This has been an ongoing thing for me.

Freshly rebuilt B18A1 with an str blockguard, je srp pistons and eagle rods. The blockguard was installed about 3/8 of an inch down the sleeve and was done before the block was bored out. I installed the engine N/A for breakin and had problems with it getting hot(about 3/4 the way up the factory gauge). I thought it was air bubles and bled the system and it seemed to go away for then.

A few weeks later i switched to a neon half rad and i really couldnt keep it cool. It would go up to 3/4 on the highway in 50 degree weather while driving at 60 mph. I would turn the fan on and it would cool back down.

This brings me to now, i ditched the neon rad, went with a fluidyne rad. Installed my turbo which consists of an inline pro manifold, precision turbo, 3 inch downpipe and exhaust and an open downpipe. The downpipe isnt quite out of the engine bay and im wondering if its part of the problem. I will be extending it in the next couple of days to eliminate that variable. Uberdata is saying the temperature is around 223 when its at 3/4's. Engine oil temp is around 210 (i have an oil cooler) when its heated up to that coolant temperature. Im boosting 10 PSI right now.

I replaced the waterpump when i rebuilt it with a rebuilt one and it calved so i just put on a new oem waterpump and also just replaced my thermostat today. Fan is kicking on around 200ish and is pushing air into the rad.

I was thinking maybe its just not getting an adequate amount of airflow as i do have a lot of things in the way. I was thinking of taking some aluminum plate and putting it beside the rad and on top to sort of box it in and not let the hot engine bay air suck back into the rad.

Compression is good, 175 across the board. I have not done a leakdown test. I am running the felpro multilayer steel headgasket and am boosting 10 psi. There is No coolant leaks or coolant in the oil.


Any ideas on what the hell is up? Ive replaced everything i can think of beside doing the few tweaks above.

Heres a picture of the engine bay as it sits. You can see everything is ridiculously tight

 

it does look like you have a lot of front of the radiator.

is that fan set up as a pusher or puller, i know when mine was backwards and it pulled air form the engine bay, mine got hot.

but then i reversed the polarity and spun it the other way, it was fine

 

How big are the water jackets on the block guard?

 

heres my bottom end with the blockguard



Fan is pushing air into the engine bay as i said above.

 

The block guard doesn't look like it would be the culprit. . . lots of breathing room there. . .hrmmmmm

bump

 

looks like the position of the radiator might be a problem.

 

it would overheat when i had the stock ef rad in the stock position. Its not the rad that is the final culprit although right now its not helping anything due to its position. Thats why im going to box in the side and top so that it only pulls air from front bumper instead of pulling it from the engine bay which is what its doing now.