I want to share a story with all of you, so that you might be able to learn from my bad experience. In March of 2007 I purchased an aluminum radiator from Petroworks. I was installing my 16 valve engine and needed a new radiator so I splurged and bought the aluminum model. I installed the unit and ran the setup for 9 months when I noticed a coolant leak. I traced the leak to a core on the new rad. I contacted Petroworks and asked them if this was still under warranty. The guy I talked to said it was only covered for 6 months, and the problem was that I did not run the correct type of coolant and this mistake must have caused the unit to rot from the inside out. He said that aluminum radiators require “special” fluid. I asked him why this is the case seeing as the entire engine is made of aluminum.
I talked too called back and asked to speak to someone that had a clue, and was handed over to Gary. Gary asked that I send them the unit and he would see what they could do. He stated at that time that Hawk Suzuki was the supplier of this unit. I sent the unit back to Petroworks, who in turn sent it out to Radiator Specialties in CA. They are the company that builds these exclusively for Hawk.
I received a call from someone at Petroworks. They said that the radiator had been damaged in the vehicle. I looked to this guy like I had rolled my zuk and the radiator was pushed in from two opposite corners. I told the guy that this rig had never been in an accident and had hardly even been wheeled during that time, and there was no way that this damage could have occurred while it was in the zuk. I have looked to see if there is any shred of evidence that this type of thing could have happened in my rig, and there is “No Way”!
I have pretty much written off the fact that I will ever get this resolved. I want to inform all of you to be very careful who you buy from. While this is the first issue I have had with Petroworks, I am going to be very careful who I buy from in the future.
Gary from Petroworks said that they only make $35 on the sale, and because of this they are very limited in what they can do to support this product without losing money. While to some extent I understand this, it makes me wonder why anyone would buy from a company that can’t “afford” to support what they sell.
The radiator was out of warranty, but I spent $250 on what is now scrap. I am still totally baffled on how my radiator arrived to Petroworks with massive damage that it did not have when I shipped it.

ask them to send you pictures of the "damage"

I did get pictures from the Radiator shop. The pictures clearly show damage, but if this happened in my car, why is there no other damage of any kind to my radiator supports?

Makes no sense. Plus my leak occured above the point shown.

so thats not even were the leak was?? could that "damage" could of even caused the leak?? (if you did damage it)

IMO that looks like a factory defect or a pooly put together product. Very clearly looks to be a factory defect or error. Why was the rad not welded across the bottom to prevent that side from moving? Sorry bout your luck.

it looks like the gap down by the weld is wider than above it too suggesting it was assembled like that. I could be mistaken, will be interesting to see what others think.

Hindsight being what it is - would have been awesome of you to take some pictures before you shipped it back :D

Just about any radiator shop worth a hill of beans could fix that in about 10 minutes!

I agree that looks like a factory defect. Also any good radiator shop could repair that leak easily.

That looks like shipping damage to me.
If you look at where the bolts were located in the slotted mounting holes it shows that they were not putting undue force on the radiator. If it was in an accident or roll I would imagine there would be evidence of the bolt sliding down the slot toward the cores.
Worse case scenario have them send the radiator back and take it to a local shop and have them fix it properly.

maybe if you were runningn battery acid for coolant you could have "rotted" it from the inside out in a 6 month period of time. I've been buying from petroworks for 10 years now. And I have to say that since Gary stopped taking the bulk of the support calls, the customer service rating has gone into the toilet. Their prices keep getting more and more expensive as well. $500 for a wiring harness conversion for a 95+ kick. These last couple years I've started shopping outside of petroworks. I can get the same products for less money, and better tech support. I trust Gary's advice and oppinions, but getting a hold of him is becoming less and less frequent.

That doesn't even look like damage from any vehicle or beien dropped. the damage would be uniform across the bottom and spreading to more fins. the is a fuck up by the manufacturer.
that core looks like it was damaged before being assembled.

oh ok i see. lets see a pic of the front of your rig. are you sure your frame isn't broken somewhere and is collapsing on the front?

No frame breakage. I am at work and don't have a digicam here. I sincerley doubt it is from my vehicle. I bought a new rad when the alum one grenaded, and it is sitting in there straight as can be without any issues. I will take pics when I get home tonight.

About a year ago I cut out the round cross member in the front and fully boxed my two frame rails together so I could weld on a better bumper.

Here is an old pic of the front of my rig before I modified the cross member.

I have yet to get the old unit back, but from the pictures it appears the damage is on the pass side bottom and the drivers side top.

Sounds like a case of a Manufacturer that does not care and a Supplier that would rather have a customer walk away then stay with them. Sorry about your luck. I had a buddy order an intercooler for his Diesel and it was tweeked like that when he got it. The shop told him to intall it, it was fine and if there was an issue they would look after him. He took pics of it and did the install. after having issues he called back and strange but some how the conversation he had had with them was not recorded that day and they had no idea what he was talking about. They would not warranty it either, said he damaged it, ended up getting it fixed by a local guy!