2kdrift

I am getting extremely high ECT's particularly at higher speeds, my intercooler is about medium size only blocks about half of the radiator.

At idle (stoplights ect) its fine a little bit on the high side but nothing to crazy about 195. At highway speeds its usually about 206-209, going uphill it can be bad especially under boost ive seen it jump to 225. Ambient temps are about 85 with high humidity


Question is does this seem like a fan issue or radiator?

brand new skunk2 radiator, uknown thermostat, and a chinese slim fan

I ordered a spal fan and oem thermostat just was curious as to what you guys think, IF all else fails Im going with a KOYO rad, but thats gonna be tricky with my turbo intake it barely fits as it is.

Aradin

Your fan should not be running above about 40mph. I'm not sure what the stock setting is but it's detrimental to flow once the car is moving above a certain speed. If you haven't messed with that or changed how the fan behaves via EMS it's not likely related to that. A fan shroud would help quite a bit at idle if you don't have one. I doubt the spal fan is going to do much for you since your idle temps are fine.

Do you have any turbo related parts wrapped? Is the turbo blanketed? If not I would start there. Additionally try an 80/20 mix of distilled water and antifreeze with a bottle of water wetter in there. Stuff starts to get really, really heatsoaked during cruising, moreso if you have less than ideal timing values or fueling. Your turbo manifold and turbine housing will glow during pulls too. That stuff gets hot.


Turbo F20B in my personal car. Stock H22 oil cooler setup. Triple core half size rad. Same mixture I recommended as above. Everything is wrapped, etc. Coolant and oil temps never see above 200 degrees if I'm just daily driving the car.

2kdrift

Sorry forgot to mention I am using a fan shroud, I had my tuner double check My timing and he said its fine. Tuner recommended creating as many air dams as possible, I started with the passenger side since that was the largest gap I could visually see haven't had a chance to try going up hills or anything like that, but everything seems more less the same. ALso I am using purple ice as my water wetter and currently on a 50/50 mix (coolant)

fans are set to 190 in my ems I had increased the max vehicle speed since i was having problems but I will set it back to 40MPH

ram horn manifold - wrapped
turbo - has blanket
downpipe - wrapped past the oil pan

this is all with dei Titanium

Aradin

Interesting. I have mine set to 190/40mph. Seems like a good setting.

As for the air dams, I tried that and actually got worse performance from my cooling system strangely. My car has a full size in factory form. So I have a bunch of empty space. I fabbed up an air dam from sheet metal to close that up and force air through the radiator. Didn't help. Noticed temps were 5-10 degrees higher across the board. May just be my setup or chassis though.

Sounds like you've got it pretty well sorted. I'll be interested to see what helps your case.

2kdrift

LOL all sorted except im fuct.......spiked to 225 on the highway last week, I guess im on the right track hoping thermostat is the problem perhaps it not fully openning up?

Interesting I could remove my aircon condenser to create some airflow perhaps when you do this it takes the heat off the maifold and turbo more rather then just heatsoaking the bay

in all seriousness Thankyou I really appreciate your help I will try adding some distilled water when I replace my thermostat and adjust my EMS as you have mentioned

2kdrift

So i think I have a bad head gasket

after bleeding coolant for 40 mins, still get TINY air bubbles no matter how long I bleed it. If i do rev it up there are more bubbles but nothing major.

Its a brand new gasket maybe 300 miles on it just did my tune 2 weeks ago it did not over heat on the dyno but perhaps its just starting to go

(

Aradin

I've had that happen before. Sucks if that's what it is. My issue was a little different but the same. Car was spiking 240-250 degrees when I was hitting boost and filling up the overflow. Car drove 100% fine otherwise. Blew out the little sealant ring around one of the cylinders. Switched to a felpro gasket that has the sealant layer over the whole gasket surface and never had any issues after that...until it cracked a sleeve lol.

2kdrift

Mine isnt even that bad just a lil bit higher temps then it should be, usually at 205 around town and freeways (even with boosting up to 17 PSI), only climbs when i go up long steep hills. Air bubbles are really small, overflow is not filling up that i can easily notice. I just hope its not a cracked sleeve....only one way to find out

thanks again

Aradin

I highly doubt it's a cracked sleeve. You'd have more more noticeable issues than that. At minimum pretty heavy white smoke and running issues. When I cracked mine the car wouldn't run even though I had technically only lost one cylinder. It was completely flooded with coolant. After I put a new engine in it, it still took me about an hour to burn all the leftover coolant out of the exhaust. Crazy stuff.

