Overheating fix.

[BIGBLAZE79]

Once I installed my front mount intercooler, I would overheat on the freeway at any temp above 85F. As soon as i slowed down like sitting at a light, it would cool off back to norm. My motor and water pump have 15K miles on them.
1. I replaced the thermostat with the OEM one from the dealer, that didn't fix it.
2. I tried drilling holes in the thermostat, that only extended the time untill it started to over heat, again only on the freeway.
3. I replaced the radiator with an aluminum one with slim fans. The fan by the turbo setup completely melted so I installed the stock one as a puller by the intake pipe and the good slimfan as a pusher on the turbo side on the other side of the ac condenser. That didn't help much.
4. I pulled the front mount and did a bunch of sheet metal duct work to ensure only cool air was being drawn from the front bumper, that didn't help.
5. I have both fans on full blast using DSM link and that helped a little.

After driving on the freeway for the hundreth time with the heater on full blast burning my feet I decided I can't take this anymore. Phoenix gets to about 115 in the summer and rockin your heater with the windows down at 115 sucks ba11s! With the summer coming up I decided the last resort would be to cut holes in the hood.

Now I have no problems even with the AC on and flooring the crap out of it on the freeway I won't say how fast but lets just say it won't overheat again

On a side note does anyone have any ideas on how to sand/polish the messed up clear coat so it doesn't look so bad?

 

[Unreal89]

Looks good.

Another option that I heard works pretty well on some cars, I dont know about ours, is to add a bunch of washers at the hood hinges raising the rear of the hood and allowing hot air to escape. Maybe that and this mod in combination would work even better.

Can't help with the clear coat issue though :-\ Might wanna ask a body shop.

 

[JEFFREYCASTGSX]

Sand down with 1500, might want to throw some adhesion promoter, and re-clear.

 

[Loewen21]

Looks good.

Another option that I heard works pretty well on some cars, I dont know about ours, is to add a bunch of washers at the hood hinges raising the rear of the hood and allowing hot air to escape. Maybe that and this mod in combination would work even better.

Can't help with the clear coat issue though :-\ Might wanna ask a body shop.

That seems to work pretty good for overheating issues at a stop such as at lights and in stop and go traffic. However for issues while driving this only seems to add to the problem because it restricts air from flowing out.

 

[Weapon-X]

Hmmmmmm, I'm going out on a whim here and just throwing this out there, But here it goes.

My 1st shot in the dark is get a new OEM radiator cap. Maybe your cap is weak and not keeping the system pressurized properly.

My 2nd shot in the dark is hose cavitation. It was a slight problem with Nissan 300Zx's in the early to mid 90's. This isn't a real problem that I have seen on DSM's though.

Freeway runs, higher sustained RPM type situations the hose will actually close down smaller restricting the flow of coolant through the motor as the RPM drop, like when you slow down or exit the freeway, the hose expands to it's normal diameter. In-turn the coolant can therefore take on it's normal flow rate again.

How are your hoses? New, old? Soft/squishy, ridgid?

Your other option might be to increase your water to anti-freeze ratio or just outright flush the system, refill with a 70/30 distilled water/anti-freeze ratio respectively and throw in a bottle of Redline water wetter.

 

[wishnfor4g63T]

I think the nose holes he made fixed the problem . I'd soo be all over that or an evo looking cut out but i'm afraid to mess up my hood :-(

think stock eclipse hood with evo looking hood ehh sounds like a good idea...has anyone done it?

 

[BIGBLAZE79]

Hmmmmmm, I'm going out on a whim here and just throwing this out there, But here it goes.

My 1st shot in the dark is get a new OEM radiator cap. Maybe your cap is weak and not keeping the system pressurized properly.

My 2nd shot in the dark is hose cavitation. It was a slight problem with Nissan 300Zx's in the early to mid 90's. This isn't a real problem that I have seen on DSM's though.

Freeway runs, higher sustained RPM type situations the hose will actually close down smaller restricting the flow of coolant through the motor as the RPM drop, like when you slow down or exit the freeway, the hose expands to it's normal diameter. In-turn the coolant can therefore take on it's normal flow rate again.

How are your hoses? New, old? Soft/squishy, ridgid?

Your other option might be to increase your water to anti-freeze ratio or just outright flush the system, refill with a 70/30 distilled water/anti-freeze ratio respectively and throw in a bottle of Redline water wetter.

