Punsishment Racing Radiator Colling Issues

[nuclearr]

To start with I bought a new Punishment Racing 2g radiator with shroud and fans. I installed them along with a new thermostat (advance auto or oreily's brand) and hoses.

First problem was my o2 housing melted the drivers fan wiring. Replaced with one I had on the shelf put heat tape on the wiring and back of fan motor also exhaust wraped o2 housing. Now the second fan motor fried.

Well into the adidtion of fan motor issues. The engine runs too cold and has me in open loop even on one fan. I have droped 400-500* on my egt at the same cruise speed with hotter ambient temps.

I can not run the a/c with one fan it over heats.


I think I am going to have to ditch the shroud and PR fans and get some slimlines and run them as pushers.

Any sugestions or recomedations would be great.

 

[dnhieu]

run a hotter thermostat...

 

[Absit]

What temps are you actually running?
When do you have your fan(s) set to kick on?

 

[Indian]

The fan motors on my punishment Radiator fried also,The first was the one I had connected to a toggle (wich didn't bother me), I figured it was because It was being turned on and off in stop and go traffic,and then the second fan went. I ended up ordering new ones,and havent had a problem.

 

[nuclearr]

What temps are you actually running?
When do you have your fan(s) set to kick on?

What ever stock is. Unknow acutal tepms I do not have a guage or logger.

run a hotter thermostat...

Ok only problem is I do not know what temp thermostat I am running now. I guess I will go pick up a 180*

The fan motors on my punishment Radiator fried also,The first was the one I had connected to a toggle (wich didn't bother me), I figured it was because It was being turned on and off in stop and go traffic,and then the second fan went. I ended up ordering new ones,and havent had a problem.

I know they are not great the first day running the car the pr conectors started to melt. My Issue here is I fried a second good fan (not a PR) because of the heat from the turbo.

 

[edsgst]

Probably not a bad idea to check your coolant temp sensor for the open loop issue, and maybe consider fabbing up a heat shield for the o2 housing and turbo area. Even if the shield isn't pretty, it'll help tons for radiant heat....good luck

 

[Absit]

If the fan's kicking on you're not running cold. The fan only comes on way after closed loop is established.

 

[nuclearr]

Good news just got home from dinner and decided to check some things the fan is not fried. Turns out it has too much draw for the 20 amp fuse. I just put in a 25 amp and it sarted right up. I may need to put that fan on a new relay and larger wires to get it to run correctly.

I also found out that my thermostat is a 180* that I bought from carquest.

I am not sure when or if the fans run while normal driving when I parked it after my 45 min drive to work today I was over heating the last 15 min and it was working when I popped the hood.

I have been thing about fabing a heat shield to help out just need to go get some more sheet metal.

When I take it out of service next month I am going to replace the temp sensor and switch. Along with a long list of maintance.

 

[turboboy4]

Why not just wire in your factory connectors to the fans so you most likely wont have the current problems you are having? Or are you already using your factory harnesses

 

[nitroazz]

Humor me. Did you bleed the air out of the cooling system after install? I know it is a ridiculous question but you have no idea how many mechanics I work with in the army that are tools.

Side note, I plan on installing my pr race rad, fan and shroud setup this weekend. I plan on using the stock connectors for my setup. Still running the stock 173 thermostat.

 

[turboglenn]

WIthout a logger or temp gauge how are you knowing that the temps are off track and that it's staying in open loop? Just wondering. And air bubbles could be the issue.. when they get to the temp sensor it will tell the ECU it's cold, and they will cause the coolant to run hotter because of interupting the flow through the system

 

[nuclearr]

Why not just wire in your factory connectors to the fans so you most likely wont have the current problems you are having? Or are you already using your factory harnesses

I normally would have but in this case I did not. I will be changing out the connectors how ever they only melted slightly. And they are not making contact internally.

Yes the system is bled.

The reason I believe I am in open loop is my fuel economy has dropped since install. And at idle from cold stat the fans seem not to come on.

 

[97gst_spyder]

Just to throw this out there. My buddy has an aluminum radiator (forgot the brand) with 2 fans (OEM). On his car the fans are set to always run as long as the cars on. His car takes about 25-30 min of driving to heat up to at least 170* it was 90*-95* out this week and it still took forever! I run a stock full metal radiator with 1 slim fan and run a constant 185*-190*.

