Wisemen help!

[firehawk]

Well i have been having some overheating problems for a while now. I have done almost everything i can think of doing. The car gets up to temps around 230 and has even got to 240 at one point. The following are what i have done...

Note: I have extremepsi's street fmic. I bought 2 slim fans from slowboy racing (i kept the a/c option in my car)

Added a Fluidyne Radiator - no help
Boiled the thermo to make sure it was opening - good
Replaced the HG - helped cause that was a problem but no good
Checked the water pump and it is still good
Water Wetter - no help
Greddy Rad Cap - no help
Wired the fans to be on when the car is on and turn off when the car is off - no help
Took the front bumper off and drove with it like that so i could get maximum airflow to the rad - took a while to heat up but still did

Only thing we can think of now is that the thermostat might be trying to close so I am going to run w/o a thermo to see if it still overheats.

What else can I check...what else is there to check? And the only other thing i can tell you is it takes a good bit for it to "overheat" but once it starts heating up...it just keeps goin. It will hold strong for awhile...but then it just rises.

 

[theSicKness]

id definitly check your thermostat a good way to check is to look at your over flow bottle when your car is starting to warm up..mine would almost over flow from the thermostat not opening.

Hope it Helps
jesse

 

[Rex2342]

This might sound dumb but are the fans wired the right direction? My SBR fan had a blue and black wire but when I wired it up matching the colors to the factory harness it was reversed.

 

[firehawk]

well i have it wired up matching the colors...it works. How do i tell if I have it wired the correct way?

 

[andymoraitis]

If it's correct, the fans should be mounted on the motor side of the radiator and will pull air into the engine compartment. If you accidentally have them set to push, the cooling air from the car's motion will keep butting into the fans pushing air into the rad and not allow proper air circulation.

Barring that, you may have a failing water pump. When we the last time it was replaced and is it an OEM unit? Are you filling up your overflow when it heats up or losing coolant from anywhere? Is the coolant in your overflow brown or muddy looking?

Keep us posted,

Andy

 

[firehawk]

how can i tell if i have a failing water pump? and yeah its has a brownish tint...not really "muddy" looking but its brownish. It doesnt come close to smelling or looking like it did when i blew the hg...it is still more on the greenish side. (the color of the coolant) I believe the fans are set up correctly...i will check that today to make sure though.

 

[andymoraitis]

What I would recommend is a hydrocarbon test before you do anything else (other than verifying that the fans are pulling correctly). Stop by a local auto parts store and pick up some test strips. These will tell you if oil and coolant are mixing and if it's something related to the head. It doesn't seem like it is, but it's an inexpensive way to see if oil and coolant are mixing.

Also, I'd like you to try a new thermostat, but this time go with a 180 instead of a 195. It may not solve the problem, but it certainly can't hurt in the least.

 

[firehawk]

Now to the thermostat...i have tried two of them. I THINK they were 180's, i could be wrong. They are the same one from the local advance auto. They could be crappy, i dont know. Looking in their online store it is made by beck/arnley. Is there like a "good" brand i should go with?

Also for the test strip do I just go to advance or autozone and ask for them? will they know what that is?

 

[firehawk]

I just went to advance auto and asked about a hydrocarbon tester...they looked at me like i was loopy

 

[MrBoxx]

Here's a question I have relating to how to tell if the water pump is failing. If I remember correctly, the water pump on my old '89 Taurus had a "weep hole" in it that slowly leaked coolant as the bearings got progressively worse. My uncle told me that the weep hole was designed to alert the owner when the water pump was starting to fail; when the coolant makes it's way past the worn bearings, it exits the weep hole and you know to change the water pump.

So my question: Does the DSM water pump have a similar feature to alert the owner when the water pump is in the process of failing?

 

[firehawk]

ok so i took the thermostat out today...filled up the coolant system as it was before...I ran it for about an hour up our worst hills and it didnt overheat. It barely even went halfway. This is far better than what i was getting before. so...just wanna make sure...does that point to the thermostat? Whats there to check if i replace the thermostat and have the same problem?

 

[andymoraitis]

If you changed your thermostat and the problem went away, I'd say that was your cause. Sometimes the solutions are incredibly simple. Count yourself lucky and enjoy your improved coolant temps.

Andy

 

[firehawk]

no i removed the thermo and its fixed...havnt put one back in yet.

Also for some reason my logger wont read anything now. It will do all the tests but not any readings....any ideas? could a certain fuse be blown? all i did was wire my fans up to be on all the time.

 

[Defiant]

Don't run without a thermostat, especially on a computer-controlled DSM. You're running your maps through a washing machine, and the ink will be ruined.
You didn't have your thermostat in backward, did you?
Get a new one from the dealer.

 

[TimG]

Get a new one from the dealer.

Best advice on a t-stat. Most aftermarket ones are sloppy and work under 50% of the time. It's hit and miss.

 

[GVR4592]

Here's a question I have relating to how to tell if the water pump is failing. If I remember correctly, the water pump on my old '89 Taurus had a "weep hole" in it that slowly leaked coolant as the bearings got progressively worse. My uncle told me that the weep hole was designed to alert the owner when the water pump was starting to fail; when the coolant makes it's way past the worn bearings, it exits the weep hole and you know to change the water pump.

So my question: Does the DSM water pump have a similar feature to alert the owner when the water pump is in the process of failing?

Yes they have a weep hole.

 

[zilo900]

Don't run without a thermostat, especially on a computer-controlled DSM.

in the summer i remove my thermostat, is that bad? why?

 

[GVR4592]

It's very bad for a number of reasons. The ecu won't go into closed loop so you aren't getting optimum fuel mileage. The ecu also gives additional fueling during warmup, without a thermostat you may never leave "warmup mode". The engine would be running significantly richer than it should.

Fuel won't atomize properly in the combustion chamber if temperature is too low, which can cause a number of problems: detonation, poor mileage, higher emissions, fuel and water(condensation) droplets can form on the cylinder walls, essentially "washing down" the cylinder walls removing any lubricants.


Most internal combustion engines operated below 180 degrees, will show excessive wear on the cylinder walls, and it's possible for piston damage to occur. An engine block is machined with operating temperature in mind, the block will expand as temperature increases. Piston manufacturers are aware of this and their reccomended clearances reflect it. Some machinst's actually circulate heated coolant through the block to simulate the expansion that will occur, as they bore and hone the cylinders.

The bottom line is your engine wasn't designed to run without a thermostat and doing so is only going to cause problems. It's a bandaid for a cooling system that isn't functioning properly.

 

[firehawk]

i wasnt "running w/o one" i just took it out for about an hour to see if the thermo was the problem. If it didnt overheat w/o one, then it shouldnt overheat w/ one....i figure i obviously have a problem w/ the thermostat that was in there. Im gonna get a new one from the dealer and see how that goes.