Radiator Removal

I was about to send the heater core to the shop to have it cleaned, tested for leaks, and rebuilt if need be when it occured to me that it was on the same fluid system as the radiator. It'll be a shame to have the heater core cleaned only to have crude flushed back in from the radiator, so I decided to pull it and have it sent to the shop together with the heater core. Besides, I've already spilled most of the coolant all over the garage floor last week, so there can't be much more of it left to make too big of a mess! The radiator is mounted on with 2 bolts, but removing it isn't as straighforward as one might think. First, the plastic fan shroud had to be removed ... or rather detached from the radiator, since it can't actually be removed until the radiator is out of the engine bay as the fan is in the way. However, in order to get to the bolts for the fan shroud, the coolant overflow bottle had to be removed from one side and the air intake hose removed from the other side.

Radiator In:

Radiator Not Home:

Once the fan shroud was out of the way though, it was a matter of removing the 2 bolts securing the radiator, detaching the hoses, and pulling the radiator from the engine bay. With the radiator out of the way, and easy access to fan, I'm planning to remove that too to have it repainted. "One thing leads to another" - that's the theme here! At this rate the Volvo will be out of commission for weeks.