Mugencrxsir1

Just curious come summer what coolant/water ratios everyone is running? Straight water w/ additives... 30/70, 40/60, etc...

With my new Ls/Vtec Turbo set up, heat is definitely an issue with ambient temps above 80 degrees... Even highway cruising above 70mph will show temps higher than I would like...

So I'm currently running 50/50 coolant to water... Thinking of draining 1/3 of my coolant out and replacing with water and Redline's Water Wetter... Seen some good results from Turbo mag a while back about 30/70 coolant to water w/ Water Wetter...

On a separate note in an attempt to reduce the under hood temps I just wrapped up my headers, collector and down pipe... Already had a Turbo Blanket which help out a lot! So I guess I will have to wait for the warm weather to return before I find out if my modifications help?

Just curious to hear what everyone else is running both on the street during the summer and at the track!

Stopsign32v

iTrader: (1)

Good thread, subscribed. Right now I'm just running Prestone 50/50.

DelSolMarine

whats your fan setup?

what are your temps at?

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

in maryland? 50/50 accept no substitutes, redline water wetter is a fine addition but you dont need to drain that much to fit it in, its only a very small amount that is added to the system. Im not to far from you here in NJ and i run 50/50 all the time on my sc setup, with a heavy duty double core radiator from radiator barn, and a single OEM style fan, and its perfectly fine. At most I may change the fan setup to something a little more robust for racing but thats all.

wantboost

iTrader: (2)

I run straight distilled water and water wetter in all of my builds, in the ratio that redline calls for. Cools way better than glycol ever could. Just remember to keep your car inside or swap coolant when it goes below freezing.

CEPerformance

Considering water boils @ 212 degrees fahrenheit at sea level, lower at higher altitude (which is SUPER easy to reach w/ forced induction) that's a terrible idea if you don't feel like buying hoses.

I'm located in Arizona, we see 120+ over summertime @ 1500ft elevation and my boosted LS DD is fine with 50/50 mix.

Coolant is designed for 2 reasons...
To prevent water from freezing or boiling.

Just make sure...
1: you have an efficient fan, and that it's coming on at the correct temp.
2: You have minimal bent fins on your radiator
3: thermostat is operating properly
4: your cooling system is filled properly @ all times.

Mugencrxsir1

Here's the problem I've run into... With my new set up I didn't have room with the way the turbo was oriented to keep my large 14" Spal fan while cranked out something like 2200 cfms... My tuner had to put in a baby 10" slim Flexalite fan which I think has a cfm rating of 745... My radiator is a Fluidyne half civic radiator, had it for years without issue and most of the time it cools without the ad of the fans! The problem on my test drive two Friday's ago was the air temp reached 81 degrees which is nothing during a Maryland summer when the average high is 90+ with tons of humidity... But at this point my OEM temp gauge showed a steadly rise up to 3/4 the way up the gauge on the highway at 70+ mph, if I was slower than that it cooled fine... Slight turbo spool at 4000+rpm I'm assuming was heating things up under the hood! If the car sat at idle with no load it would cool it's self back down, but if I was in stop/go beach traffic or rush hour in 1st and 2nd gear the head would climb back up to 3/4 on the temp gauge until I started moving at 40+ mph and them slowly go back down to just below 1/2 on the temp gauge...

Now here is the kicker, my 10" flexalite fan was running non stop throughout my entire 2 hour drive...

Here is what I'm thinking:

1. I'm hoping the exhaust wrap on the headers and down pipe will help lower the under hood temps.
2. I'm going to look around for a larger diameter fan with a low profile fan as that's the main reason why my tuner whiched out the Spal fan for the Flexalite as we had to love the radiator closed to the front end for air flow reason. (removed hood latch area)
3. Looking for a combination of coolant/water that will help dissapate heat better in the summer and I will switch back to 50/50 come fall...
4. Combination of Redline's water wetter and a ratio of 40/60 or so will make a difference since the tests online showed temps from 210 range dropping to 184 ish at idle and about 20-30 degree drop at open throttle...

Any recommedations would be appreciated but I think I have a good idea of what I need to do, I just wanted other people's opinions on their coolant ratios for summer...

Thanks guys,

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

i went through this water boiling fiasco in a similar thread a couple months back with someone, and he was right, the effective boiling point increases when the cooling system is under pressure to somewhere around 245 degrees, so it should in essence work just fine, even though i wouldnt recommend it.

