This is the first of what may turn out to be a few entries about Mckinney Motorsports. This is also a bit out of order time-wise, but it fits in the order of build fabrication and assembly. Back in October I ordered several parts from several vendors, one of which was Mckinney. They sell lots of swap parts for rb's in 24o's, and had a radiator/fan/shroud combo that looked pretty good, albeit very expensive.
It was 5oo$ for the radiator, 25o$ for the spal fan and shroud, 129$ for the throttle body cable bracket and cable, and 1oo$ shipping. Originally I was only interested in the throttle cable and bracket since the shop locally I was working with didn't seem to want the work when they returned my car with the throttle body cable not attached. I was quoted about 5oo$ to build a custom radiator from this same local shop as comparison, but I say "about" because the price was never that clear or constant. I was all about buying something that was already designed to work at an upfront price, and even thou Mckinney had poor customer service and high prices, I ordered the full radiator combo from them too.
The packaging of the radiator combo and throttle cable seemed adequate, but to the contrary I would later be surprised at the condition upon receipt. The throttle cable and bracket is pretty basic for 129$, but there were several pieces of interlinked hardware and what looked like custom order pieces to adapt the throttle cable line to the joint on the 24o z throttle linkage. I'll get more into the cable in another post as I didn't deal with its issues nor even open the bag when I received the package.
I didn't notice this until later on when I was attempting to install it, but look at the passenger side bracket in the lower part of the picture. It's majorly bent.
The welds look pretty good here.
Here's another good shot of the bent bracket. It's supposed to be an L bracket, one side tig welded to the end tank, the other parallel with the back of the radiator. Mine's more like a partial U bracket. I'm surprised it didn't cross my mind when I got it. Maybe I was so overjoyed at actually getting my parts after months of waiting and countless calls that I wasn't really inspecting for quality.
Some of the welds looks plopped on. I understand the need to stitch weld the bracket onto the end tank because of it's molded bumps, but maybe for 75o$ you could have a bracket that sits flat? Or maybe take some more time with the stitch welding so that it looks more uniform?
Here you can see how the bracket on the right (driver side) is flat, while the bracket on the left (passenger side) is not.
The welding looks good here ...
... but not so good here. Not sure what those 2 spots are on the top, maybe they were used to tack the end tank into place as it was seam welded.
The core itself looks great. It's an extra wide double core unit and I should have more pictures of it in detail later on during the install, which was also the point I realized my super expensive radiator got damaged during shipping, on top of the fact that all of the bolt holes did not line up. The main reasons I ordered this was to have the inlet/outlet in the correct location for the rb25 engine, to avoid a radiator hose looping around the top of the engine bay, and to fit the 24o z itself, without modification. I'm sure it's a great radiator, but for the cost, my expectations were dashed.
Take note of the number of packages. McKinney sent what I ordered in one box labeled 1 of 1. But on the same day they also sent another box labeled 2 of 2, which was curiously marked "rb25 manifold zz". 2 of 2? What was in 1 of 2 and where did that go? As a side note, they also had the address wrong and after getting the 2 of 2 package at my house which actually came first, I had to call UPS and go to the local UPS pickup point to hunt down the 1 of 1, which I actually needed.
I wonder who got the 1 or 2. In all reality, I think Mckinney may have realized their mistake mid-shipment and tried to cancel the order. However, since UPS sends groups of packages with multiple tracking numbers, even though the group is connected under the main, first, tracking number, if you were to only cancel the first box's tracking number, the second would still be delivered under it's own tracking number.
Go UPS.
The outer casting seemed to be pretty smooth as compared to mine which I'm sure had to be polished just to clean it up.
The radiator tube came welded on. I had to find out the hard way that this was required on my plenum when it popped off one day while driving.
The mounting face seemed well machined and at first glance the inside seemed very smooth. It came with all the adapters, nuts, and bolts that mine did. And as mine, it did not have the Greddy sticker or the vacuum hoses.
The runners were touched up a little bit, but overall very smooth, again, as compared to mine which I have already elaborated on, see my entry about plenum smoothing.
The casting isn't perfect, but it is a good job. Simply because it didn't come with a manufacturer's sticker, I assumed it was a copy, but as inspected, a very good copy. Mckinney (or it's subsidiary Raw Brokerage) only sells real Greddy plenums (for 13oo$) or ISIS copies (for 4oo$). Either way, this was more expensive than my polished Xo2 copy I bought several years ago for 25o$ or so.
Especially after seeing the almost unblemished inside air path, it was difficult to return ...
