How To Remove 2011-2014 Mustang Stock Radiator

In this article, we will be covering the removal of the radiator for all 11-14 S197 applications. The radiator removal process is needed from time to time. Anything from a collision to essential maintenance would be covered under this video. Overall this one should take you roughly an hour to complete. For this removal, we have this 2013 GT we will be working with. Follow along, and we will cover what is involved.

1. Begin by lifting the car via a lift or jacks and jack stands.


2. Start by popping the hood on your car and disconnect the negative battery terminal.


3. Remove the cap on your degas bottle to depressurize the system.


4. Remove the lower radiator air deflector panel under the car. This will be held in place by (2) 7 mm bolts on the inner fender area on each side, (6) 8mm bolts on the front edge, and (11) 7mm bolts on the panel.


5. Pull down and back to remove it from the car.


6. Now we can go ahead and drain the radiator. You will need to locate the petcock on the pass side of the factory radiator. This will have a small nipple that you can slide a small section of hose to help you with the draining process.


7. Use a clean bucket or drain pan at this time to collect the coolant. Turn the petcock counterclockwise and drain your coolant.


8. At this time, you will need to remove both of the lower A/C condenser bolts. These will be held in place by (2) 10mm nuts. As you can see here, the stud came out on one side, and on the other, just the nut came off. If you choose to remove the stud from the speed nut, you can use a 4mm socket to get this out of place. For us, we will just completely remove the studs.


9. Remove the factory radiator cover. This will be held in place by a few push pins across the topside.


10. We will want to remove the airbox or cold air if equipped. Loosen the clamp at the throttle body, disconnect the PCV connection, the sound tube if equipped, the MAF connection, and finally, the 10mm bolt on the fender section. You can now remove the airbox from the car.


11. Next, we will remove the 10mm bolts holding the degas bottle. Disconnect and remove both of the hoses. Once these are removed, you can set the bottle out of the way.


12. Remove both of the upper radiator mounts; these will both be held in place by (2) 10mm bolts. Set these aside.


13. Now we can remove the upper and lower radiator hoses. The lower I found, it will be easier to remove the end located on the thermostat housing. The upper hose you can remove from the radiator and set it aside.


14. Disconnect the electrical connector on the fan.


15. Once you have it unplugged, remove both of the 10mm bolts on the shroud and slide the fan out of the engine bay.


16. You can push back the radiator assembly to access the A/C condenser bolts holding this in place. These will both be a 10mm bolt.


17. You can now remove the radiator from the vehicle.


18. Moving to a clean work surface, there will be a few items we will need to transfer over from the stock radiator. This would include your speed clips, lower coolant hose if you left this in place as we did, and the lower rubber isolators. Remove all of these at this time. These will all transfer over to your new radiator in most cases.

We hope that this article has helped you and you have a better understanding of how to remove your factory radiator from your S197 Mustang.