Idea to bring coolant temps down

[400hp93talon]

It's fine that temps climb a little bit at an idle......The pump isnt moving as much fluid at lower rpms and no air is moving through your radiator....When you start to move rpms go up.....Coolant gets circulated faster and air moves through the radiator causing it to cool down.....Plus with a tubular manifold your trapping a lot of heat right there in that area. I would have changed the t-stat to be safe but I think your fine dude. Or like everybody else said upgrade to an after market radiator.

 

[pj91gsx]

heating up at stoplights has been a common problem for people with the water pump going bad.

 

[BrokenTsi]

Also, heat shields can go a long way too. Most people remove them for simplicity, but they work and they are there for a reason. I just ordered a PTP turbo blanket.

Our turbos are so close to the radiator. Lots of heat right there.

PTP Turbo Blankets - (512) 490-6494

Check out the videos. This blanket is amazing.

 

[bNasty]

Any possible chance you reverse wired the fans??

they were reversed on my way down to school ### my dumbass was stupid. but whne they were reversed it never overheated at idle but i had the opposite problem temps would start to climb when cruising. since then its been reversed.

What are your fans rated at? I run one big Spal fan on the front of the radiator pushing air on one side of my radiator. It can be 100 degrees out and it stays cool. If everything else is in check, the only thing that keeps the temp down at idle are the fans. I dont know what kind of fans comes from punishment, but if they are 2 fans from autozone or something similar, it won't be enough to keep it cool.

i have no idea what they are rated at but i have noticed when looking at fans that "s" blade fans like these are rated at a lower cfm then say the regular straight blade flans from jegs.

 

[BrokenTsi]

they were reversed on my way down to school ### my dumbass was stupid. but whne they were reversed it never overheated at idle but i had the opposite problem temps would start to climb when cruising. since then its been reversed.



i have no idea what they are rated at but i have noticed when looking at fans that "s" blade fans like these are rated at a lower cfm then say the regular straight blade flans from jegs.

I bet those fans are 1/2 as powerful as the stock fan.

Also, I would be more concerned if the temps didnt go down when you started moving. You said it is, so everything is working as it should. I think those fans you got are the problem.

Like I said before, I run ONE powerful spal fan on the front of the radiator on the driverside. (pushing). Its a 1900CFM fan.

 

[bNasty]

I bet those fans are 1/2 as powerful as the stock fan.

Also, I would be more concerned if the temps didnt go down when you started moving. You said it is, so everything is working as it should. I think those fans you got are the problem.

Like I said before, I run ONE powerful spal fan on the front of the radiator on the driverside. (pushing). Its a 1900CFM fan.

yea i think im going to get one big jegs fan its 1650 cfm. im a broke college student so i dont have a lot of money

 

[gofer]

Theres a lot of opinions in here, so I'll just tell you what fixed my overheating issues and you can take it or leave it. First things first you need to add some antifreeze to your coolant system, it not only raises the boiling point of the water but it also has corrosion preventative in it. Have you ever seen a DSM with coolant that looks like diarrhea? Thats because the owner/previous owner ran straight water in the system and it rusted.

I was having overheating issues similar to yours, here was the cure.

- 50/50 coolant mixture
- 180* stock t-stat (POS from Auto Zone)
- Mishimoto radiator
- Removed both stock puller fans and installed ONE pusher SPAL 12" on the passenger side of the radiator. (1630 CFM)​

Using ECMLink I just have my fan running 100% of the time by selecting it in the Misc. tab. Coolant temps at idle hover at 200*-203* and when I'm cruising I log about 196*-198*.

 

[housegsx]

Corey, that sounds the same as mine. 1 fan running all the time and temps hovering between 196-203.

I have a 170 thermostat that I might put in to bring the temps down even lower.

 

[turboglenn]

Man, I battled the 2g heating issue from the day i removed the large stock main fan for my t3/t4 install. went through everything from putting in ducting around the FMIC, to trying every damn slim fan available and still would overheat randomly untill i went back to using the stock main fan... using it's "3rd speed" to pull.

So to answer your post, I don't think you'll notice anything but a lighter wallet.. one thing you can do that's cheap and works is strip the paint from the radiator fins and also from the AC condensor, the paint kills their thermal conductivity (and now days you see less OEM rad's and condensors being painted fo rthis reason)

Other than that you really have to work to get all the bubbles out after a HG install and things that require the block to be drained of coolant. there's a write up i brought over here about an old school way to "open circulate and burp" the system by disconnecting your lines to the heater core.. it's also a test of water pump efficiency.. I saw drastic flow decrease from autoparts store water pumps (increase actually) by going back to an OEM mitsu water pump from the reman'ed auto store one i was running back then. The impeller geometry isn't always the same on them, and the OEM ones flow really well even at idle..an O'reilly's reman pump won't flow for crap till about 2k RPM

Also, cooler T-stats aren't usually the answer to overheating because by staying open more they keep you cool AT FIRST, but then as coolant temps rise, the liquid needs to stay in the radiator long enough to get down to a target temp before going to the block (controlled by the stat) the lower the t-stat temp the shorter amount of time the water gets to stay in the radiator and let it do it's job of dissapating the heat.