... But I did so, after many phone calls, and even a few letters, back and forth attempting to get a prepaid shipping label. I'm sure my address is still incorrect in their system, but at least they're not calling me at odd hours of the night anymore about a mislaid, or blatantly mis-shipped, plenum knockoff.
It was 5oo$ for the radiator, 25o$ for the spal fan and shroud, 129$ for the throttle body cable bracket and cable, and 1oo$ shipping. Originally I was only interested in the throttle cable and bracket since the shop locally I was working with didn't seem to want the work when they returned my car with the throttle body cable not attached. I was quoted about 5oo$ to build a custom radiator from this same local shop as comparison, but I say "about" because the price was never that clear or constant. I was all about buying something that was already designed to work at an upfront price, and even thou Mckinney had poor customer service and high prices, I ordered the full radiator combo from them too.
The packaging of the radiator combo and throttle cable seemed adequate, but to the contrary I would later be surprised at the condition upon receipt. The throttle cable and bracket is pretty basic for 129$, but there were several pieces of interlinked hardware and what looked like custom order pieces to adapt the throttle cable line to the joint on the 24o z throttle linkage. I'll get more into the cable in another post as I didn't deal with its issues nor even open the bag when I received the package.
I didn't notice this until later on when I was attempting to install it, but look at the passenger side bracket in the lower part of the picture. It's majorly bent.
The welds look pretty good here.
Here's another good shot of the bent bracket. It's supposed to be an L bracket, one side tig welded to the end tank, the other parallel with the back of the radiator. Mine's more like a partial U bracket. I'm surprised it didn't cross my mind when I got it. Maybe I was so overjoyed at actually getting my parts after months of waiting and countless calls that I wasn't really inspecting for quality.
Some of the welds looks plopped on. I understand the need to stitch weld the bracket onto the end tank because of it's molded bumps, but maybe for 75o$ you could have a bracket that sits flat? Or maybe take some more time with the stitch welding so that it looks more uniform?
Here you can see how the bracket on the right (driver side) is flat, while the bracket on the left (passenger side) is not.
The welding looks good here ...
... but not so good here. Not sure what those 2 spots are on the top, maybe they were used to tack the end tank into place as it was seam welded.
The core itself looks great. It's an extra wide double core unit and I should have more pictures of it in detail later on during the install, which was also the point I realized my super expensive radiator got damaged during shipping, on top of the fact that all of the bolt holes did not line up. The main reasons I ordered this was to have the inlet/outlet in the correct location for the rb25 engine, to avoid a radiator hose looping around the top of the engine bay, and to fit the 24o z itself, without modification. I'm sure it's a great radiator, but for the cost, my expectations were dashed.
Take note of the number of packages. McKinney sent what I ordered in one box labeled 1 of 1. But on the same day they also sent another box labeled 2 of 2, which was curiously marked "rb25 manifold zz". 2 of 2? What was in 1 of 2 and where did that go? As a side note, they also had the address wrong and after getting the 2 of 2 package at my house which actually came first, I had to call UPS and go to the local UPS pickup point to hunt down the 1 of 1, which I actually needed.
I wonder who got the 1 or 2. In all reality, I think Mckinney may have realized their mistake mid-shipment and tried to cancel the order. However, since UPS sends groups of packages with multiple tracking numbers, even though the group is connected under the main, first, tracking number, if you were to only cancel the first box's tracking number, the second would still be delivered under it's own tracking number.
Go UPS.
The outer casting seemed to be pretty smooth as compared to mine which I'm sure had to be polished just to clean it up.
The radiator tube came welded on. I had to find out the hard way that this was required on my plenum when it popped off one day while driving.
The mounting face seemed well machined and at first glance the inside seemed very smooth. It came with all the adapters, nuts, and bolts that mine did. And as mine, it did not have the Greddy sticker or the vacuum hoses.
The runners were touched up a little bit, but overall very smooth, again, as compared to mine which I have already elaborated on, see my entry about plenum smoothing.
The casting isn't perfect, but it is a good job. Simply because it didn't come with a manufacturer's sticker, I assumed it was a copy, but as inspected, a very good copy. Mckinney (or it's subsidiary Raw Brokerage) only sells real Greddy plenums (for 13oo$) or ISIS copies (for 4oo$). Either way, this was more expensive than my polished Xo2 copy I bought several years ago for 25o$ or so.
Especially after seeing the almost unblemished inside air path, it was difficult to return ...
... But I did so, after many phone calls, and even a few letters, back and forth attempting to get a prepaid shipping label. I'm sure my address is still incorrect in their system, but at least they're not calling me at odd hours of the night anymore about a mislaid, or blatantly mis-shipped, plenum knockoff.
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