Hey guys. My car has just gotten put back together, fully built motor, and dyno tuned. I have maybe 100-150miles on it. no hood or bumper on it. Lately if i drive more than 15mins just around the city, the temp gauge starts to rise. I have a Fluidyne Rad. and a Mishimoto fan. Fan works perfectly fine. has brand new oem water pump etc. New Theromostat.

What could this be? when i put the hood and bumper on and drive around, the temp. rises to the red max. The Downpipe and dumptube are 1in away from radiator, should i heat wrap it and see if that helps? and possibly take out the thermostat. since im not running heat.

UPDATE: I noticed when i drive the car only at night when it is cooler 85degrees outside, it runs fine. This is with the hood and bumper off. When i drive it during the day, for same amount of time(no hood and bumper also). Temperature will climb pretty high. I talked with a notable race shop, and he said it could possibly be my Autozone Thermostat and to change to an OEM Honda one. I was thinking about taking it out completely.

 

we just finished a fullybuilt lsvtec turbo build and the customer only drove it for about 100 miles and it started over heating and it had new waterpump and thermostat checked the cap and it was no good the spring had come out of the rad cap and made the car over heat try checking that for one.... his downpipe and dumptube were also very close but since we replaced the cap no issues also ive had a few people have problems with the fluidyne rad brand new out the box on a brand new build and it will wanna over heat on him but check that and see how it goes..

 

Try bleeding the cooling system again. Sounds like a possible air pocket in the system.

 

ok thanks guys ill check that. at first i thought it was possibly a head gasket. but there are no leaks. compression tested it. and its good across all 4 cylinders. But ill check the cap...

 

also im not sure what this means. the overflow for the rad. was pretty low, after driving around came back and it was full...

 

yeah with the overflow being full its a pretty good chance it could be the cap pull it off and take a look at it see if the spring and rubber piece is missing

 

ok cool thanks will do man

 

checked cap its ok. Talked to a notable race shop, he said my Autozone Thermostat could be problem, he said change to an OEM honda one, can i just completely take it out? im not running a/c or heat.

 

i would remove the thermostat just to check to see if that was the culprit, but i would put it back in for normal use, since it keeps your motor in operating range.

 

Hmm since it compression tested find, seems you may be ok.
Go buy an OEM radiator cap and an OEM thermostat and don't forget a gasket too!

I just got my turbo setup together a few months back and was having a similar cooling issue. On hot days or just sitting idle on like 90 degree nights it would get hot(around 210 or so).

Started by doing all the maintenance things first, just checking to ensure everything is in working order.

Ultimately what did the trick was buy a 13 inch curved blade SPAL fan(which I would suggest anyone buy) and a 175 degree fan switch.

Since then my temps have constantly been 190 - 195.

 

thanks guys, ill keep you updated.

 

I would diagnose the Tstat first. Running without one will not help IMO. The Tstat controls the flow/temp of the coolant. Running without one, the coolant will go through the radiator too fast causing inadequate cooling.

 

did you 50/50 it for sure, not sure how big a difference it would make, but if it was just straight coolant and no water...possibly the prob. ...shot in the dark though

 

I'd say run water and water wetter(or any other additive), it will run cooler.

 

Yes im running 50/50. Ok so i took the thermo. out. Drove it, and when it started to heat up i was in downtown, redlight to redlight and it started to heat up a little more than normal temp. I also notice when im normal driving at this TEMP. the car sputters? WTF?

I'm thinkin my next step is heat wrapping the downpipe & dumptube. and getting a second FAN on the other side of the rad. except a Pusher fan. So essentially ill have a pusher and a puller. I'm convinced that the Front mount is so big its blocking air flow for the rad...

 

Never mind...just saw you have no heat hooked up.

What fan are you using?

The fact that it does it during the day despite no hood/bumper tells me it is not an airflow to the rad issue.

Have you tried bleeding it some more. The large rise in coolant may be due to air pockets expanding and pushing out the coolant.

 

I'd recommend running water and additive such as water wetter, will run cooler than 50/50. Bleed the cooling system well, turn the heat on for about 5-10 minutes to fully circulate the system, then turn it off and let it run with the cap off until the thermostat opens and then give it another 5 minutes or so, keep topping it off the whole time it's running.

Wrapping the downpipe and all will help slightly. I would advise getting a real fan, such as the 13 inch SPAL fan. It flows at least 2 - 3 times what ebay slim fans do.

What engine management are you running?