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Zionsville Radiator/Cooling System Install

56K views 39 replies 21 participants last post by  MAGN8TE 
#1 ·
So, having pushed Zionsville to create a more durable radiator for our vehicles, I figured I'd better buy one and put one in. After reading over their stuff, I decided to get the kit with the radiator and fan. I don't have lots of miles on my car, but I am of the view that short hops can impact radiator life because of the number of heat cycles the plastic parts run through, so I decided to replace my stuff before it breaks down. Plus, my local dealer told me I needed a thermostat, (and belts) and I lost a radiator hose last year and was worried about the hoses. So, I decided to replace the radiator, tstat, hoses and belts. Then, I had to decide about the water pump, and I replaced that too because I was going to have the front end of the engine torn apart and the part wasn't that expensive. The water pump was probably overkill (hell, this whole thing is probably overkill), but anyway here's some pics of the whole deal:

So, I ordered the Zionsville "Super Duty" cooling kit, which includes not on the Alloy Radiator, but also an electric fan to replace the one running off the engine. I was pretty happy when it showed up:



Check out the welds:




I made up the wiring harness in advance:



Here are the other parts laid out:



To start, I drained and ripped out the old radiator:



It is amazing how much crap gets caught up in and around the radiator:



Laid in the wiring:



Tapped into the switched power wire, which is green/white (Thanks RMedure for the heads up on this one):



Had to take a little detour on the radiator project to pull out the water pump:



Install the new water pump and tstat:



And put in the new belts:



Then back to wiring. I ran the unswitched power wire across the front of the engine:



Installed the fuse:



And Zip tied it all up:



Radiator in:





After I filled and bled the system, I actually went back and cut out the wiring connector between the fan and the power/ground, both because I pushed one of the wires/connectors out the back of the connector while mating the connector ends together, and because it hung right below the radiator fill cap and got full of fluid while bleeding the system.

Anyway, she's all in and buttoned up. So far, so good.
 
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#2 ·
Its beautifull, I think I am going to cry

I just ordered the same thing. Did you try it in traffic during hot weather? I converted my 750IL to elecric 3000CFM fan for while, I loved the extra power but it was still overheating, but the fan had no shroud and I suspect that it was a big factor. :)
 
#3 ·
540IA_750IL said:
I just ordered the same thing. Did you try it in traffic during hot weather? I converted my 750IL to elecric 3000CFM fan for while, I loved the extra power but it was still overheating, but the fan had no shroud and I suspect that it was a big factor. :)
x2 on the lack of shroud....it helps direct the hot air to the fan so it can pull more effectively. I figured that out on my 740iL after seeing it creep a couple of times.
 
#4 ·
540IA_750IL said:
I just ordered the same thing. Did you try it in traffic during hot weather? I converted my 750IL to elecric 3000CFM fan for while, I loved the extra power but it was still overheating, but the fan had no shroud and I suspect that it was a big factor. :)
The shroud is the key. Check the Zionsville blurb.
 
#6 ·
f155mph said:
Ohmess,

How hard is it to do the wiring? Did you get the 2 speed fan?
I'm actually gonna be making a step-by-step write-up post on BimmerForums for the electric fan and thermostat install that I did using parts that I bought off of Summit Racing. Should be within the week. It's working great, even in the 100 degrees of temperatures the OBC says while sitting in traffic, just need to find a more permanent way to run the power wire. Right not it runs along the hood, fender, and is shoved into the fuse for the rear power seat (which I don't have as an option) but it was the only one that was switched w/ the ignition and not in use.
 
#8 · (Edited)
f155mph said:
Ohmess,

How hard is it to do the wiring? Did you get the 2 speed fan?
The wiring wasn't too bad. I did get the two speed fan. Here's the diagram that came with the unit:



I had only two difficulties with the wiring diagram. As noted in my post, distinguishing the switched power wire was not entirely clear, which I why I posted a picture and made a comment on it. The only other difficulty I had with this was that the numbering on the diagram for the radiator temperature switch does not correspond to the switch itself. I therefore used the positioning of the leads to determine which one was the ground. Note that for those of you trying to make up something yourselves, I read somewhere that this is a BMW OEM part from an earlier vehicle (an e30 perhaps).

As far as making up the wiring harness, I worked from the mounting location that I chose for the two relays. That dictated how the wiring to the temp switch was to be routed, and also dictated how the power wiring to the fan was routed. Obviously, the location I chose was very close to the switched power wire, so I cut the wires short when taping in there. In running the wiring from the relays to the fan, I wanted to tuck the resistor in power circuit between the air filter housing and the fender, so this influenced exactly where this wire ran. You can see also that I covered the resister with gray electrical tape (Don't ask me why; I don't remember). Here's a pic of the resister in place:



I left the very long wire to be connected to the battery terminal in place until I installed everything else under the hood. You can see this in my harness picture. Note too that I purchased some protective sheathing to cover the power wire and the wires that got close to the radiator (the power and ground wire for the fan, and the wires from the temperature switch).
 
#9 ·
540IA_750IL said:
I just ordered the same thing. Did you try it in traffic during hot weather? I converted my 750IL to elecric 3000CFM fan for while, I loved the extra power but it was still overheating, but the fan had no shroud and I suspect that it was a big factor. :)
It has been hotter than he!! since I installed this baby, and I've had it in traffic a few times. No problems to date. It seems to be working well (knock on wood).
 
