It was finally time to say goodbye to my stock radiator. Replaced it with my Koyorad that's been sitting in the garage for months. Didn't end up needing to take the bumper off, though I got it off before I found the video showing how to do it from below. Generally it was pretty easy, though a couple fins got crushed trying to get the shroud in there and some are lightly bent from the AC line rubbing as it went up but... overall, nothing I see that should cause problems. For anyone else who might see this while looking like I was, the radiator swap/removal/install video I followed is this one:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS89u1D3_OM
. I wouldn't bother taking the front off if you don't need to, but it is an option.
I also figured out why it was so noisy after a pull while tuning and it turns out I blew the exhaust clamp off just after the brace. Oops. Fixed that and now it's too quiet for my tastes! I spent all this money on a Thermal just to decide I like it being basically straight piped more. The lack of drone is nice, but the last couple weeks I've been driving it didn't bother me for the most part, so I may look into getting a piece of 3" T304 that has the same route as the Thermal resonator piece so I can swap between them as I get sick of either. I really didn't think I'd like a straight piped Fiesta, but after the S280 and 3" catted downpipe, the note is deep enough to sound nice and not quite as high pitched. Project for another day though