Imperial Home Page -> Imperials by Year -> 1990 Chrysler Imperial Home Page -> Radiator Replacement
In the summer of 2005, I noticed that the 3.3L engine in my 1990 Imperial would get too hot while driving around town. It was generally ok on the highway, I guess from the ram-air effect to help cool the engine. Marc Voyer explained that the radiators in those cars tended to corrode severely and become blocked. He was oh so correct! I was amazed how corroded that radiator was. In december, I bought a new radiator from my local rad shop, and I set to replacing it at home. I was amazed how easy this job is. Now that I know what I'm doing, I can do this job in less than five minutes, and I'm not exaggerating!
First, remove the two rad fans. The only thing needed to get these out is to disconnect the two electrical connectors and then using a flat screwdriver, flip off the two little metal clips at the top of the fan carrier. The carrier, and both fans, will then be free of the radiator and can then be lifted right out.
After removing the fans, you can see the radiator was very corroded. So much so that the fins would disintegrate at the slightest touch. The next step is to remove the two 10mm bolts at each top corner of the radiator. One is near the radiator inlet, and the other is near the battery. The bottom of the radiator is held in place with two tabs on the bottom of the rad that go into holes in the rad support along with two rubber gromets.
I didn't bother draining coolant before removing the bottom rad hose, I just removed the rad cap and then the bottom hose and let the coolant drain into a catch pan. Remove the top and bottom rad hoses, tilt the rad away from the core support and lift it out.
Installation is simply in reverse order of removal. Be sure to get those two rubber gromets back into the core support mounting holes. That's about all there is to do on this repair item.