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

Interesting..well for starters, spal makes high performance 10" fans for your setup. Header wrap isnt gona help as much you think it would, i would opt for a turbo blanket but still, anything short of ceramic coating the whole system in the front your not gona get that much in the way of an improvement.

Why were you at 4000 rpm's on the highway, what speed were you driving at? Changing the coolant mix isnt gona help as much as you think it will to be honest if the problem is that bad, make sure your coolant system can hold pressure with a pressure tester, if you have a very small small leak that is dissipating coolant pressure in the system, that will cause it to overheat like that.

Mugencrxsir1

I checked the system and everythig is pressurized correctly... As for my rpm's, I have a Y1 tranny which has basically the shortest gears from Honda which is nice for 0-100, but leaves my cruising 70-75 mph highway rpm around 4000-4200...

I just might have to look for a more efficent 10" fan, but I looked fr about and hour last night and they are all around the same cfm rating of 745-785... I want to see if I can get away with a 12" fan with a really flat face... As it seems that for every inch or you increase in fan size u gain an extra 300-400 cfm's...

I already have a turbo blanket and the addition of the wrap should help some, but I was actually looking at the "header blanket" from Thermo tech... But reducing heat really isn't my main concern it's increasing my cooling efficency!

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

can you fit an 11"?

Mugencrxsir1

I will have to measure, but it's a tight fit... The main issue was the Spal fan was about 4 years old and had a larger motor on the back side which would have hit the intake side of the turbo housing... The new 10" Flexalite barely clears the vacuum fitting on the turbo... So I know flexalite makes a low profile fan series, so I will have to cut out the dimensions on cardboard and see if that would fit...

Spawne32

iTrader: (3)

snap a few pics of your engine bay, i wanna see whats going on under there

nonpoint986

http://www.evanscooling.com/

Mugencrxsir1

Not following... What kind of product is this?

And here are some pictures of what I'm working with, keep in mind this is an 88' crx which has no space to begin with... And from the very beginning my turner was warning me that even when he moved the radiator forward 6 inches the cooling/heat would probably be an issue since I couldn't run a full radiator with my headers... Although like I said before I've only had this problem so far once the air temps reach 80+ degrees, which is a good thing I found out now instead of later this spring/summer...

Mugencrxsir1

Looked at this 10" Spal fan, but the CFM rating is only 783 vs. 745 of the Flexalite low profile... The one thing I've always like about Spal is there curved blade design... But as cheap as these fans are, an extra 40 or so CFM's probably isn't going to do much...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...0253&viewitem=

CEPerformance

Try running an aftermarket temp sensor and see what your readings are.

Mugencrxsir1

Yeah I need to pick up an actual temp guage to know exactly what my numbers are... The car was not overheating by any means, but higher than I've ever seen them as I was NA before this set up... Turbo = Heat! LOL

Mugencrxsir1

Ah, just read about the coolant, very cool... I'm assuming you are running Evan's coolant?

Results?

lsneo

i was overheating on my DA, the easiest solution for me was to remove the foglight on the radiator side. It allowed plenty of air to flow through the radiator and my cooling problems were solved. Try to see if there is a way to get more air flow to your radiator, fans can only do so much.

Mugencrxsir1

Definitely doesn't help that the lower 1/3 of the radiator is blocked in front by my intercooler... (29x9x3)

If I can figure out a way to run ducting up in there I would, the problem is there just isn't any space!

Mugencrxsir1

I've also posted this topic in the road racing section, and they have some interesting insight one what they run and why... Very informative, I wanted to share!

And they posted the Turbo Magazine Coolant Additive test results of Water Wetter, DEI, etc...

https://honda-tech.com/forums/road-racing-autocross-time-attack-19/what-coolant-ratios-everyone-running-2915252/

b16racereg6

iTrader: (2)

any way to get more air threw the front bumper? i know you cant do anything about the fan because of the room, But can you mood the bumper? Just an idea. Gl post up what you do and how it works.

2k.civic.si

use 2 fans....mount one on the front of the radiator and one on the back in a push/pull setup....it does wonders.

wantboost

iTrader: (2)

I've never had an issue with water boiling.... if your car gets that hot to begin with you have major issues... engines should run in the 180-190 degree window.

We run distilled water/water wetter in everything from our racebikes, our 650rwhp z06, to my builds, all of them boosted and I've never had a single issue. I dont drive my cars in winter and I keep them garaged, negating the whole freezing issue.