Temp Problems? I need help...
 

New Here, I have a 93 miata that used to have a sebring supercharger on it. About half a month ago I installed a mitsubishi turbo with a 19T compressor wheel on it into my car. Now, When I drive on the highway (55+) my temp gauge reads a good ways past strait up. Normally it runs a little bit to the left of vertical.

This has me somewhat concerned, I do realize that the turbo gets very hot, and is probably the main cause of this, but i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

Also, I am running an intercooler, and i have the back of the hood raised with washers for the time being (it seems to help, very little however)

A few ideas that I have, are to rewire the second fan so that it turns on when the 1st does, Buy a vented extractor hood. or take off my front grille. I just wanted to ask someone with a little more experience in the field before i act on any of these possible solutions.

Collin.

the hood mod actualy hurts you more than helps you. Why do you have a grill? What mix of water/antifreeze are you running? Miatas dont have grills.

50/50, or close anyways. I kinda figured on the hood mod, but i wanted to make sure. And by grille, i mean the black "protector" of sorts that sits inside your front bumper, covering the intercooler and radiator. Also, as soon as i slow down, the temp returns to normal after a few minutes.

Collin

no undertray i assume...

no.

do you need 50/50 how cold does it get where you live? If the answer is not very then thin that shit out with more water. 80/20 or 90/10 but i suspect your undertray being missing is alot of the issue.

When i bought the car it hadnt had the undertray.

I will probably thin it out. Its 87 degrees F right now, get around 10F at the coldest.

Where would i be able to get an undertray, and whats an easy way to thin out my coolant?

adding more waterzzzzz.

even tho the rad is full?

If your talking about the OEM plastic pieces that are mostly horizontal then your okay. If you have some sort of grille blocking the intercooler get rid of it. You also have been told about the water/antifreeze. Go ahead and wire the fans to both run together it will help.

If you have an OEM radiator it might be time to get an aftermarket all metal bigger unit too. Forget the "automatic" OEM radiator thing it's not enough, get a oversized unit. Koyo makes a unit that is priced well.

lol serius? drain some off and replace with water i would thin it down to about 20% as for the undertray try a mazda dealer or ebay.

No you drain it out and add more in.

Plug is on the bottom of the radiator.

Ok, ive got the grille removed. see attachment for grille pic.

What else should I try before getting a new radiator? other than what has been mentioned.

Get a bottle of water wetter and when you replace the water, make sure you use distilled water.

put a location on your sig just in case we have a local vetran in your area man who knows you could live like 5 mins from a real miata guru. Yeah that grill was def killing your cooling. Now try the rest of the stuff we said and you should be a ok.

I had that same grille on my car when I bought it, and it overheated on a stock setup! As soon as I removed it, everything was good.

But as everyone else has said, get an undertray.

Alright, thanks guys. Any recommendations on undertrays and radiators? Keep in mind that i am somewhat on a budget.. but i do have money to spend.

Buy a stock one.

I have no problems whatsoever with 80/20 mix with stock radiator. Running 10 psi on a greddy turbo. My FMIC covers most of my radiator but theres only 1/2" between the 2. How close is your IC to your radiator?

That grille was definitely not cool (pun intended). It looks like it had 30-40% blockage and was almost certainly restricting significant flow.

+1 on reducing the amount of coolant, and using water wetter. Worth a try.