Well yesterday I installed a new radiator in my Discovery II (03 ) it had developed a small leak on top drivers side bladder where you screw the cover to the top of radiator... well I patched it with a radiator epoxy /fiberglass kit and it held until I could get to the replacment of the radiator itself... I dont drive very far to work an back so it seemed to have worked however I did know it was a job coming very soon! ( 6 months later ) lol I did run a bottle of K Seal in it at same time as would be obvious in pics... and it seemed to have worked ok but I dont think Id do it again unless It was major emergency... after reading all the posts on the elusive radiator replacement I was just afraid it would be too much work for the time I had available.. .well its NOT! its VERY EASY! WOW I took my super sweet time taking things off and then realized it was VERY EASY! literally just pop out breather box, and battery and tray and you have full access... no need to remove transmission cooler !( thats all mine had, no oil cooler) I took pics because of all the things here that are helpful, this should be one to defiantly have pics!! lol IMHO


( read in another post but cant remember who wrote that it was so easy so ill credit once I find that post)

Anyway... dont put this off if you need radiator! its VERY simple! it took more time which was only about 10 minutes because I didnt know what I was taking off so making sure I remembered what went where ... mostly studying as I removed things to gain even more visual ques... for me the job was easier to do with front grill off not because its necessary but if its your first tim, its easier to see the screws on the mounts on side of radiator to remove them... super easy! anyway... here are some pics.. I hope they are of some help!

now for a question I have... I didn't run any flush this time through engine because I forgot... but I have before and changed to green... even though what came out of my radiator was not green this time... lol I wwant to flush the block at least to get to the heater core as Im guessing it still has some residual coolant in there... how do I do that without allowing it all to circulate through radiator since its all new and shiny

 

Glad to hear it went well for you. I had to fight with some of the fasteners on mine because they had siezed in their captive nuts so I had to take my time to avoid breaking anything, and then I battled with getting the radiator out and back in around the tranny cooler hardlines where they go around the tanks. It kept getting wedged in. Repeated flushing of the system took me quite a while too. I was trying to get rid of all of the Dex-Cool so I went with three rounds with distilled water. Between the radiator, the flushing, having to pull the heater core lines off and backflush it after realizing it must be plugged, reconnecting it, bleeding it and cleaning up the mess I must have spent 7 hours on it.

 

I hear ya! it really only took me so far at 2.5hrs first time doing it but Im not done... Im also just hrs away from a brand new airtex upgraded water pump so.. do i want to install it or not? hmmm to get to the water pump Ill have to jump on my bicycle and take a 15 mile round trip to pick it up at work... lol now... after a 14 mile bike ride, will I still want to do the water pump! lol decisions decisions! hahaha

 

Just get it over with. You already made a mess. Maybe the coolant pouring all over you will help recover from the bike ride.

 

hahaha yeah.... should be a fun job here in sunny humid south florida! fortunately I believe its going to be nice...lol

 

One thing I found when replacing mine over the weekend is to make sure , in my case, all 4 quick disconnects are real clean and free of any dirt or gravel, otherwise after you reattach them, they can fly off with the engine running and boy what a mess that makes. In my case it was the oil cooler line and cols, at 45 pounds pressure, there is not a place under the hood that is not covered with oil.

 

I didn't pull the cooler lines for that very reason. I've seen too many posts regarding the liines letting go after being taken apart. Of course, I only had the tranny cooler to pull the radiator by because I have an '04.

 

OUCH! yeah what a mess to contend with! well on my D2 I dont have the oil cooler so I was able to get radiator out without removing transmission cooler either... was pretty quick once I saw where everything was... uugg I still can picture having to clean all that oil off! lol I guess it gave everything a nice glossy look! lol

 

Great write up and pix! You've given me the courage to tackle mine this weekend! Question: Did you remove the viscous fan and how hard was it to do?

 

Im teling you as many others have said... its VERY easy! if your changing pump then of course fan and clutch come off as one unit... I didnt do my pump yet as it didnt arrive so I went ahead and put it all together and filled and bled... im now idling ( using low temp thermostat) at 197-199deg in traffic! at 85deg humidity here in south florida! and I havent even added the water wetter and still have a tiny bit of trapped air in system... Im going to cool it down for an hr or so then bleed again since I dont want take off hot expansion tank cap lol I could not even get it to go above 199!! im a happy camper!

once you get the air box off and battery and its box... easy to do ( 2 screws for firewall inlet and 3 clips on top box and 2 for MAP sensor connection... pops right off then take out filter and pull up.. its stuck in 2 or 3 rubber grommets so it feels like its screwed down but it is not!
then on battery tray... take off battery cover and take out battery and jack then there are I think 6 11mm bolts holding it down and one on the passenger side wall..and lift! its off! now the entire left and right side are exposed... there is only 2 10mm screws on top bracket of radiator one on each side then half way down ( use new radiator as reference ) a phillips screw... under and unbolt the total of 4 then slide the mountying bracket out and I tured mine facing away from radiator or you can just take them out as they are loose and dangling and kind of in the way... then on drivers side of transmission cooler mine had a tab pushed into a slot and on the other side ( passengers side facing front was another screw so total from top down facing front of vehicle attached to radator is... 1 10mm bolt obvious on top.. then 2 screws .... the lowest one holds tranny cooler to radiator.... driver side facing front ( access through grill ) is.. 10mm bolt on top and one screw half way down holding on the mount.... tha mount it seems is what holds both radiator and condensor together as a bundle... the transmission cooler has rigid 90deg elbown but they attach to rubber lines.. so be careful but know you can move things around... when I put it all back together I have to lift both the tranny cooler and radiator to clear wheel well plastic so I could shift tranny cooler into place... I also had to open up the tab on radiator just a hair before becasue the molding was too tight to just slide into place if that makes sense... a screwdriver did it.. was like let over casting or just a micron to narrow... was super simple.. and yours may not need that.. just be aware of that fitment... that was by far the hardest part and that took 2.5 minutes to correct .... anyway.... its running great! and it seems even to not be so hesitant on takeoff! maybe my radiator was really clogged causing torque on the pulley and pump! hmmm also I was getting a P0430 cat code but its gone too! hmmm ... but again it was running at 210˚ on the high side when really sitting in traffic idle... and the only way to go under 200 was on highway... so I think both radiator and thermostat were involved! lol hope that helps with my experience