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Overheating with vrsf FMIC

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dboyle23

10+ Year Contributor
297
14
Jun 10, 2010
Chicago, Illinois
Finished installing the vrsf fmic and now I'm overheating after 5 minutes of driving in 60 degree weather.

Even with both fans running constantly.
I did a coolant flush, so the coolant is fresh.

Also, I painted my exhaust manifold with a few coats of paint (Chipping off), will this increase engine bay temps?

Any other ideas on cooling?
 
Did you do the coolant flush at the same time of installing the FMIC? If so, did you bleed the cooling system? You may have some air pockets.
 
T-stat is a Mitsu oem and is operating properly.

I flushed the fluid at install since I had to drop the turbo to get the new j-pipe on. I let the car run with the cap off while putting in fluid until there was no air pockets left.
 
If you have aftermarket fans, make sure they're pulling air, and not pushing. Friend had a problem with this the second he installed his fmic. Rewired it to pull since it was pushing before, and problem solved.

Also, when you say "painted" the exhaust manifold, do you mean some sort of high temp ceramic paint? Cause if that's regular paint your trying to use, that'll flake off within a few hours. Exhaust Manifold gets very hot. Would recommend having it ceramic coated if you can't get a heat shield on it.
 
that is really odd. If an intercooler has any noticable effect on cooling, it should only be under pretty serious, extended abuse-like on a track.

I don't know what your fan set up is, but if they are aftermarket, make sure that they are wired correctly to draw ait through, and have a proper shroud. Without a proper shroud sealed against the radiator, the fans aren't always effective. If the fans are stock, there has to be some mistake you made during the coolant flush. I would double check that the system is totally full wiht no bubbles and that the overflow is 1/4 or half full. Also, I know it seems elementary, but are you sure you are running enough water? If you used 50/50 and didn't add enough water, it might not be cooling enough.
 
LOL I KNOW it was a pain in the ass putting that J-pipe on. I got smart and bought a down firing turbo which eliminates the need for the j-pipe.

Anyway, I was having the same problem when I put my intercooler on, I bought a new aluminum radiator with stock fans and it was fine. Now with my new turbo setup, I had to get a slim fan and I'm overheating again. I haven't tried to put in a second fan yet though.

My suggestion to you is, when you are overheating blast the heat and your temps should go down and give a lot of time for that turbo to cool down.
 
Get your fan running and make sure it is going in the right direction. We had a car last summer that was overheating after a Spal install with an ETS front mount. The fan was reversed (pushing) and we simply changed the positive and negative. You can also reverse a Spal but it was already installed and not removing a turbo to solve a small fan issue. We found it by waiting for the fan to kick on and held a leaf up to the shroud which it promptly sucked onto the shroud. A smoke pencil works best but just be creative to check it out.
 
Did you add any water wetter? Be sure there are no bubbles in your coolant system? Also with the slim fans, I would highly suggest getting a shrouded setup, as it is the most efficient way to draw air through the radiator system.
 
LOL I KNOW it was a pain in the ass putting that J-pipe on. I got smart and bought a down firing turbo which eliminates the need for the j-pipe.

Anyway, I was having the same problem when I put my intercooler on, I bought a new aluminum radiator with stock fans and it was fine. Now with my new turbo setup, I had to get a slim fan and I'm overheating again. I haven't tried to put in a second fan yet though.

My suggestion to you is, when you are overheating blast the heat and your temps should go down and give a lot of time for that turbo to cool down.

there's the problem at least as far as 2g cars i've dealt with including my own when nothing else has been changed especially (in some cases aftermarket waterpumps can be a downfall) but if you were fine before and went to slim fans and have a huge FMIC blocking the radiator then you're gonna have to do a LOT of ducting and other little crap or just get some stock fans back on it
FMIC's that take up the entire front end do look cool but hurt cooling a LOT, even mine which has about 4-6 inches on each side open on the 'mouth' of the bumper seem to let enough extra air in to help a lot with cooling.
 
Look into these things:
  • You can try lowering your water/coolant ratio (especially in the hot summers) from about 50%/50% to 70%30%. You can even throw in a bottle of water wetter if you would like. Also with the coolant make sure the system is FULL with no air bubbles and the reservoir is also full.
  • Check your thermostat to make sure it's opening and circulating like it should. You can also try a slightly lower temp thermostat, especially if you have an engine management system with a coolant offset feature like ECMlink (only controls when the fans turn on with 2gs). 1g's came stock with a 195* thermostat while 2g's came with a 180* thermostat.
  • Replace the coolant fill/radiator cap (OEM is 0.9 BAR) Mitsubishi part number MB660735. If it is leaking (the rubber seal with get brittle and not seal with age) it will lower the pressure in the system and thus the boiling point of the coolant and can cause overheating.
  • Consider making some ducting to route the air that passes through the intercooler up into the radiator.
  • Lastly if you do everything else and are still having overheating issues, a compression and or leakdown test would be in order to check the headgasket. Compression and Leak-Down Testing

I bought a new aluminum radiator with stock fans and it was fine. Now with my new turbo setup, I had to get a slim fan and I'm overheating again.

Unless you get the top of the line (very expensive and not that slim) slim fans, the stock fans actually flow a lot more air (almost twice as much as the ebay/cx fans). The only reason you should be switching to slim fans is if the stock fans no longer fit, generally due to an oversized turbo, at which case you will have to work with a less then ideal set of fans. I had slim fans for a while and ended up going back to the stock main fan as an upgrade.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My cheesy ducts..

To the sides of the fmic
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I tried a bunch of diff things but it was a small leak on the turbo coolant hose
 
Look into these things:
Unless you get the top of the line (very expensive and not that slim) slim fans, the stock fans actually flow a lot more air (almost twice as much as the ebay/cx fans). The only reason you should be switching to slim fans is if the stock fans no longer fit, generally due to an oversized turbo, at which case you will have to work with a less then ideal set of fans. I had slim fans for a while and ended up going back to the stock main fan as an upgrade.

I agree completely as i've probably said more times than neededto repeat about the fans.. and if i can run an Hx40 and previousely a PTE6776RS (To4s shroud) turbo and still run stock fans then really unles you're running something like a Gt42 size turbo there's no reason you can't unless you're just getting picky about IC pipe routing..the easiest way to fit it is to go "up firing" on the turbo outlet (or replace only the "small" AC fan with a slim unit and go the "left" direction or typical short route style with your IC piping


there's pics of my bay everywhere (so much in fact i can't find a pic to upload that i already haven't LOL) but if you can run AT LEAST the stock larger main fan you can get a lot better cooling than even some of the very expensive namebrand slim units can offer
 
BTW, im sure this is pretty well known but the ford taurus form the late 90's early 2000's has a very nice, slim electric fan that moves tons of air and fo\its easily and comes with a nice shroud. its a full size fan that fits across the entire radiator. you can pick them up for $20 or less. I have used them in the past on track cars and they are really effective.
 
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