I replaced the radiator cap with a greddy one, I believe it holds a little higher pressure. The hoses were all OEM new when I rebuilt the motor 15K miles ago. I tried the water to antifreeze ratio and also put redline water wetter in it. That didn't fix it. It was 100% an air flow issue while at high speeds. I'm missing all the stock plastic pieced under the car and around the wheel wells. These I'm sure are there for a reason to ensure proper air flow characteristics. That dang huge FMIC blocks all hopes of proper air flow . Maybe cavitation I'll pop the hood and raise the rpm's and see if the hoses collapse.

 

[19BLACKGST98]

I did something similar to this because of your exact same problem....I did everything before it stopped overheating. I had the exact same symptoms as you. Everyone on my local board said I was patching a bullet wound with a band aid when I started cutting holes in the body....they were right. With my front bumper off of the car I couldn't make it overheat even with the ac full blast. Anyways I had a few problems.

1. Water pump was on its way out which was the main problem. It didn't show any signs of going out until we took it off and spun the blades nest to a new one....huge difference.

2. This happened later on but is a problem. The fans on our 2gs come on for two different temps (high and low setting) something was wrong with mine bc the low level sensor/circuit would never turn the fan on so it was only kicking on for the high level which was a little to late. We ended up installing the 1g switch on the top of the thermostat housing which fixes that problem.

3. There was a clog in the ac system some where....the low side would read good at around 38 but the high side was reading 400 when it was supposed to be around 200. Changed out 2 things in the ac system and it no longer makes the condenser get super hot (just sitting and revving at 2k would make the condenser read 187*....which makes all that hot air hit the radiator and rest of the motor.

I hope that helps you. Sorry for the crappy typing / spelling but I'm in class on my phone.

I will also add that the water pump had only 5k miles on I when we changed it.

 

[BkzProblem]

Another good idea would have been to cut out the eagle sign in your bumper and put a nice black mesh behind that.. that would have looked a little cleaner but a good job none the less....

 

[Nofear20]

I'm having the same type of problem. In the summer my car will get so hot that my oil will thin out so bad that the oil light in my dash will flash and my gauge reads like 4 psi. This is especially bad after driving on the freeway. How did you cut the hood?

 

[19BLACKGST98]

You are having a problem where cutting the hood is not the solution. Get the car fixed before you need a new engine.

 

[BkzProblem]

You are having a problem where cutting the hood is not the solution. Get the car fixed before you need a new engine.

Cutting the hood or bumper IS the soulution... Whenever someone with a 2g puts a big fmic on their car, it ALWAYS raises the temps and starts to over heat.. look at the design of the 2g bumper... There is only one place that the rad gets air from and when it gets blocked by a BIG front mount, its only natural that it overheats...

 

[19BLACKGST98]

"ALWAYS" is a pretty big statement considering I know a shit load of people with big fmics on their cars that havt had to cut anything or install aftermarket fans. We live in tx also and the summers arnt perticularly cool here. But to each his own....do as you will I was just trying to let people learn from my mistake (I lost a fully built engine over it)

 

[BIGBLAZE79]

I'm having the same type of problem. In the summer my car will get so hot that my oil will thin out so bad that the oil light in my dash will flash and my gauge reads like 4 psi. This is especially bad after driving on the freeway. How did you cut the hood?

I created a cardboard template and traced it onto the hood with a marker. Then drilled a big enough hole with a drill so the jig saw blade would fit through. Then I went to town with the jig saw. It was real easy. Only thing is I scratched the hood with the saw but as you can see the hood paint looks like butt anyway. I got some door trim from autozone and put that around the hole.

Originally Posted by 19BLACKGST98:
You are having a problem where cutting the hood is not the solution. Get the car fixed before you need a new engine.

Now the temp stays perfect. Everything else is fine why would I need a new engine? And frankly I don't care about cutting a hole to fix it. I am so happy I can drive home from work with the AC on now. A must if you live in Phoenix, AZ.

BkzProblem: "Another good idea would have been to cut out the eagle sign in your bumper and put a nice black mesh behind that.. that would have looked a little cleaner but a good job none the less.... "

I thought about taking out the eagle in the front bumper but I saw this same design cut out of the hood on 97boostedTSI car. I asked him if he has problems with overheating and he said it works. I decided to copy his car

 

[gsxtreme1987]

Looks good, I remember there is a HOW-TO about that, that someone posted few years ago.

I think he did it for road racing cooling purposes.

