I noticed just before the Thanksgiving holiday that the radiator on my 2005 XC70 with 88,000 miles was starting to weep from the tank to core seal. As it happens, IPD was having their Black Friday 10% off sale, so I stopped in to buy the parts. I am fortunate that IPD is local to me. Whenever I visit the sales staff is very friendly and knowledgeable.
I purchase a radiator, hoses, and trans cooler line O-ring kit.
I have a friend with a shop and lift, so I had to wait for his schedule to clear, and we were able to do the replacement yesterday.
Removal is really pretty easy, and I won't go into all the details, but as an overview;The fan comes out the top, the three cores come out the bottom after removal of the splash shields, no need to disconnect the AC lines from the condenser. I does really require two people to support and juggle everything. The IPD radiator is a CryoMax, sourced from 1-800-Radiator&AC.com, made in Taiwan. The quality seems fine, as did the fit, with two minor issues. The upper radiator supports are "S" shaped and mount to the radiator via bolt. The tab that fits into the radiator was slightly too wide and needed about 1mm filed off, and the captive nuts for the fan mount in the old rad had to be transferred to the new rad. Also, the main radiator flex mounts needed to be removed and transferred to the new rad. Everything went back together without a hitch, total time was about 2 1/2 hours, some of which was spent replacing the upper and lower hoses which are fiddly due to tight access to the clamps.
My only concern arose when comparing the old OEM radiator with the CryoMax. The replacement has a thinner core, by about 1/4 inch, and seems to have a lower fin count. This would seem to imply a somewhat lower cooling capacity.
So, I am a little concerned that the new radiator, (may) have a slightly lower cooling capacity than OE, and what the implications of that may be.
Next week I will stop in at IPD and discuss with them.