I have a 94 Honda Prelude Si H23A1 2.3L and I want to buy a performance radiator and thermostat, the thing is I need my fellow ht members to give me details on which ones are reputable products and are direct-fit for my car. Thank you, in advance.

 

Why exactly are you looking to upgrade these components? Are you running boost? Have heat issues? If you have none of the above, then leave it stock.

However, if you're really looking for upgrades, try a Mugen Thermostat, Mugen Fan Switch, and whatever brand-name radiator (either half-sized or full sized).

 

The thing is my car during the day seems to run slower than usual but at night it runs faster and more efficiently, now this is because the engine is running cooler thus more efficiency. But it also seems like my car produces too much heat but not too much to overheat, and it doesn't efficiently get rid of the heat or so it seems. For example during the day i can see the heat coming off from the hood of my car, and when I took my car to Big Bear during snow season the heat was so much coming out from the hood in the form of white smoke that it looked like my car was overheating but it wasn't.

 

do yo have a heat shield over you exhaut mani/headers? thats probably where most of the heat you are seeing is comeing from. try DEI heat wrap. it will bring down you engine bay temp noticably.

 

IMO, I think you're noticing the 'increase' in performance at night because the air is cooler than during the day. Considering you live in a place that doesn't have a winter (judging from your location - San Clemente, California), I'm guessing your day-time temps/humidity could be what you're experiencing as a decrease in the 'pep-factor' of your car.

Upgrading your cooling system won't help in this case and you'd be wasting quite a bit of cash. Personally, the only applications where cooling upgrades are a necessity are high boost F/I setups, where cramped engine bay space not only doesn't dissipates as much heat as a more open engine bay, but the fact that smaller radiators (ie. Civic Half-Sized, Dual Core Rad) are used.

For example, I live in Canada and drive my prelude in the summer months. The temps in my region on the hottest days go up as high as a very humid +44 degrees celsius. If I didn't upgrade my cooling system with the parts I mentioned in my first post, my engine would over heat (it's happened a few times already, but not to the point of breakdown). However, I'm running 16psi on a fully built engine.

If your engine is stock (meaning actual modifications to the engine, not bolt-on mods like I/H/E) and you're not running a lot more power than what the cooling system was built for from the factory, don't bother upgrading your cooling system components.

If anything, just try a coolant additive, like "Purple Ice" from Royal Purple, to see if that makes a difference. It decreased my coolant temps very effectively (8 degrees to be exact) and was relatively cheap. But to be perfectly honest, I doubt it'll do anything from the symptoms you're describing; which I'd describe as butt-dyno lag.