Point is there is a serious issue if your running this setup and overheating. He has ac/massive fmic/35r turbo setup and no heat shielding...

Have you flushed the coolant with a flush kit? Hows the heater working? How much or does any coolant get blown into the coolant reservoir?

 

[Absit]

I normally would have but in this case I did not. I will be changing out the connectors how ever they only melted slightly. And they are not making contact internally.

Yes the system is bled.

The reason I believe I am in open loop is my fuel economy has dropped since install. And at idle from cold stat the fans seem not to come on.

Ok, go buy a logger - stop guessing.

 

[LandoAWD]

Ok, go buy a logger - stop guessing.

This. Have someone shoot your rad and hoses with a temp gun if you can't get a hold of one.

 

[90moneypit]

I have a PR radiator w/o the shroud (wasn't available when I bought mine), and had overheating problems with several different thermostats from various parts stores. The solution was to get a factory thermostat and gasket! Every single t-stat or gasket, and occasionally both, failed within a couple months. I was tired of playing the guessing game like you are and decided to at least start with a genuine mitsu t-stat and work from there. Turned out that I started AND stopped there. Some people have no problems with non-mitsu parts, but I don't seem to be one of them... In this case, a factory part will only cost a few bucks more and just might solve your problem. Don't worry about higher/lower temp units unless you have seriously increased your hp numbers, chances are, you don't really need it and it's just one more part you'll have to worry about not being 'right'.

 

[nuclearr]

Ok, go buy a logger - stop guessing.

Acutally I have one just can not get the software put on the palm b/c I do not have serial ports on my Laptops.

 

[blaze12]

My buddy just hooked up his fans where he could turn them on when ever he thought fit . Just hooked up a power wire from his fan fuse .

 

[turboglenn]

To put the fans on manual control there's a wire right at the ECU (just check a diagram) that putss the main fan on high. all you need to do is feed that wire to a switch and put the other end of the switch to ground and you'll have a toggle/switched setup you can turn on at anyt time, or you can just ground that wire and it will put the main fan on "high" anytime the key is on. The other smaller fan if you have it will still work with the A/C compressor turning on, as well as coming on to it's medium speed with the toggle activation that you've hooked to the other one(disconnect from ECU before doingeither thing i mentioned)

 

[nuclearr]

My buddy just hooked up his fans where he could turn them on when ever he thought fit . Just hooked up a power wire from his fan fuse .

To put the fans on manual control there's a wire right at the ECU (just check a diagram) that putss the main fan on high. all you need to do is feed that wire to a switch and put the other end of the switch to ground and you'll have a toggle/switched setup you can turn on at anyt time, or you can just ground that wire and it will put the main fan on "high" anytime the key is on. The other smaller fan if you have it will still work with the A/C compressor turning on, as well as coming on to it's medium speed with the toggle activation that you've hooked to the other one(disconnect from ECU before doingeither thing i mentioned)

Thanks for the info but does not help. MY major issue is I keep melting fan motors internally. I am having issues with the second fan now (the one I replaced the 1st melted one with).

I bought the serial adapter for my logger.
I also think I need a new temp sensor it seems to be acting funny the car will show normal temp but I park the car and a few hours later I noticed it lost some coolant though the over flow.

 

[97gst_spyder]

If the fan is melting internally its either, external heat is to high, or the internal resistance is to high. How are they wired?

If you have a slim fan on the drivers side that DOES NOT always run, it needs to be a pusher. If you have it wired to run all the time either pusher or puller will work fine.

 

[nuclearr]

Well I still have an overheating issue. I have a new Mitsu thermostat, temp sensor and temp switch. I have confirmed the fans work propely and kick on at temp. But when I use my a/c on the interstate it runs hot, but does not over heat. Also if I am in stop and go trafic it runs hot once again only if I run the a/c.

 

[KevinRR]

When was the last time you change your radiator cap?

 

[nuclearr]

When I changed the radiator a month ago. Every thing is new water pump has about 5k on it. new hoses thermostat. sensors.

I am down to a list of three things in my book.
not in any order:

1) PR fans do not have enough output
2) Head gasket
3) Blocked heater core.

I am going to try to by pass the heater core if and see if that helps.

I also am going to be relacing the head this month. It has bad valve guide seals.

 

[1997_GSX]

Why don't you just put new valve stem seals in the head?