertised LIFETIME warranty means just that. You'll end up changing it for life or if that business decides to change company name or manufacturer, you're screwed.

 

Cold Case is a pretty well established brand, however their product line up is more focused towards classic domestic cars and muscle cars.
Main reason I didn't go with KOYO is that the they only have a radiator for manual vehicles only, when I ordered the radiator I wasn't planning on adding an aux trans cooler and wanted a direct bolt in with the trans cooler.
Since ordering I talked myself into just going ahead and adding the Hayden cooler, but not actually sure if that'll get here in time before I get the radiator installed and the truck back on the road.
The aux cooler may wait until the truck hits 200k when I plan on doing the doing the timing belt and water pump.

 

I have champion.....so I'll watch you over next few years...

Wondering what coolant your planning on running.....
ON champions you have to use the old fashion prestone stuff......

Also curious how you mount it....the factory denso's mounts have that rubber going on...
Did you account for that....especially being a 4x4......

These are sort of a unibody front.....they move around a little.....especially as they age and those very two front front body mounts wear......
And if its a pure commuter probably no worries....

And I love my champion.....has 1 1/2 capacity of oem...

 

Yeah my Tacoma is 4wd so I’m hoping this will be a drop/direct replacement as Cold Case claims. I’ll try to remember to take some comparison photos of the OEM and the new one to post up.

I plan on running Peak’s Asian Red/Coolant and some Redline Water Wetter. Haven’t had this truck long but when I got it it had what looked like a mix of Red and green coolant it. I flushed the coolant about 5k ago. Might flush it again before putting the new radiator in or hold off and do it when I do the time belt job.

 

I bought a cold case rad for my 84 ls conversion swap. I’m not done with the swap yet so I can’t say how good it works or not yet but the quality of the radiator seems to be really good.

 

Got the radiator in and installed. Seems pretty nice, glad I went this route because I didn't end up having time to get the trans cooler installed because I was trying to get this buttoned up before it started raining.
As far as fit, it was pretty close to factory, the only issue I had was one of the rivnuts for the radiator was about a 1/8" off and I couldn't get one of the mounting bolts in. Ended up knocking the rivnut out and just using a nut and bolt. Everything else was fine. I did a pressure test after getting everything installed and it held pressure for 10 mins before I moved on with things. During my test drive I was dogging the truck pretty good on mountain road and the temps didn't get over 200 degrees. I should mention I have no idea what temp thermostat is installed, haven't gotten around to replacing that myself.

 

That looks great. Are you using the OE red/pink coolant?

 

I didn't take the time to source OEM coolant, I am however using Peak's OET Extended Life Red/Pink Asian Vehicle coolant with a bottle of Water Wetter added.