My car is still running hot (210 degrees), almost overheating, and I am not sure what to do. I don't drive the car but once a week or so, so I have not been in a hurry to fix it yet. It makes long drives with the car virtually impossible though, esp during the day in the vegas heat.

I don't know if anyone remembers the first thread about a year ago?

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1665222

I swapped chassis to a much cleaner and straight chassis. This allowed me to put the radiator at a much more direct angle, even though it is slightly angled to fit under the header panel up front. It is much more straight of an angle compared to how it used to line up on the old chassis. I ended up cutting the holes in the front AND doing the wrap. It works well during the colder seasons and short drives at night.

Just a quick reminder, here is a quick list of the things that I have done :

12in fan
160 degree thermostat
Dual Core Radiator (copper)
100% water with "water wetter"
I heat wrapped the downpipe and dump tubes
I cut some holes in the header panel for air ram effect

I had two ideas.....my friend at the shop suggested adding a heater core for extra coolant in reserve. Only problem with this is that I had to remove the factory one from under the dash since I have to hit the firewall back to fit the intake manifold. Would you guys suggest just putting on inside the engine bay?

The other idea is to upgrade the dual core radiator I have now to a similar one but of aluminum. I know it should help disapate the heat a little and maybe add some extra coolant to the reserve, but I am on a small space constraint too.

I still want to try for that baffle idea...but I don't have much room to put a baffle lol

Here are a few pics for visual :






The FMIC takes up a lot of the air that the radiator would be getting, but I don't think air supply is the culprit anymore...




See how close everything is?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

check to see if the intercooler is blocking any air.

also, i would relocate the slim fan to the other side and switch it to push from pull.

also, i would check the thermostat to make sure its opening, as well as your headgasket and any other things that would cause it to run hot. is the car tuned?

 

Off topic, but awesome looking car.

 

Oil coolers seam to help some cars bring down the coolant temps also. But its tight in there. You using water and water wetter?

 

In my opinion you need a shroud of some sort or all the air the fan is trying to pull is going around the radiator instead of through it.

love the car btw

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by C8V6C &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The other idea is to upgrade the dual core radiator I have now to a similar one but of aluminum. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Look up the thermal conductivity of aluminum and copper. Copper is #2, silver is #1...aluminum isn't even close to #3. People go with aluminum rads because they are cheaper to make, can have much larger surface area for the same weight, and can be assembled much easier. Just an FYI.

You would benifit from making shrouds not just for the fan, but in the form of ducting into the front of the radiator. You may also want to test the thermostat, as well as try bleeding off any remaining air bubbles (although I bet you've tried it a few times already).

 

agrre with the shroud idea

how about maybe removing the rubber seal towards the back of the engine bay and venting the rear of the hood to get rid of that heat?????

 

Duct the rad right to the front bumper as much as u can.

Try this. Take card board and make a mig shift duct and go for a drive see how it fares out. Then copy it to thin alum and bend it and rivet it to the rad.

 

I will throw my .02c for you.

Do a leekdown and compression test... any chance you could be getting air into your cooling system??? *hint hint* cause once you overheat more than once... even once in alot of cases, your head warps and makes it easier for a leak from the cylinder to the water jacket.

If you have done a flush, make sure you use coolant after you clean out the flush a few times... it will nutralize the "foaming" tendancies of radiator/cooling system flushes.

I have noticed issues with my civics that liked to overheat because of the factory coolant hose routings... I always swapped my coolant hose coming from the side port on the head with the one big one coming off the IM port.... made a difference.. via the thermostat being fed the heat from the backside of the head, and not blocked off... cause when you turn your alimate switch to cold, it closes that routing, thus the coolant will flow from the head to the 2nd port, just after the thermostat.

Just some ideas/insight.

 

swith fan to push instead of pull. awsome car BTW

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by trashcanrepairman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Off topic, but awesome looking car. </TD></TR></TABLE>

+1

you say you have a dual core radiator...are you sure you have enough coolant velocity through the rad? water pump is good?

 

Ill try to answer most of the questions....

The car has been tuned on wastegate spring. We have not tuned low boost or high boost yet, but I havent even turned on the boost controller as of yet
100% water + water wetter
I already vented the hood...seems like it did help.
I tested the thermostat about 2mo ago....it worked just fine at that time.
We have a new water pump for the build

Will switching the fan from pull to push help that much? I am definetly willing to try it.

I guess I will rule out the radiator swap if it wont help much at all.

I don't think that there are any serious problems, like a headgasket, but I was definetly going to test it just to make sure when we tune low boost in the near future.

Thanks for all the comments and advice

 

u should upgrade to the fal fan with the shroud it will make a big difference

 

You think a different fan would make that much of a difference? I juggled the idea, but figured this 12in fan would be sufficient enough...

