Krazy the Face

The Problem: It overheats almost immediately. Within approximately 1-2 minutes of starting, it is at about 3/4 of the way to HOT and steadily climbing. 30 seconds after that and it's buried firmly in the "H".

The Details: It matters not if idling in the garage or (trying to) rip it around the track. It always does the same thing. Room temp to overheating in about 200 seconds.

The Troubleshoot: It has a brand new water pump, brand unknown. A brand new OEM rad cap. A brand new, OEM, 78C* thermostat.

I took the rad out and flushed it, noting the temp of the rad when the cold water went in. The entire rad turned cold. I flushed it upright, on its side, and upside down. If I blast a hose through the inlet, it fires out the outlet at the same pressure - no blockage.

My fan is hard wired. Since I'm racing, I don't mind plugging it in and turning it off. It is always on before the car even starts. It is oriented properly (pulls air in toward engine) and blows hard.

I flushed the block until clear and cold ran out. I did so by putting a hose into the head outlet and squirting. It shoots out the thermostat inlet, but at increased pressure / reduced volume (I suspect this is due to the action of the thermostat)

After hooking it all back up, it still goes hot in 200sec. I have the rear of the car in the low part of the garage and the front jacked way up to assist with air bleed. I fill with bleeder valve open until it squirts, close it, then fill the rest. I squeeze the intake and outlet hoses until the bubbles stop, refilling as I go. After 5 minutes of this, I start it with the rad cap off and continue squeezing hoses. Once the air stops, I pop on the rad cap and wait. 200sec later - HOT ><

The upper hose is hot as *****. The radiator isn't even luke warm, not even right where the inlet is. The lower hose is cold. None of the major hoses are kinked or bent in any manner. Again, the water pump is brand new.

Either help me or kill me. I'm starting not to care one way or the other

Krazy the Face

Oh, and here's some more, possibly crucial, information. Partly to help in diagnosing, partly because everyone likes laughing at an idiot.

This has been going on roughly since the swap install. And I ran it that way. You're damn right. 6 practices, 4 heats, 4 features.

I know, I know. "Blow it up", "warp the head", blah blah blah. But it DIDN'T.

I had absolutely no reduction in power. No steam. No overflow. No white smoke. No reduction in water level. No leaks. Compression test? Leak down test? Good to go on both counts. No shiny clean cylinder head, no weird looking spark plugs, pitch black, silky smooth motor oil upon changing.

So I either lucked out and have the only air cooled D15B, or I'm missing something.

The dash isn't stock, could it just be a jacked installation that borked the temp gauge? Other than the gauge, there is no separate "temp light", so can't check that. There's the CEL, of course, but I don't know if that relays overheating, and it's already lit up for 9 and 14 (I'm working on those, parts are in the mail =p)

So I have a cooling system that, in theory, should be working as good as it did off the factory floor. But it doesn't based on the gauge and the cold lower hose. But then again it must be, since I RACE THE FREAKING THING and it hasn't blown up yet XD

Welcome to my world. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

baruba

Get a coolant temp gauge on there