1g radiator ducting/ tips and advice

[oren hughbanks]

Hey guys so I'm putting the talon back in the garage for some final clean up and I would like some tips and such. I have been having some cooling issues and I'm looking into sealing up my front mount and putting in some ducting to help with cooling. Here in northern AZ our daily temps stay around 85 90 degrees. I have my fans running all the time setup on their own harness with a relay to pull maximum voltage from the battery. When it's cool out in the morning I have noticed the ECU Will switch between the warm up map and normal map. I assume this is because it's not staying at operating temp. And I have replaced all sending units. I would like to start running some mountain roads and canyon carving drives but I want to make the cooling system bullet proof! If I do several long 3rd and 4th pulls my temp will spike fairly quick.

I do have the cx racing aluminum radiator but the fans they come with are complete trash and flow very little air. I am ready to fork out the cash for some trimline fans or SPALs. I haven't removed my ac condensor yet but that's all coming out when I do the new fans. Would I be better off switching the fans over to pushers? Anyone else done this? Or would I be better off keeping them as pullers and sealing the space between the radiator and fmic.

Also I'm looking for the 1g turbo fender liners anywhere I can score some? Please not dsmgraveyard, I'd rather not take my business there. Since I will have it all apart, I'm considering doing a catch can and mounting it where the old smic use to be, to help keep things tidy. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Also looking at doing a STM external oil cooler kit too and possibly mounting it up where the old smic use to sit that looks like a perfect spot away from any road debris or damage. Should I do a mishimoto thermostatic adapter? I have no idea what the optimal oil temps should be, if you would need that kind of setup.

 

[Meech Meimaris]

If the guy doesn't take my roller, I will check fender liners and see if they are worth selling you

Meech

 

[donniekak]

I live in the Phoenix metro area, and have no cooling issues at all. I even run full, working ac. I have no issue blasting down the freeway at 75 with ice cold ac. Sitting in traffic is equally not an issue, I run a stock passenger fan, and a spal driver side fan.



Good fans are a must, but if your temps are spiking at over 40 mph, it's not the fans, it's an airflow issue. Ducting works wonders. The largest difference in my temps was when I added a sheet metal scoop to the bottom of my radiator support. It brings air up, behind the fmic, and straight into my ac coil/radiator.

Some issues I have seen that greatly effect cooling. Bent fins on the fmic, bent fins on the ac coil, no ducting, bad thermostat/to hot rating, fans with no shrouding, not using distilled water water wetter mix, cooling system leaks.

 

[ErikTande]

Do you have a pic of the scoop you made?

 

[oren hughbanks]

Meech, that would be awesome just lemme know u can pm me or reply on this thread[DOUBLEPOST=1409890467][/DOUBLEPOST]

Do you have a pic of the scoop you made?

I'm gona start on it this weekend I would prefer not going with home depot racing but if I have too I will, any ideas?

 

[donniekak]

It's just a piece of 18" x 4" galvanized steel with 2 holes drilled in it about 15" apart to fit the existing m8x1.25 bolt holes in the bottom of the radiator support. I bend a 30* angle into it with a press before I mount it. They can get a little beat up after a few months of being that low on the front of the car. The good news is that $10 and 15 minutes can make, and mount a new one.

 

[oren hughbanks]

I live in the Phoenix metro area, and have no cooling issues at all. I even run full, working ac. I have no issue blasting down the freeway at 75 with ice cold ac. Sitting in traffic is equally not an issue, I run a stock passenger fan, and a spal driver side fan.



Good fans are a must, but if your temps are spiking at over 40 mph, it's not the fans, it's an airflow issue. Ducting works wonders. The largest difference in my temps was when I added a sheet metal scoop to the bottom of my radiator support. It brings air up, behind the fmic, and straight into my ac coil/radiator.

Some issues I have seen that greatly effect cooling. Bent fins on the fmic, bent fins on the ac coil, no ducting, bad thermostat/to hot rating, fans with no shrouding, not using distilled water water wetter mix, cooling system leaks.

Awesome think u could post a pic of your lower scoop? I have no ducting yet, and I normally see a spike at over 40mph especially if I'm going up hill. Ill normally kick on the heater to defrost and that cools it down right away. Just like that extra bit of air going through the system makes all the difference. I did see a few stock fans at our salvage yard, I was considering installing just the passenger side fan but I'm not sure it will work with the aluminum radiator. I'm pretty certain my fans are most of the issue, but also my thermostat too. It's from O'Reilly but there was no alternate temperature one on their computer just the oem?? Wtf right.. I picked up one other thread where a guy tested a bunch of different therms and had the best result with the Gates brand therm.[DOUBLEPOST=1409892115][/DOUBLEPOST]I found on another thread this guy used foam pipe insulation, like swimming pool foam noodles, to fill in the gap between his fmic and radiator,, but that seems kinda shady to me, not something I want to have blow out on the freeway.

