[Huskymaniac]

Originally Posted by XT6Wagon

Some of the STi's do come with PS coolers. I think they started in 05 or 06. Its just fins on the pipe, but if you start getting agressive with the wheel (AutoX) or using it for long periods (track days, moutain roads), it helps alot.

As far as the radiator, I would replace the foam. If only to keep things from falling between the condensor and radiator.

The grill... you have to be careful. To keep proper flow, the inlet area must remain smaller than the exit area. So the openings to the radiator have to be smaller than the area of the radiator, and the openings from the engine bay have to be larger than that. Not a big issue for most street cars, but somepeople find issues when they start opening up huge holes in the front to "supply more air" and instead kill the flow across the radiator since it just forms a big pocket of stagnent air and the primary flow goes around.

Great points about the air flow. I can't help but wonder if the grill change in 1997 wasn't an engineering decision versus a design decision. The opening in the 1997 grill certainly wouldn't cause the inlet to exceed the exit area but it does look bigger than the older grill. I guess no one has ever replaced the old grill and done a before and after temperature test to see what the impact was, if anything. And, Tom, it isn't just coolant temperature which would drop but the tranny temp would drop as well. So long as you don't cause running temperatures to drop below the optimal temperature, cooler is always better. I would guess optimal is somewhere around 185-195 based on information that the tstat is fully open at 195F.