| Cooling Off - Cooling System Upgrade for Fifth Gen Honda Civic If you've read our tech long enough, you would know that making horsepower can sometimes be a tricky business. It's a balancing act of air, fuel, and spark that can amaze in its potential to both create and destroy. Indeed, pushing the power envelope is a good way to take engines and engine parts to the ragged edge, but luckily there are methods of insurance.
One of the easiest, particularly for owners of older Hondas, is to upgrade the cooling system by replacing the factory copper/brass radiator with an aluminum one. Since making lots of power will likely increase an engine's thermal load, a wider, more efficient, three-row aluminum heat exchanger will help counter the increase in load. In addition to better cooling, which equates to reliability, the aluminum units also weigh less.
To illustrate how simple a radiator swap is, coworker Michael Arpon photographed his '95 Civic Si hatchback as it received a Koyo Cooling replacement from Pro Street Import in La Mirada, Calif. The daily driver has already been upgraded with a B18C5 swap that currently puts out 195hp and 135 lb-ft of torque on the Dynojet, and Arpon hopes to take that horsepower number well above 200 some day. Arpon also secured hoses from Samco Sport to replace the factory lines and a slim fan from Infinite Auto.
Finally, anyone following along should note that the engine must be cold when attempting this operation. At temperature, the cooling system is under pressure, and on top of potentially getting scalded by hot coolant, the antifreeze is corrosive to both skin and paint.