 

[oren hughbanks]

Scored a OEM fan from a Mitsubishi colt at our local salvage yard I'm putting it in today I'll post up some pics hopefully I get some better results

 

[blizz99]

I used gorilla tape as a temporary thing just to test it out. That was back in like 2009 and it's still on there. Haha. Works like a dream and the tape is holding up perfect so I never changed it.

 

[4Lurker4]

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Fiberglass works wonders Granted I have no FMIC, but you can still do the same, would also make it incredibly easy to accommodate a scoop like the earlier post as you can make fiberglass to any shape.

 

[oren hughbanks]

Got that fan in there. Soldered on some blade connectors and shrink wrapped then started trimming tight fit! But definitely moves more air.[DOUBLEPOST=1410673581][/DOUBLEPOST]I fibreglassed the bottom of a wooden kayak project I had a few years ago , worst experience of my life. That stuff is awful gets all over the place turns into a sticky mess in no time. But never thought of making a scoop out of that tho.

 

[Breezio69]

Good to see a stock fan on there. I actually run only a stock fan on the pass side for now. No issues all summer long in 100+ weather.

I had an ebay fan on the drivers side, it made zero diffenence if it was running or off, so I pulled it out. Absolutely worthless fan. It had nearly straight blades and just spun about half the speed my stock fan did.

 

[oren hughbanks]

I had 2 Amazon fans, equally as worthless. Not sure what I'll do with it now, might make a nice salad shooter or ceiling fan, or I can put it on my lawn mower, or go skeet shooting with it. I actually got that fan from a little Mitsubishi colt , closest I could find at our salvage yard

 

[bigbird94]

I used black duct tape (gorilla brand) to seal my fmic to the radiator. Work all the way around it and seal the ic and rad as close to air tight as you can. When almost dont uou can look in the gap and look for light seeping in and see where you to add more tape.. hope that all makes sense...

I did this to mine a few years ago and saw a decrease in cruising temps and made my fans much more effective at idle. Even after all this time it still is holding great .

 

[8urzr1]

Is the car pushing coolant at all??(bubbling) from the resavor? And what are the coolant temps after these 3rd and 4th gear pulls?

 

[oren hughbanks]

I'm not sure exactly what the temps are, I only have stock gauge. I use the little thermometer in the middle of my gauge as my marker. Any time the needle moves past that , not good. After some long pulls it'll go past that just a little bit. I know it's silly, but I'm extremely paranoid about temps thankfully no I have no issues with pushing coolant, never had it boil over.

 

[8urzr1]

you would really be surprised how much the factory gauge will move with very little real increase or decrease in temps. I noticed this while watching coolant temps live while driving via ecmlink. I noticed that around 190deg the factory gauge would be past halfway... which with only referencing from the stock gauge you would think it would be getting hot... but its not. if your thinking your getting hot def get an aftermarket gauge!! also run a 180deg thermostat in the car.. don't go any cooler if you do not have the capability to change the open/closed loop threshold of the ecm. good luck hope this helps

 

[Technoklipz]

I had some issues a few years ago with cooling and I bought an aluminum radiator with slimline fans. I also installed a 180 degree thermostat. The last mod I did was notch out an open area in the two black pieces on the top of the front bumper. That helped a lot because it forces air directly into the radiator. I also have a water temp gauge installed and my temps have never went past 190 degrees. Hope you get your issue fixed.

 

[oren hughbanks]

I have no way to change it it's a real PITA. I can watch that poor old ecu get confused on cold mornings and watch it switch between the two on my wideband. One minute it'll be cruising at a perfect 14.7 to 14.0 to 15.0 it'll hover around there. Then out of nowhere it'll drop to 12.0 or 11.0 then later it'll switch back. I have had great results from going back to a stock fan. Sounds like a little airplane in there. I am gona try to trim up a stock driver side fan, but with fmic I'm not sure of its gona fit. Last time I was doing my weekly check over, I started it up and held my hand on the radiator until I could feel the thermostat open, and just noted what my gauge said when it did. I've read the stock gauges are pretty accurate it has a new sending unit too so I hope it's not lying to me[DOUBLEPOST=1411049012][/DOUBLEPOST]Since I got the new fan temps have been holding way more solid. I must have done 10 pulls out on the highway and barely saw the gauge move. I really put her through the gauntlet, no problems at all . I was looking at a 2g driver side fan and they look very slim and maybe with a little trimming I could squeeze it in there. I was also looking at lining my heat shields with DEI heat wrap, to keep the fan from melting. Also I'll put of pics after I seal up the front mount then I can mark this as resolved