Thanks! I did pick up a new quart of WS ATF. I plan to measure the intake barbs for the trans cooler on the new radiator with a caliper to try to find some bolts that will fit the lines. I'll fill the new trans cooler with fresh ATF and use the caps that come with the new radiator to hold the ATF in while I install the new radiator. At least someone else mentioned they used the caps on the new radiator but I haven't pulled my radiator out of the box to make sure they are there. Loosing to much trans fluid is really the only thing I'm concerned about with this job and that's only due to the sealed trans. Worst case I'll have to take it to a dealer to have a trans drain/refill assuming I can keep a majority of the fluid from coming out.

 

We have a Lexus specialist over here selling a kit for a trans-cooler that I am considering buying and fitting.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEXUS-LS4...W/203109597302
Looks like all I'll need to add is 1 litre of WS ATF to pre-fill the new cooler.

 

Started on mine today. I have about 153k miles on mine and I'm pretty sure this is the original radiator. Like a dummy I didn't get a picture of the top of the radiator but it was covered in dried crusty pink residue all over the top and of course my resivoir was bone dry.

It wasn't until I got the original radiator out and was starting to swap the fans that I realized they sent me the wrong radiator. Replacement will be here in two days so I should still be able to get this done this weekend assuming the send me the right one this time. So far this has been a straight forward install. I'll add my pictures along the way.

Here are some of the tools I used to get the hoses off as I'm replacing the upper and lower hoses with Gates. The radiator hoses have a pretty good seal on them so I had to use the curved pick to help break the seal and twist off. I used the locking pliers to not only squeeze and lock the clamps open to get them off but I also used them to squeeze the trans lines to slow oil leakage while I put in a bolt to help plug them off. You can see in the picture I have a bolt in one hose and then the locking pliers on the other trans line while I get the hose off.

 

The first pan shows how little came out of the trans lines when while I was putting in the bolts. I even had to run back to the get a different size than the original ones I had.

The second pan is where I tried pouring what I could out of the trans cooler. Still there is very little that came out. So, not sure I'm going to try to fill up trans cooler on the new radiator if that's all that comes out. The second pan has milky oil in it because some of the radiator fluid spilled into the pan from me turning the radiator on it's side to see what I could get out of the trans cooler.

 

Again, didn't think to take a picture of the radiator fluid that came out but my guess is there was only about 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon that came out. It was definitely low on radiator fluid but the temp gauge never showed it getting hot and my car ran perfectly fine. I'm just lucky it hasn't ever overheated on me.

Both hoses look like a good fit. The lower hose is not exactly the same curvature as the OEM hose but it's very, very close and should work.

 

While I'm waiting on my replacement radiator I want to think about replacing my foam around my radiator. I forgot to take a picture of mine today but I'll get one when I go back to work on it since the car is not at my house.

My upper foam that goes across the top of the radiator is really brittle and disintegrates when you even touch it. The foam on the sides and bottom aren't as brittle and I might be able to slightly pull it off and use some 3M double back tape to put it on the new one.

What are suggestions from those that replaced yours? Or, did you just not put back any foam? Any issues either way?

 

Finished mine up this weekend. Honestly this is a fairly easy DIY project and as you can see from the picture of my OEM at 153k miles it was needing to be done. I was quoted $1,250 from a Lexus specific independent mechanic but I only have about $180 in parts (Denso towing radiator, Gates upper/lower hoses, two gallons of anti-freeze, OEM radiator cap) for the DIY. As seen from my previous posts, my biggest concern was loosing trans fluid out of the cooler but if you pinch off the lines before unplugging them there isn’t much that comes out. I’ll probably look at having a transmission drain/fill done within the next few months just to be safe and it needs to be done anyway.

My other unknown was what to do if anything with the foam around the OEM radiator. Unfortunately I didn’t grab any pictures of the foam before I went out of town for a day and when I got back my dad was bored (he is an 82 yr old retired mechanic) so he took care of the foam and installed the new radiator before I could get back over to his shop to take pictures the next day. The side and bottom foam was still in okay shape and he was able to kind of pull it up and he used a utility knife to cut it away carefully with out ripping it apart. The top foam however was not usable at all. He found some new weather stripping and decided to use that. He used the weather stripping adhesive to glue it all on and let it sit overnight to setup before installing the radiator. Picture included of the original foam, new weather strip, and adhesive he used.

The radiator took exactly one gallon but I needed extra to fill the reservoir tank. I could have used the drained fluid as someone else had suggested but I had already purchased two gallons to be on the safe side so I just tapped into the second gallon. I’ll be checking my reservoir level again today or tomorrow and will top off if needed.

I just let the radiator burp itself with the heater turned on to 80* for about 10 minutes. I included a picture of it giving off some of the bubbles. Once the fluid level went down a little I checked to make sure the hoses were warm to the touch before I called it all good.

I did this over a few days but you could probably do it in about 4 – 6 hours start to finish if all goes as planned.

 

hi everyone,
I too did this over the weekend. I would like to "thank you Bradtank" for the awesome write up. The only hiccup I had was didn't paid close attention to the radiator rubber feet. Mine came off and stuck with the radiator so when I put it in it was lose on the bottom then I realize the mistake. Also mine rubber feet when I transfer over to the Denso was slightly not snug like the OEM. So I used heat shrink to make it more snug.

