hey guys have searched and searched but no luck so resorting to here. Was hoping someone can help me out. I have an 01 gsr turbo. It's open deck sleeved motor, has a je proseal head gasket brand new, China 2 row radiator and China 12inch puller fan, motor coolant temp gets to 230 in traffic, fan is working, throw my heater on it goes down to 205. I have idea what's going on, water pump is fine, I'm thinking either radiator and fan suck ***. Out of options, just want this to go away. Rs sleeve, arias piston, eagle rod.

 

Is the fan shrouded? Safe bet that's where your problem lies.

 

Game, set, Match

 

get a mishimoto radiator and shroud and fan and a mishimoto fan switch and mishimoto thermostat you will be golden.

 

To hell with that Mishimoto radiator. Get a good Fluidyne or Koyo, a real SPAL fan and don't even worry about a shroud, and you'll be platinum instead of golden :-)

 

And skip the Mishimoto thermostat and fan switch, while you're at it. Bunch of overpriced, unnecessary hardware.

 

Yea there isn't any point to buying a "name brand" thermostat or fan switch. Paying more money because a business put a sticker on a plain jane thermostat is retarded (and proves just what kind of brand ****** people can be. I admit I was guilty of this once... I bought a Mugen thermostat and fan switch for my 99 EM1 show car lol)

However a thermostat that opens at a lower temp is very useful. The OEM thermostat opening temperature is based off of what coolant temps offer the best fuel economy and lower emissions output. Typically with increased power production (and this larger amounts of heat) the high opening temp of the OEM thermostat will prevent the coolant from going below a certain temperature since the thermostat just closes again. Typically a 180F thermostat is the most popular for an everyday turbo Honda. Some people who live in warmer, drier climates or are making a great deal of power can move to a thermostat as low as 160F. Some people even remove the thermostat entirely and put a round peice of metal in its place with a certain size hole in the middle.

This works similar to a thermostat by restricting the amount of coolant that flow through the cooling system over a given period of time which in turn dictates how low coolant temps can go. This method takes some fine tuning but is very popular across numerous platforms and is used mostly for endurance race cars and other lengthy race events where a mechanical failure like a stuck/broken thermostat can easily take a team out of the race.

Buying a fan switch with a lower preset fan on temp is stupid as any OEM ecu based tuning software or standalone will let you change the fan on/off temps within the ecu itself. Also consider changing your coolant... At least run distilled water, water wetter, and late a drop of the standard ethylene glycol stuff or if you can just straight distilled water and water wetter.

The Chinese cooling system parts aren't helping you any. The cores tend to be more restrictive and less efficient than their higher quality counterparts (cooling systems are a perfect example of getting what you pay for). Also the fans have been proven to not perform to advertised specifications and some even randomly burn up brushes and armatures then stop working.

What sort of power are you making/looking to make?
What type of driving do you mainly do?
What is the purpose of the car?
What is the climate like where you live? (Temperature, humidity, elevation, etc)
Do you know what temperature thermostat you have?
What are the fan on/fan off temperatures in the ecu?
Are you running AC?
Could your setup support a full core radiator? If not and you aren't running AC do you have a block off plate where the AC condenser used to sit so the majority of air is forced through the radiator?

These are the questions that will help us determine if your setup is sufficient and if it isn't then we can give some things to try and go from there.

Sorry for the long post but hopefully it helps.

 

I just like the Mishimoto Radiator for the fact you get a lifetime warranty thats always good!

 

But if its a quality unit to begin with, there's no need to worry about whether or not it has one..

"Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me." - Thomas "Tommy Boy" Callahan

 

Update: koyo 2 row aluminum rad, and spal 1800cfm fan are now what is cooling my beast at 180 degrees and staying put (that's what the fan switch is set at on hondata). Had the fan on constantly and didn't rise above 145 idling lol. Appreciate the help guys will be returning if anything else comes up lol

 

1. Staying around 300-350whp so time attack and circuit isnt such a bitch to drive.
2. Shes my daily driver, spirited alot, time attack.
3. Mostly daily driven except when race events come around.
4. Summer hottest would be like 98 and winter as low as 40s, humidity not bad at all.
5. 180 degrees is what i have it set at on the hondata since thats stock.
6. No A/C
7. Cant support a full size rad due to wastegate and turbo being in the way. and no there is an open gap, intercooler mostly takes up the room in the grill though.

I have a Koyorad aluminum with a spal 1800cfm fan on there now and shes staying pretty chill, installed it yesterday