 

id definitely give a pusher a try, just flip your fan around first and give it a go before spending more money..........

 

i thought pushers were less efficient than pullers. either way i think a better fan or shrouding like some of the others suggested is a good idea.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slooogsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">id definitely give a pusher a try, just flip your fan around first and give it a go before spending more money..........

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Pusher would actually make it worse. They aren't as efficient. Trust me, I have tried it as well and it made it worse.

I posted the following in this thread. Those fans are garbage...don't get me wrong, they work fine, just don't flow enough.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1765780


I too was having cooling issues or at least I didn't like the engine running 205 on water temp all the time nor did I like having to the put heat on in the summer.

My old setup consisted of a Autozone 12" fan that I got for like $50 but it wasn't helping at all. I found out it was rated at like 800cfm which simply isn't enough. So I did some looking around and found this fan from Permacool (smaller than the one Platinum used BUT I used it as a puller).
http://store.summitracing.com/...w=sku

I figured this should be plenty for me. After driving it to the battle of the imports, I have determined it works extremely well. I use Neptune RTP and set the fan to kick on @ 175. The water temp gauge NEVER got above 190 so I may fiddle with neptune a little to bring that up maybe a little. Simple software change. I changed NOTHIGN else in the car at all.

All in all, I HIGHLY recommend this fan. It was worth every penny and I'm glad I ditched the other one. Oh and it is actually pretty quiet. I was surprised.

Here are some pics of comparison. And yes, it was a tight fit.





Underneath shot


Top shot.


Also, if you do NOT have AC, you need to do this. It forces air to the radiator.
Simple piece of aluminum from Lowe's.


Hope this helps others.

 

Thanks for the idea. I think the fan was rated at a high cfm...If I did a search, I could probably find where I bought it since it was a vendor here on HT.

It sounds like I need to try to do that baffle.

Next time I am in a Lowes/HomeDepot, I will look into the material.

Let me know if anyone else has some advice

 

You may want to consider having your ramhorn coated ( http://www.performancecoatings.com/ )and wraping your down pipe and dump tube with header wrap.


Those 2 things will make a drastic change in your under hood temps, I would think along with a good electric fan you shouldnt have an problems

 

pure water has a lower boiling point than a good 50/50mix of antifreeze/water......it will overheat/boil sooner than you may think. plus the coolant will help lubricate your water pump seal.

i reccomend mixing the proper coolant mix along with the water wetter. also what condition is your rad cap? if it's not holding pressure it will to lower your boiling point also.

also i used to run a spoon/mugen fan switch. it clicked the fans on about 10-15deg cooler. my coolant temps used to stay around 190-195 all the time. the fans were pretty much constantly running until i burnt the main fan out eventually......so i replaced the fan and installed a new factory fan switch. coolant temps now run around 195-205 which is fine.

i would replace the fan switch if yours is original. either with a lower temp one or even a new factory one.........my original one intermittently stopped working a while back causing it to overheat.


good luck

 

I have the fan run as soon as I start the car. I have it ran to a separate switch.

I thought I read somewhere that 95% water kept the car the coolest? That is why I was running it without coolant/antifreeze and only with the water wetter.

The rad cap was new. It should still be ok.

 

awesome car

The few things that came to mind were:
1. Pusher and puller fan (provided you have room)
2. Better/Bigger fan(s)
3. Duct more air **see Ladysman's post**
4. Better radiator

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by C8V6C &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for the idea. I think the fan was rated at a high cfm...If I did a search, I could probably find where I bought it since it was a vendor here on HT.

It sounds like I need to try to do that baffle.

Next time I am in a Lowes/HomeDepot, I will look into the material.

Let me know if anyone else has some advice </TD></TR></TABLE>

It was rated at high CFM......anyone can put numbers in front of you....try this fan and I promise you, it will make a difference. I think I know who you bought it from. If you EMS can't control the fan, do what non-vtec said getting a lower switch and also, put some antifreeze in there. I didn't notice you were running it like a race car.

If you add all of this and cover up the area like I did, your problems will be solved.

 

One thing I have noticed is that maybe heat dissappation (sp) is a problem too, even though I have it vented pretty well towards the rear.

I can leave the car at idle, with the hood up, and the car runs decent. It does not get hot. If I left the car idling with the hood down, it will start running hot after a while.

I think if I ran the car without a hood, I wouldnt have issues anymore, but I dont think that is an option

 

I said it before that ram horn manifold puts off a TON of heat and so does your down pipe which heat soaks your engine bay. This is why if you leafe the hood up you have no problem.

$150 to coat your manifold and $50 to wrap your down pipe and you will proably solve your issue. After I put a ramhorn on my car the under hood temps would get so hot that you could not put your hand on the hood......and I have a larger bay than you do. I still need to coat my manifold but once I wraped my down pipe and dump tube you can put your hand on them after you run the car.