The write help tremendously. Much appreciated it.. and everyone else with the input and sharing their pictures.

Sean

 

To seal the radiator simply cut all the old foam away and clean up the surface. Then go to a hardware store and get 3 packages of 1” air conditioner foam (remember the AC units that install in a window?) then a roll of 1” double-sided tape(Gorilla is what was used). Trim the foam to size and then use the double-sided tape on the surface. Pat it down so it’s stuck and install the radiator. Tuck any minor foam inside on top and you have a great seal. Total cost of foam was around $6 with sticky tape $7. Thanks to PMESFUN for the assist on the Denso tow radiator install and the foam solution. We lost under an ounce of ATF as we had the new radiator transmission plugs off and popped them on immediately after taking each line off.


Foam & Double-Sided Tape

PS View of foam from top of radiator

 

Well, as the OP said, don't use the Gates brand hose for the lower radiator. A couple few weeks ago I saw my temp gauge get kind of hot, not to the red though, and then came back down so I just kept an eye on it. Then less than a week later mine did get almost all the way to the red. Checked my radiator fluid level and sure enough it was way low. Took another gallon to get it back to full. I saw where I had some leakage on my engine under pan so I pulled it somewhat off to take a look and sure enough there was fluid dripping out of the hose where the lower radiator connects to the radiator. I'm pretty sure I just used my existing OEM clamps so I put a secondary worm clamp on hoping that would seal it. Nope, still leaking so now it looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and spend the 5x price to get an OEM hose and some new clamps and hope that fixes it. The upper Gates hose seems to be doing fine. I'll post back once I get that all wrapped up this next week or so.

 

Aftermarket parts rarely offer improvement over Toyota OEM...especially in the case of radiator hoses.

They are typically constructed of lower grade, thinner material and must be cut to fit.

No thanks.

See:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...rmarket-p.html

Worm clamps are especially problematic with radiator hoses.

Unless and until aftermarket offers upgrade over OEM, then avoid it at all costs.

 

Switched out hose to the OEM one last night. I'll have to give it a little time to see if it actually fixes the issue or not.

I meant to get a picture of the two hoses to show the differences in thickness but I think I got side tracked before I took the actual picture and I didn't end up taking one. What I can tell you is that the Gates hose was not a consistent thickness all around. We used a caliper and measured the hose thickness and that's when you could see that on the Gates one side of the opening was like 2.2 and then other side was 1.92 whereas the OEM hose was 2.0 all around. So, there is a difference between OEM and aftermarket and that goes for the price as well. The OEM hose was $63 + $11 for a single clamp where as the Gates was around $15 for the hose. You'll have to decide if it's worth spending the extra money on OEM or not. The upper hose is a Gates brand as well and it seems to be working okay so I did not change that one out based on the "don't touch if it's working" theory.

 

PNC 82776, PN 82776-50010, "DUCT, ENGINE ROOM ECU OUTLET". It's just an empty plastic tube that seems to only serve to provide rigidity between the ECU box and the radiator frame. I figured this out because I needed to recharge my AC and moving this piece of tube out of the way makes accessing the low pressure AC port much easier - the tube just snaps on and off.

Thanks to everyone for the contributions to this thread, I'll do this radiator DIY within the next 2 weeks as prep for a long roadtrip, as I don't want the 20yo radiator to fail on a >3600km roadtrip where I'll be hundreds of kms away from the nearest shop.

Summary of parts I've purchased:
AISIN THP-108 Thermostat Housing / Water Outlet Seal CAD$ 2.66
AISIN THT-015 Thermostat (180F) CAD$ 18.10
MAHLE C31699 Water Inlet Gasket CAD$ 2.70
OSC 2418 Radiator (5/8" non-towing core, cap not included) CAD$ 126.85
STANT 10242 Radiator Cap CAD$ 5.14
ClubLexus Discount (see Vendor Marketplace for latest codes) CAD$-7.78
FedEx International Express CAD$ 60.88
13% HST: CAD$ 27.11
RockAuto Total: CAD$ 235.66 (USD$ 185.77)

Toyota 90466-41003 (CLIP, INLET RADIATOR HOSE) Qty 2 USD$ 10.26
Toyota 90466-41008 (CLIP, OUTLET RADIATOR HOSE) Qty 2 USD$ 5.26
Toyota 16571-50180 (HOSE, RADIATOR, NO.1) Qty 1 USD$ 17.07
Toyota 16572-50180 (HOSE, RADIATOR, NO.2) Qty 1 USD$ 22.31
Shipping: EMS International 0.915 kg USD$ 15.53
Amayama Total: USD$ 70.43

Edit: watch this video regarding constant-tension clamps vs worm-drive clamps

 

What size bolt to use to plug the transmission hoses.

 

This is an awesome thread. Thanks to all who have contributed.

Unfortunately I don't have the setup to do this myself. Apartment garage with no workbench or space to work on my 2001 LS430. My extremely trustworthy mechanic who runs his own shop (works only on Honda/Toyota products) quoted me $560 for new radiator installed. For me, it's an easy choice.