Front Mount - overheating probs

[crashed97tsi]

Hey guys,


Well, I finally finished my front mount project this weekend. Besides blowing off a couple fo pipe, everything is working good. I am having another problem tho.

My car is now overheating. The guage never goes above normal, but the temp on my pocketlogger has gone as high as 222 . I was wondering what are some cheap options out there to cool down the engine a little bit. I was thinking about wiring the AC fan to go when the radiator fan kicks on, but I think the draw of the 2 fans on the one connector would be too much.

So anyone have any ideas?

Thanks
Dan

 

[thekellbeast]

That will happen when you get a fmic. The most popular solution seems to be a really good radiator.

 

[Violater101]

I have both fan's on all the time and havn'd had any issues yet. A local shop wired it up for me that way. I also have a Fluidyne radiator. I need everything I can in this Texas Heat during the summer with the A/C on. It will still get up to around 216 idling in traffic, but if i'm on the highway cruising with a/c on, its around 196. YOu might try some Royal Purple Ice or Water Wetter and do a 60/30/10 mix. I havn't tried it yet, but you might try and keep the air directed at the radiator. After the FMIC, there is a gap between the radiator and the FMIC ..I have been comtemplating a way to keep the air after it exits the FMIC to keep going straight through the radiator instead of exiting out the the side (air will take the path of least resistance).

You havn't changed the fluid have you lately?

 

[Cirus_93TSI]

u need a really big radiator, like the fluidyne, i dont know what fmic u have but most of them are abuut twice the sixe of the stock radiator and completly block all airflow to it, the greddy big fmic is about 2.5 times the size of the stock radiator, the fluidyne makes the greddy big fmic look like a small ic, u will wonder how the fluidyne is actually going to fit in ur car its so big, and if its overheating then u are losing considerable power, ur ic cools the air down only to have it pass through ur upper ic pipe that absorbes heat from engine compartment, if ir engine temps are 220 then ur uicp is nearly that temp, that defetes the purpose of an ic, u cool the air only to heat it up again before it hits ur engine

get a fluidyne radiator, and some water wetter, use at least 50% water in the mix(if not more, u really dont need antifreeze in summer), weve been using about a 70-30 mix of water to antifreeze and then adding a whole bottle of water wetter in my friends 2g, engine temps stay low even with the big front mount
just wiring the fans isnt going to help much, unless u rip ur ac condensor out and put a big fan where it used to be inbetween ur radiator and ic, and even that isnt going to make any noticable difference without a radiator, ur stock one is small as hell and about an inch and a half thick, it doesnt have enough surface area to properly cool the car with a fmic blocking it, get a fluidyne

 

[crashed97tsi]

Thanks for the reply's guys. Can you tell me how they wired up the 2 fans? I'm just curious what I have to do. The front mount IC is a custom one, I fabricated all the piping for it myself. The core is only about 2 inches thick, but it does take up the whole front mouth of my bumper. Is there any way around getting a new radiator? I'm going to school in a month and really can't afford a new radiator. Like maybe a lower thermostat or something.

also, what is considered dangerous overheating. Like what temp is bad.


Thanks

 

[Enigma_Man]

You generally want to keep it below 220 if you can.

If you're looking for the cheap way to do it then what you want to do is rig up some sort of shroud between the IC, and the radiator, so that all the air that goes through the IC goes through the rad as well, and not around it. Get some sort of material, a stiff plastic if you can find it (what I use when I'm building stuff is you go to a home depot or equivalent, and just look for a big plastic box, the cheaper the better, and then just cut it up. Rarely do they have plastic sheet stock on hand, and it's often expensive) take your bumper off, cut the plastic so that it will fit inbetween the rad and the IC, and then zip-tie and duct tape it in there

You can wire up both fans to come on at once by just taking the AC fan power wires, and splicing them to the regular fan power wires. Then they'll both turn on.

-Jesse, master of cheap

 

[pneumo]

You could also get an external oil cooler and put it in the drivers side bumper opening. That will help bleed off excess BTU's and won't heat the cooling system like the stock water cooled oil cooler. I beleive MachV.com has the parts to convert the stock water cooled oil cooler into an external setup.

 

[crashed97tsi]

the duct sounds like a good idea. I'll have to try that one. For the fans, won't that put too much draw on that circuit and blow the fuse? I was initially going to do exactly what you said, but I thought I would blow a fuse.

Thanks
Dan

 

[Mike 99GSX]

You really should save up and get the radiator. The power that you gained with the FMIC is now being offset by the fact that your ECU is pulling timing because of the coolant temps being too high. I believe it starts pulling at 208?

 

[theTuner]

A radiator will help , but you will still overheat, i overheat with A/c with a fluidyne and 3 fans... without ac im cool as #### and engine temps never move, the second i turn on my ac, Boom overheat.