#11 ·
Ohmess said:
It has been hotter than he!! since I installed this baby, and I've had it in traffic a few times. No problems to date. It seems to be working well (knock on wood).
Took mine out today with the SC (extra heat). >100 and OBC read 109 at one point. All good. I could hear the high speed electric fan at idle though!
 
#12 ·
Well,

I must be blind... I cant find the green-white switched wire in my '01 530i. Tested all the wires in the bundle that runs over the front passenger wheel well and cant find a switched one. Found a switched wire that connects to the alternator, but that is a little far from where I would liketo tie in. Any help in locating a switched wire, preferably in the front passenger side of the engine bay, would be greatly appreciated! Lost in Fleetwood PA...
 
#16 ·
Wiring

Fleetwood -- You are looking for a switched wire coming off the diagnostic connector. Based on a quick check of the Bentley manual, you are looking for the same wire I used.

If you look closely at the wiring diagram I posted above, it shows the wire to be a grn/wht wire running to connector number 16. (Compare your wiring diagram from Zionsville with the one I posted above and confirm that the upper right hand corner shows the orange wire from the high speed relay going to a grn/wht connector on pin 16.)

In my pic above, you really can't see the thin white line running through the green wire. If you check out RMedure's pics here , you can just barely see the thin white line along the lower exposed green wire. As you can see in both pictures, you need to strip off some of the covering around the wiring harness coming from the diagnostic connector to get at these wires. I tapped in to the covering at a slightly different location because I mounted my relays a little differently than RMedure did, but we both tapped into the same wire.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.
 
#18 ·
Fleetwood -- You are looking for a switched wire coming off the diagnostic connector. Based on a quick check of the Bentley manual, you are looking for the same wire I used.

If you look closely at the wiring diagram I posted above, it shows the wire to be a grn/wht wire running to connector number 16. (Compare your wiring diagram from Zionsville with the one I posted above and confirm that the upper right hand corner shows the orange wire from the high speed relay going to a grn/wht connector on pin 16.)

.
Great write up. Here is where the confusion is though, 01's do not have the underhood diagnostic connector. Only the obd2 socket under the dash. 00's had both.
Mike
 
#17 ·
Thanks for the help! Everything was put back together yesterday, and it runs and looks excellent! I ended up using the switched +12 wire located under the passenger cabin air filter. It is contained in a white plastic box roughly the same shape as the pass cab filter box. According to zville, if you see a red wire with a white tracer line in it, it will be a switched +12! For anyone here in SE PA, if you need an independent to do this install, contact me! I will give you the name of an excellent shop to contact!
 
#19 ·
Interesting

Thanks. I didn't know about the lack of an underhood diagnostic connector. I hope the Zionsville documentation was modified to reflect this.
 
#22 ·
Nope



If you look at the wiring diagram above, the fan is connected to a radiator temperature switch, which sends signals to the relays. The relays then switch on the fan once the radiator gets hot. The fan is also switched to the ignition so that it shuts down even when the car is hot. My Saab keeps running even with the car shut off until the radiator is cool. This system is not like that.
 
#23 ·
How do you bleed the Zionsville?

Hi,
I'm thinking of switching over to the Zionsville system as my cooling system fails piecemeal, and as I was reviewing this post, I noticed that it has no Vent Screw. (#3 in this photo):

At least, I can't see one. As that's the item on mine which most recently failed ( :confused: ), I'm curious: How do you bleed the Zionsville system?
 
#24 ·
Hi,
I'm thinking of switching over to the Zionsville system as my cooling system fails piecemeal, and as I was reviewing this post, I noticed that it has no Vent Screw. (#3 in this photo):

At least, I can't see one. As that's the item on mine which most recently failed ( :confused: ), I'm curious: How do you bleed the Zionsville system?
Here's William's write-up on a Zionsville install on Roadfly. He is lurking on the other forum under the name of Wquiles I think.
 
#27 ·
Ohmess, if I missed this among the many posts..forgive me. Just to make it clear for this old man- Originally you have an engine-run fan with a clutch to "modulate" the coupling of the fan and the motor. You also have an electric fan in front. My question is simply does the original electric fan in front go away? And the new electric fan that replaces the engine-driven fan..is the electric fan set to step from off to low to high speed, etc.

Excellent write up-just excellent! Thank you for taking the time and if I missed the answers to my questions, again please forgive. If you shared the price I missed that too. A detached retina makes reading difficult at the moment, but this is a tremendous write-up you have both driven and shared with the community here. We thank you.

Bill
 
#28 ·
+1 on ohmess's documentation!

ohmess will likely chime in. My impression is that the original electric Aux fan in the front of the AC cooling "radiator" remains. It's function is for cooling the A/C system. The legacy engine driven fan and fan clutch is removed in favor for the Cooling System Electric Fan which is geared to kick on if you have the two speed setup at a low speed and a high speed dependent on cooling system need.

My electric fan has stayed off when driving around and will engage when I'm stopped and idleing.

Hope this helps...
 
#30 ·
I came here just now by way of reference for this thread:
> E46 (1999 - 2006) > ALuminum radiator
When I noticed that the photos are offsite, so, as I am wont to do, I'm taking the liberty of appending the 17 photos, in the order provided, from the first post, so that they're not lost over time.
 

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#32 ·
Sorry, I don't, but recall it was easy once I located a hot 12v for the two speed resistor.
 
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