its just to the right front corner of the valve cover. it looks like a brake bleeder.

as for the fluid, the OEM radiator is just under a half an inch thick. the mishimoto is just over 2 inches thick. so yes it will use quite a bit more coolant to fill it up

 

yeah, thats the one.

So, while the car is cold, have the heat to the hottest position. open both the bleed valve and the rubber cap. Fill the radiator until straight fluid comes out of both bleed spots. close bleed openings. Fill radiator until full. Turn car on for full heat cycle.

Is this the correct procedure. That is what I am getting from searching. I thought I read that I am supposed to turn the car on with the radiator cap off and keep filling the radiator because the fluid will go down some. Isnt this a little dangerous to have the radiator cap off while the car is running?

 

well the way i did it was sit in the driveway and let the car heat up to running temp. turn the heat to full. pull the cap off the bleeder on the firewall and let it gurggle out. stop after a little bit and cap it back off and shut the car off. check the coolant level in the radiator and the overflow. top it off and repeat until you get on a steady stream out of the bleeder. make sure you top off the fluid after your done. this makes a bit of a mess, but it worked. the coolant is hot, but not too hot just be careful.

is this the way that honda tells you to do it? no....did it work? yes.... this is the way i did it as well as my mechanic. give it a shot i bet you will get it.

 

havning the same issues.. got my mishimoto radiator in today new from maill..good quality good build and is 2x thicker than the stock radiator.. i had a major leak... so decided to buy a new rad,,,

after the install.. took her for a drie.. fiorst 2 minutes was awesome...

then it spiked to 4 bars...

took it home ... opened the rad cap to let air out..

after 5 minutes took it for another spin.. it took longer for it to spike so i went home again,....

bottom hose is always a hell of a lot cooler than top rad hose...

 

uodate.. so i continued to fix it today when i woke up.. i added more coolant.. since after the runs i did yesterday it almost drained my reserve... i bleed the bleeder next to the engine massage the top hose a bit.. run ir for like 5 mintues idle.. capped the radiator.. took her to 3x 5 minute drive along the block. varying revving and shift speed... NOT ITS WORKING PERFECT>>>>,,, hope it continues this way... i evn had the ac on and pulled over by my house to run the car at idle with ac on.. temp never went more than 3 bars which is normal for my car... il update when i drive her more a bit its summer time here and super hot... i live close to palm springs

 

i just intalled a new mishimoto radiator and am having the same issue (top hose is ridiculously hot so is the top tank but the middle of the radiator, lower tank and lower hose are cold) now here is my thing- please don't chime in with proper bleeding procedures- there are already four pages of that. this is the second mishimoto that i have put on this car. my first one started leaking from the filler neck and the weld on the bottom radiator hose neck cracked. mishimoto sent me a new radiator and now i am having issues. i never had this issue with the last one (it was one of the older mishimotos with the infamous lower fan shroud mounting brackets that don't line up) the current radiator's brackets actually line up. i replaced the tstat with an new oem one when i swapped radiators. just out of curiousity the people that are having the same issue do you have the older version radiator or a newer revised version. i am wondering if it is an issue with the newer radiators- i am very tempted to put my oem one back in and see if i still have this issue.

 

Is your engine overheating?

Just because your upper radiator hose is hot and the lower hose is cold, does not mean that there is any issue with your cooling system. The purpose of the radiator is to cool down the hot coolant before recirculating it back into the engine!!! This is why the lower hose is always colder than the upper hose.

By nature, the hot coolant flows from the engine to the radiator through the upper hose, and the cold coolant flows from the radiator to the engine through the lower hose. If both the upper and lower hoses have the same temperature, then the cooling system is in essence ineffective!

If you are certain that you have bled the cooling system properly, and your car is not overheating, then you have nothing to worry about.

Over-cooling rarely happens if you retain the stock thermostat. A large radiator almost never contributes to over-cooling. The water temperature within the engine is regulated by the thermostat.

There seems to be so much confusion about engine cooling system in this thread. With that said, Mishimoto rads seem to have a lot of "problems" like this. I haven't read anything like this regarding the KOYO.

Anyway, as I have mentioned, there's nothing to worry about as long as the car is not overheating. The difference in temperature between the upper and lower radiator hose is very normal; it's an indication that the radiator is working as it should; cooling the coolant before allowing it to re-enter the engine.

 

i don't want to sound like a dick but i am completely aware of how a cooling system works. and no radiator, despite what it is made out of or how efficient it is will not be able to cool the water that quickly and with that big of a temperature change. it has been running alot hotter than normal -outside temp has been in the 70's. i normally run two bars or three in this kind of weather (i have the aem ems and modifry ect) i have been running a consitent four bars (which is 200 plus) without pushing the car or dealing with traffic. the system just doesn't seem like it is flowing properly. i am thinking it has to do with the actually radiators- like i said i replace a mishi with another mishi. i got my new one around december (which is the same time everyone else started getting this issue) when i installed the first one (bought around july) the only issue people were having with it was the lower brackets not lining up with the fan shroud. so i am going to try swapping radiator caps with my old mishi and see if i get anywhere.

 

I would try swapping caps with other ones you have. It sounds to me like that there's insufficient pressure in the system. Without adequate pressure, the coolant will not flow within the system.

There seems to me some problems with the mishimoto caps. To be honest, if a company could not make reliable caps, I would question its radiators as well.

 

Ok, I followed this thread for my Mishi install and no heat and overheating. This is what I did and it worked beautifully.
1. Cold engine, heater switch on heat, jack the front of the car up as high as you can.
2. Open both bleeder caps.
3. Fill the radiator until the fluid runs out of the back bleeder heater tube. Cap that tube.
4. If fluid has not run out of the front bleeder tube (mine did not), squeeze the top radiator hose until bubbles or fluid comes out of it. I actually took the valve all the way out and injected some distilled wtaer in it. Close it.
5. Then do as the Helms manual states and run the car with the radiator cap OFF. BTW, let the car off of the jack before you run it. As someone previously stated, the radiator vomits bubbles and antifreeze the whole time you are running it. Its ok, just keep washing it off with the hose.
6. Let it cycle the fans twice.
7. Turn off car, refill radiator to bottom of filler neck.
8. Cap radiator and go for a drive.

Your heat should now work and the thermostat should work appropriately and you should not overheat.

When car cools, check the radiator and refill with antifreeze if needed.

Good Luck