2kdrift

nice yah Im really thinking its headgasket but theres really no way to be 100% sure until you tear it down. I have no white smoke and I dont loose coolant even overnight (i must be loosing some when driving but whatever is lost gets replaced be resevoir). Just wasnt sure about possibilities of a very small crack

ls joker

Leak down test result

Id try completely taking the radiator off an emptying ot out.

When i did my headgasket last go around, when removing my old koyo, i accidentely tipped over, and it had a **** ton of sludge in it.

2kdrift

brand new radiator, the engine build has about 500 miles on it. I have flushed the system several times trying to chase this heating issue.

I would do a leakdown but in the end it doesent matter ( i already kno its gonna show a leak from one of my cylinders into the cooling system) heads gotta come off no way around it

thanks

2kdrift

Just noticed it only does it once warm


Cold Start

About 10 mins later

Turbo-LS

iTrader: (4)

Air flow air flow air flow. But bubbles like that is combustion into the cooling system. Can buy strips also to test coolant to be 100% sure

2kdrift

I was gonna use stock gasket, I am .5 over on my pistons. Do you recommend copper spray or install the gasket "dry"?

TheShodan

iTrader: (14)

Depends upon the gasket you use. MLS Cometic, no. . OEM, sure.

2kdrift

as stated it will be OEM directly from honda.

I have used it with copper and without no problems either way, this is the first time I had a gasket failure that I can remember in the last 10 years.

Just wanted your guys opinion

Turbo-LS

iTrader: (4)

Not needed with any MLS gasket so long as both surfaces are good.

TheShodan

iTrader: (14)

you never stated that in ANY of this thread. Perhaps you meant to, and simply forgot to type it, but your specific headgasket choice was never stated.

Not giving you ****, just letting you know, that you indeed did not state that.

2kdrift

perhaps I was not clear enuff, I wasnt giving u **** either thanks again for your input

TheShodan

iTrader: (14)

2kdrift

So I got the head of yesterday, took the head and gasket to my local machine shop. He couldnt find anything wrong (although some of the rubber coating was starting to peel at the edges). The only issue we could see with my setup is the deck surface on my block is not the smoothest

Also talked with my tuner, he didnt seem to think the Head Gasket was the problem either.

Took gasket home and wanted to take pics to share with you guys and some of the coating came off when I gently Wiped the gasket with a cloth. This gasket has about 500 miles on it. I swapped to a Type R head just before I Installed my turbo Kit.

Its a Honda OEM Gasket - Any Input or Ideas would be greatly appreciated

TheShodan

iTrader: (14)

None. We weren't wrong, that's all we can say. Resurface that head straight, put another OEM headgasket on, (even the ARPs if you want now that you took all the time to get the head off!! ) and work on the radiator and cap itself. that's the best anyone can really offer at this point.

*edit*
Ok. Let me add to that.

Now, I never could tell if you have the car lifted on two jackstands in the front. If you don't , then do so this time around, once you have the head milled, new OEM HG, some ARPs, and most importantly, this little bugger:

A nice Lisile Funnel Kit



This contraption saves LIVES when it comes to getting the air bubbles out of the car and making sure you're not over heating, but it works best with the front of the engine slightly raised up a few degrees to help cavitate the bubbles forward.

Again, you may have used this method and done this already, and it wasn't stated, so I assume nothing. This has REALLY , REALLY worked on these troublesome little issues. Worth the money.

Just an idea.. Here's the system. worth every dime.

2kdrift

I have had ARP studs from day 1.

Just trying to find the cause of the air bubbles seen in the videos I uploaded

dont confuse this with the other similar thread LOL

TheShodan

iTrader: (14)

It may simply be a symptom of a badly "burped" system and nothing more. If there's causation somewhere, you're pretty much eliminated any residual evidence when you took the head off, and possibly when you use the above mentioned "burp" method and put a new OEM HG and torque your ARPs back on.

Again, you didn't mention ARPs before, so I'm only going by the previous text. my apologies. Just being thorough.

I'm trying to be careful NOT to confuse it with the other thread. Perhaps the MODS would be nice enough to merge the threads somehow, as they are VERY similar.