Your best bets are

1.) at least the one stock large fan wired on what i call 3rd gear (there's a post here about it and how to get that speed to run whenever the fan comes on - haltech runs mine)

2.) get some ducting made up with fiberglass (use cardboard to lay a template and then glas over it, then remove cardboard)

3.) strip paint from RAD/CON

4.) go back to a stock 180* t-stat

5.) burp the system and check the pumps flow at idle (even mine didn't get that hot till the AC was on) I stand to bet your pumps not flowin for crap at low speeds = get a mitsu pump, gonna cost ya more but you'll feel it was well worth it when you see the cooler temps

6.)Run some redline water wetter

7.) get the higher pressure Radiator cap from the nissan 300ZX (i forget what year, but it's 16psi where the ones they sell for our cars are only like 13 and 14 from autoparts stores, never bought OEM one)

8.) also i always drill a 3/32 weep hole in the t-stat, there's a lot of theories as to WHY it helps and some make sense and some dont, but it does help

EDIT: as for fans..even the BIG JEGS one won't help like stock does, it's because of the shrouded area mainly and that the "3rd gear" really moves some air..having ffans on all the time will burn them up faster, but how soon i cna't say, i have mine come on at 198* and turn off at 188* and even with the AC on except on a few rare really hot (100+ * F) heavy traffic duty, my car runs perfectly fine now.. I've had the back magic, spaal, slim-line, and even one added pusher that ran full time till i found it wasn't working no more.. all the slim lines and crap eventually just wore holes in the radiator or melted while not performing like the one stoclker witha slim helper will

the big thing the one guy has going in this thread is the mishimoto radiator, it's bigger and more aluminum surface area to dissipate more heat, so he can stay cooler with less work.. I'm running a bone yard stock radiator from an auto car

AND if you'rea really stuck on using slim fan setup.. have a sheet metal shop build you a "full shroud" so the fan pulls air from the entire radiator and not just one cirlce where it's stuck on..that's a lot of the slim fan issue...no shrouds

 

[bNasty]

Theres a lot of opinions in here, so I'll just tell you what fixed my overheating issues and you can take it or leave it. First things first you need to add some antifreeze to your coolant system, it not only raises the boiling point of the water but it also has corrosion preventative in it. Have you ever seen a DSM with coolant that looks like diarrhea? Thats because the owner/previous owner ran straight water in the system and it rusted.

I was having overheating issues similar to yours, here was the cure.

- 50/50 coolant mixture
- 180* stock t-stat (POS from Auto Zone)
- Mishimoto radiator
- Removed both stock puller fans and installed ONE pusher SPAL 12" on the passenger side of the radiator. (1630 CFM)​

Using ECMLink I just have my fan running 100% of the time by selecting it in the Misc. tab. Coolant temps at idle hover at 200*-203* and when I'm cruising I log about 196*-198*.

I agree with you 100% i will be running coolant as soon as i can. Probably not until i get home from school in april. (broke college student). I will try running a spal Fan in the front and see what it does. I have my fans already running 100% via dsmlink as mentioned.

 

[turboglenn]

oh man, how i missed that i have no idea, but not having anti-freeze (a.k.a. coolant) lowers the boiling point of the water.. makes sense why you're getting so hotonce it starts getting past regulation... that might be 85% of your problem (but it's never that easy in DSM's is it?)

 

[GRAVEDIGGER]

Antifreeze actually raises the boiling point turboglenn.

Put a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water in and report back. Coolant provides needed rust inhibitors and lubricity to the system as well. Your water pump bearings ain't gonna be happy without it for very long.

 

[Calan]

Personally, I never run more than about 30% coolant. The best results I've had during our 100* summer days is about 10% coolant and a bottle or two of Water Wetter.

For less extreme climates, a straight mix of 30% coolant and distilled water should be fine.

YMMV of course.

 

[tturbolife1]

id check the water pump . this was happening to me changed the water pump and problem solved my old water pump was probly some cheap pepboys pump because the fins on the inside were sooo small. i couldnt understand how it pumped anything

 

[UnderPrssureDSM]

Not to beat a dead horse, but check your radiator cap seal. Not just the seal on the cap, but also check the place where the gasket comes in contact with the metal. Older radiator necks will corrode and prevent the rubber ring on the cap from creating a good seal.

Just saying.

 

[JusMX141]

Wow! That's hot. My car only has 1 stock fan. It is set to run all the time. I run 196 while driving and top out at 203 sitting in traffic. This is in 90 degree weather.

We put a 170* stat in Jeff's '95 TSi AWD after we found he was losing a few degrees of timing while running rather hot in the staging lanes at the track. The 170* stat bought the cycling temps down to an average of 185* and hardly ever went above 190* while logging on Link. Huge difference compared to the 210*+ that we were logging with the factory stat.

 

[96 420a-t]

I personally don't believe in overheating from not having a t stat. I don't have one, I have only one fan on the stock radiator and never see temps over 190 stopped or under 170 on freeway in rain. Sure it takes longer to warm up but no biggie for me. As to th OP you NEED to run coolant. If you don't the water boils and sneaks out of your radiator. Most likely causing your problem.