cioli

hello there,

I had trouble with overheating with my car,tried everything but problem persists.
on short that's the story,maybe you can give me an ideea that i have left of thinking.this starts to get frustrating

'95 ej2 coupe stock b16a2 swap turbo t3/t4 ar63 8 psi tuned on gold
new mishimoto cooler + spal fan ( mounted and works like the stock one )
removed thermostat
new water pump
all hoses good and installed corect,no leaks
new fan switch,new dash sensor
water+g12 antifreeze mix
downpipe is near the rad but it has some heat wrap on it
good compression on all 4
good afr's all around,minimum timing all over but normal
leakdown test shows no pressure loss,no bubbles in the rad on all 4
block checked and it's straight
head was minimum skimmed for refresh but it was ok anyway
no bubbles in the plastic coolant tank
OEM headstuds torqued at 65ft lbs ( i know its not perfect but leakdown test would show if anything is not ok,right '? )
i don't know what to tell you more... i don't have the bleed nipple on the termostat or such so i filled up full with mix and waited a few cycles of rad fan with heater core on open and than closed the cap.
if i drive chill in the city the temp stays under half wich is perfect,if i pull a 1-2-3-4 gears WOT it raises a bit after half than after 1min goes back under half.
But if i drive on highway at 70-80 miles constant on vacuum it raises after 3-4 mins and stays pretty high almost at the white line near the red one.wich btw on crome i see that is pretty high temperature.
i observed that the water consumes a bit after a few days but not much,but the car is not smoking,at least not much,but again leakdown test should see this problem.
the hoses get pretty hard when temp get high ( pressure on them )

it is pretty weird or i am missing something here pretty important !?!
i'm not really a noob in this but i'm out of ideas for the moment
i would appreciate any ideea that would help

cheers from europe
Alex

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Need a shroud on that fan.

cioli

that's the rad/fan setup
are you sure that would make so much difference ? i saw lots of setups like this.
and hey,i don't think you should have the fan working on at 70 miles cruising on low vacuum,or am i wrong ?

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Yes. It make a hellified amount of difference. The lower CFM stock fan performs better than higher CFM slim fans without shrouds because of the amount of air it can move over the surface area of the cooling fins of the radiator. Look at how much the slim fan is not covering. That could be as much as 50% of your radiators cooling capacity not being utilized.

cioli

I have seen lots of setup like these and there are no such problems with overheating.A friend of mine has this setup the same and 450whp and there are no problems like this at all.

Could this be another thing that i have missed ?
thanks for input but i not really confident in this.
why the hoses are being pressurized and the leakdown test does not show anything ?

JDM_SOHC

Your hoses are being pressurized because that's what happens when coolant gets to overheated temperatures.

Have you replaced your radiator cap? Sounds minimal but will create this issue.

Do you see any coolant leaking from the weep hole from water pump? Just because it's new doesn't mean it's working properly.

When did you last replace your headgasket? Overtorqued headgaskets are common to create overheating symptoms, and so are reused headgaskets.

61ft/lb torque is the recommended specs for B16's btw, 1-2ft/lb more may not create issues but 4-5ft/lbs more just might..

Coolant temp. sensor?

Cooling fan relay?

Is your fan wired up backwards and pulling instead of pushing?

Just some ideas that you could check into, and don't ask me how I know half of those are promising things to check

tony_2018

Did you wire that radiator fan to pull air or push air? I trust grumpy on this on, I recommend the slimfan shroud if you can get it. Not only that but you need to get a thermostat on there, Leaving it open doesn't help much.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

You know. "like this" doesn't mean exactly like yours now does it? I mean the ones like yours are working just fine, so why isn't yours? NO, I repeat, NO two setups are identical. If you're going to second guess advice then don't ask for it.

cioli

rad cap is new,and i tried with other 2 radiators with their caps and it was the same so i could asume it's ok.

the water pump is not leaking,checked that
headgasket has 1000 miles at max
all sensors are new,the fan is starting when it should and i have a button for fan just in case i need it
the fan is mounted on the interior of the engine bay and sucking air from the radiator,that's the way the stock one works so i install it the same but i can try it other way anytime.the most weird part for me is way the temp goes high when cruising on the highway with no boost at all... running like this i think you should never get the fan starting,like 70 miles running constant with no boost.am i right ?

ferio-ichi3

I say block and or head is warped, check head gasket?

tony_2018

As long as you test that it is indeed pulling air through the radiator and not pushing hot air from the engine bay than you can rule out the fan works. I'd still get the slim fan shroud. Did you bleed the system properly for any air? Are you using coolant or water?

tony_2018

Also how do both radiator hoses feel when its about to overheat?

tony_2018

Also do you have the heater hoses routed properly, if you bypassed them they still need to be routed or else it leaks.

cioli

bleed ok
i use coolant mixed with distilated water
hoses are the same pretty hard

my only guess remains the head plus gasket,but i don't understand why the leakdown didn't showed up this ?

tony_2018

hoses are hard but are the both hot/cold. Be more detail on issues here if you want help.

JDM_SOHC

What type of head gasket are you using? I'd buy an OEM replacement, and torque to spec per the manual specifications for a B16, and than reanalyze.. FWIW, one of the worst things you can do to an aluminum block is to keep overheating it..

xile6

Put the t Stat back in. That can cause overheating problems also I been there.
Other then that I'd flush the system and check the coolant system for leaks