 

[crashed97tsi]

I never use ac anyway. I can't afford the radiator anytime soon( going to school next friday), so if that's the only thing that could fix it then I guess I'm going to have to take it off. I'm going to try and rewire the fans and try the duct, but if that doesn't do it then it'll have to come off. A cooler thermostat wouldn't help at all? I don't know if they even make them for our cars but I figured I'd ask.

regarding the duct, I can make the duct to force air that has been through the IC to go through the radiator, but There is also a space in between the lower part of the frame and the ic. It's only 1-2 inches wide, but If I could make a little duct to force the air that would otherwise be hitting the framerail up there, would that help the cooling? Or would that hurt the airflow more?

hope that made sense

Thanks for the help guys,
Dan

 

[Mike 99GSX]

Originally posted by crashed97tsi
I never use ac anyway. I can't afford the radiator anytime soon( going to school next friday), so if that's the only thing that could fix it then I guess I'm going to have to take it off. I'm going to try and rewire the fans and try the duct, but if that doesn't do it then it'll have to come off. A cooler thermostat wouldn't help at all? I don't know if they even make them for our cars but I figured I'd ask.

regarding the duct, I can make the duct to force air that has been through the IC to go through the radiator, but There is also a space in between the lower part of the frame and the ic. It's only 1-2 inches wide, but If I could make a little duct to force the air that would otherwise be hitting the framerail up there, would that help the cooling? Or would that hurt the airflow more?

hope that made sense

Thanks for the help guys,
Dan

Removing the AC condensor will bring the temps down a good bit

 

[GreddySpyder]

I have the Greddy large FMIC, and the elbow from my 50 trim turbo won't allow me to use the stock main cooling fan. I went and bought a 12" 850cfm slim fan from Advance Auto parts and just barely managed to squeeze it in there. The highest temps I remembered seeing with just the FMIC and the stock fans and turbo was about 215 degrees on a hot day with the AC on.
Now in the heat and humidity of the summer with the AC on I've seen temps as high as 226 degrees idling with the AC on. When I'm driving the Temps get down to about 205 degrees, and as you stated my stock temp gauge never budges above the middle marking (which makes me wonder how hot it would have to get to make it do so?) I would like to use a Fluidyne radiator, but with the clearance issues I am having on the stock radiator I don't see how a Fluidyne would even come close to fitting. As hot as it is around here removing the AC condenser isn't even an option, I would die of a heat stroke. I was also wondering if a lower temp thermostat would help much? I've tried redline water wetter before and it didn't really help much, I remember seeing some stuff at the auto parts store that "guarantees" to lower coolant temps 20-30 degrees, I'm just not sure if it's worthwhile.

 

[Sotarts]

Definitely use more water than antifreeze and add Redline "water wetter" (you should be able to find it at a big auto store.) If you use ONLY water + water wetter, you'll have the coolest temps.

Need SOME antifreeze to keep the system from catching rust and all kids of other buildup.

30% coolant and 70% water + water wetter sounds good. Or go even lower on coolant, but should add some of that "rust/buildup inhibitor" stuff just to be safe.

Try this alone first and see if it works.

 

[Spidey]

Here's the fan rewire VFAQ if you haven't found it already:
http://hawaii.dsm.org/howto/2gcoolingfan.html

 

[pneumo]

I just had an idea that should help cool the engine better, although I've never seen it done before, so I thought I'd run it by you guys and see what you think.

I noticed on my 92 Talon the coolant line that goes into the oil cooler has a 3" section of rubber hose right before the oil cooler. What if you splice in some long heater hose and some type of generic oil cooler, or even a tranny cooler, and mount the cooler in the passnger side duct? It seems like it would be simple enough to route the hose and mount a oil cooler. That way the coolant that goes to the oil cooler would be much cooler. I figure any heat taken out of the engine will help, either hot oil or hot water, or both. What do you think?

 

[Kingdom]

1. Radiator
2. Vented Hood

many people under estimate this mod. In the summer it really gets hot here, its close to 50C right now and its damn humide too. anyways, if the a/c is on in idle the temps climb 3/4 instead of the usual 1/2. I popped the hood open and all this hot air that has no were to go came out, I let it stand still for a while with the hood open the temps went down. closed the hood and 10min later temps went back up, opened again just to make sure and 2 min later went back down. definitly getting a vented hood next, just not a big fan of the invader and I dont like the off center carbon trix vent. I already have a grex 13row oil cooler which helps at high speeds. Do a search and you will see the vented hood mod has solved many peoples problems.

3. Oil Cooler
4. cancel a/c

 

[Tom Sawyer]

My Fluidyne dropped intake temps 35 degrees...my car runs ice cold all the time now. Probably helps that the APEX'i FMIC is good with flow through, however.

Tom

 

[44pirate]

Used the Fan mod and 30% coolant Water Wetter and DI water and my temps went to normal operating temps. Also take your radiator out and flush it out. Clean it off. You might have some dirt builf up on the outside of the core, clean up.