Hey guys, sort of a silly question but I'm about to get my car running again and figured while I was working on it I might as well tackle a few issues. First and foremost... HEAT!

I drove my 11.2:1 C/R LS/VTEC CRX across the country this summer and noticed a few things... For one, the car would bug out on hot days especially in high elevation... It would feel like it's dying, completely losing power, throwing a code and would do this repeatedly until I turned the car off and back on.

I also noticed the valve cover is putting out some extreme heat that I'm not used to feeling from other cars valve covers. Even after a short drive my valve cover is enough to burn you from touching it.

So I'm thinking, let's try to cool this bitch down. First step, when I install my DC header in a week or so I'm going to heat wrap that, and if I have any left over most likely also my intake arm and after that I want to put in an aftermarket high-performance radiator.

I know aluminum is the way to go. I've heard name brands being thrown around like Full Race, Fluidyne, and Koyo. I noticed the full race is only a 1/2 radiator though and if I'm going to be staying NA I might as well just get the full size because I want to cool as much as possible. What do you guys suggest?

 

go get some of that redline water wetter,it works your motor will run much cooler resulting in lower engine bay temps.

 

Did you bother to find out what code your car was throwing? Is the car tuned? stock ecu? generic chipped ecu? did you use a vtec waterpump when it was built. Any idea what kind of afr you are running? You need to find out why your car is overheating first before throwing a bandaid at it like waterwetter or a performance radiator.

If you rad is clogged, you can get and aftermarket rad for a 90-93 integra, it bolts right in. I would also suggest using an oem honda thermostat, every "parts store" thermostat I have ever used has made my car run extremely hot. I think you have a tuning issue, ans an old radiator/bad or non oem thermostat may be compounding the problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PURPLETERROR aka BIGMATT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
If you rad is clogged, you can get and aftermarket rad for a 90-93 integra, it bolts right in. I would also suggest using an oem honda thermostat, every "parts store" thermostat I have ever used has made my car run extremely hot. I think you have a tuning issue, ans an old radiator/bad or non oem thermostat may be compounding the problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

I would not doubt that I have a tuning issue. The check engine lights were for an oxygen sensor (I have an exhaush leak) and the VSS (idiot ripped out my speedo cable while swapping the engine). The last time the car dynoed there was a siginifigant power loss from the time before that, but I had assumed that was from us screwing too much with the Fuel (it was rich last time we tuned it)... I'm currently using a Turbo-Edit chipped PM6 ecu with VTEC being manually activated (don't ask... I hate it) I would like to use a stock ECU and a VAFC to tune if possible, but am wondering if an 11.2:1 LS-VTEC may need more than a simple ECU and VAFC controlling the fuel.

While I understand the redline and performance radiator may in essence be "bandaid" solutions, I don't see them hurting the situation either.

 

Forget that vafc..Stick with turboedit and use the turboedit to control vtec..HAve a good tuner that knows about obd0 ecus tune it..and get a 90-93 integra radiator..I have a stock one in my car with a b16a motor and it never gets to half way even with the fan off..In the summer its a little different but it never ever goes past half,even sitting in long traffic on the NJ turnpike..

 

There are a few precautions you could take in order to keep your car from getting too hot. You could:
use a colder thermostat.
use a colder fan switch. (spoon/mugen)
switch to a dual core radiator.
run water wetter.
run distilled water instead of tap.
use a bigger fan.
buy a hondata IM gasket.
the list goes on...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jedubz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would not doubt that I have a tuning issue. The check engine lights were for an oxygen sensor (I have an exhaush leak) and the VSS (idiot ripped out my speedo cable while swapping the engine). The last time the car dynoed there was a siginifigant power loss from the time before that, but I had assumed that was from us screwing too much with the Fuel (it was rich last time we tuned it)... I'm currently using a Turbo-Edit chipped PM6 ecu with VTEC being manually activated (don't ask... I hate it) I would like to use a stock ECU and a VAFC to tune if possible, but am wondering if an 11.2:1 LS-VTEC may need more than a simple ECU and VAFC controlling the fuel.

While I understand the redline and performance radiator may in essence be "bandaid" solutions, I don't see them hurting the situation either. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I would get rid of that pm6 as soon as possible and find a obd0 pr3 and fing someone to make you a good basemap, or convert to obd1 and run a "tuned" p30 or p28. A bad o2 sensor can cause your car to run dangerously hot and overly rich

 

I'm not good with the tuning, I'll look into shops around columbus but i doubt many of them have ep rom burners for chipped ecus.