 

[19BLACKGST98]

I created a cardboard template and traced it onto the hood with a marker. Then drilled a big enough hole with a drill so the jig saw blade would fit through. Then I went to town with the jig saw. It was real easy. Only thing is I scratched the hood with the saw but as you can see the hood paint looks like butt anyway. I got some door trim from autozone and put that around the hole.

Originally Posted by 19BLACKGST98:
You are having a problem where cutting the hood is not the solution. Get the car fixed before you need a new engine.

Now the temp stays perfect. Everything else is fine why would I need a new engine? And frankly I don't care about cutting a hole to fix it. I am so happy I can drive home from work with the AC on now. A must if you live in Phoenix, AZ.

BkzProblem: "Another good idea would have been to cut out the eagle sign in your bumper and put a nice black mesh behind that.. that would have looked a little cleaner but a good job none the less.... "

I thought about taking out the eagle in the front bumper but I saw this same design cut out of the hood on 97boostedTSI car. I asked him if he has problems with overheating and he said it works. I decided to copy his car

My bad I wasnt very clear. I was actually talking to the guy that is having oil thinning issues. Lot better chance of needing a new engine down the road for him.

Im in no way saying releasing heat is a bad thing. I think what you did to the car looks good I was just giving sugguestions on what other problems could be. Like I said everything was fine with my front bumper cover off...but my water pump was crapping out. You will more than likly be fine...its not like you are going to put those peices of the hood back on like I had to do to my front bumper.

 

[BkzProblem]

"ALWAYS" is a pretty big statement considering I know a shit load of people with big fmics on their cars that havt had to cut anything or install aftermarket fans. We live in tx also and the summers arnt perticularly cool here. But to each his own....do as you will I was just trying to let people learn from my mistake (I lost a fully built engine over it)

yeah your right... but most of the time i should say... he said that he had a new waterpump, rad cap and others so i just used process of elimination to come up with my answer...

 

[Defiant]

2. I tried drilling holes in the thermostat, that only extended the time until it started to over heat, again only on the freeway.

Thermostats warm engines. Radiators cool them.

 

[19BLACKGST98]

yeah your right... but most of the time i should say... he said that he had a new waterpump, rad cap and others so i just used process of elimination to come up with my answer...

My new water pump only lasted about 5k miles maybe his is going out as well since he has 3 times that many on his. I believe they are supposed to last 40k but thats not allways the case unfortunatly. I see why you came up with that answer because that is the same reason I came up with that answer on my own car. Also during my troubles I changed the head gaskets a few times also and got a new head. That didnt help at all.

 

[thewraith]

Hmmmmmm, I'm going out on a whim here and just throwing this out there, But here it goes.

My 1st shot in the dark is get a new OEM radiator cap. Maybe your cap is weak and not keeping the system pressurized properly.

My 2nd shot in the dark is hose cavitation. It was a slight problem with Nissan 300Zx's in the early to mid 90's. This isn't a real problem that I have seen on DSM's though.

Freeway runs, higher sustained RPM type situations the hose will actually close down smaller restricting the flow of coolant through the motor as the RPM drop, like when you slow down or exit the freeway, the hose expands to it's normal diameter. In-turn the coolant can therefore take on it's normal flow rate again.

How are your hoses? New, old? Soft/squishy, ridgid?

Your other option might be to increase your water to anti-freeze ratio or just outright flush the system, refill with a 70/30 distilled water/anti-freeze ratio respectively and throw in a bottle of Redline water wetter.

I went thru this crap w/two dsm's after installing ssac intercoolers. Both cars had pinhole hg leaks that were made bigger by the ssac blocking airflow. The first car I kept after a new headgasket and the problems disappeared. The second one I sold and the guy installed a new hg and he said the problems disappeared after that as well. I went thru everything you did and then some. I switched hoses, new aluminum radiator, high capacity slim fans, new cap, vented the bumper, vented the hood, water wetter, 70/30, 100% etc etc, blah blah ####ing blah.

Check your hg.

Cutting the hood or bumper IS the soulution... Whenever someone with a 2g puts a big fmic on their car, it ALWAYS raises the temps and starts to over heat.. look at the design of the 2g bumper... There is only one place that the rad gets air from and when it gets blocked by a BIG front mount, its only natural that it overheats...

This is a HUGE OVERSTATEMENT, it doesn't ALWAYS raise temps on 2g's. As a matter of fact it is a rare case when this happens.