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cooling overkill????

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Old 09-30-2010, 07:12 PM
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Default cooling overkill????

well, first off my cooling system consists of 949 coolant re route, no heater core, eliminated mixing manifold, flyin miata aluminum radiator, two bottles of redline water wetter, distilled water, stant 180 degree t_stat and one piece flyin miata lower radiator hose. ok now the "problem". i installed my t_stat last night and gurgled the system of air, topped off everything and drove round. no problem. got up this morning walked out side started my car let it warm up and set off for daycare. never got over 60 mph the whole trip. temp looked good. right where it should be. started to work after a stop at daycare and found myself almost alone so i stretched my legs. temprature quickly dropped down to cold?!? slowed down and it slowly climbed back up to normal. not knowing what just happened i pick the speed back up and same thing happened. when i stopped at work i touched the top of the rad. hot. bottom very cold. couldn't have anything to do with the fans as they are unplugged so.... yea. it was in the 50s this morning too. is this something i need to worry about or have i just went overkill with my cooling system??

thanks for any information and im very sorry about all the spelling and puncuation mistakes.
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Old 09-30-2010, 08:27 PM
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my car with pwr, 180t begi still rerount and with heater core would never get over 170 on the highway.

block 1/4 of your radiator off, if that's not enough block off 1/3, then 1/2 and so on. with a rerount and a good radiator when it's cold out side your car will run very cool. i would get a higher temp t-stat for the winter.
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Old 09-30-2010, 08:31 PM
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thank you sir.
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Old 09-30-2010, 09:07 PM
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You fail at miata cooling system.

Your problem is entirely related with how you removed your heater core.

Best case scenario, your thermostat opens towards the radiator, in which case it isn't doing a damn bit of good.

Worst case scenario, your thermostat opens towards the block, in which case you are going to be replacing water pumps and having mysterious coolant leaks much more often than you would like.

Your options:
1. Remove your thermostat

2. Figure out (on your own, by searching) how you fucked up your heater core delete.
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Old 09-30-2010, 10:25 PM
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how can you really **** it up?? its gone and the hoses that went to it are capped off so hot water isn't being dumped into the newly cooled water that going into the block. i ran with no thermostat but i put it back in cause the car wouldn't ever warm up. so what do i need to do since i fail??
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Old 10-01-2010, 12:32 AM
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So I read this and wonder...my factory coolant temp gauge runs where it should be, but tuner studio says like 200* while driving around. Is this hot or normal?
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Old 10-01-2010, 05:59 AM
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Originally Posted by road-raser
how can you really **** it up?? its gone and the hoses that went to it are capped off so hot water isn't being dumped into the newly cooled water that going into the block. i ran with no thermostat but i put it back in cause the car wouldn't ever warm up. so what do i need to do since i fail??
Originally Posted by fooger03
(on your own, by searching)
I have personally answered this question within the last 60 days, but since you fail at both the cooling system and searching:

https://www.miataturbo.net/prefabbed-turbo-kits-3/over-heating-when-boosting-50276/
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Old 10-01-2010, 06:14 AM
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The heater core serves a two-fold purpose in the miata cooling system. First: It acts as a heater core to keep you warm and toasty. This is important to the driver. Second: It acts as a way for coolant to bypass the radiator. This is important for your engine. The thread I linked above is someone who had his thermostat flipped the opposite way of yours. His thermostat opened towards the engine. Yours opens towards the radiator. As I described in my first post, yours is a best case scenario, his was a worst case scenario.

The water pump is ALWAYS pushing water through your cooling system, the quantity is based on the RPM of your engine. This means: without a heater core, ALL of the fluid MUST go through the radiator. This forces the thermostat open (really, your thermostat isn't doing jack **** for you) to get all that water through, regardless of operating temps. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your cooling system, and it is why you will blow hoses and your water pump will eat itself. You are also losing torque to your cooling system - especially at the top end.

The heater core line allows water to flow from the rear of the block, back to the low pressure zone created by the water pump. It makes your water pump happy because it can spin water all day long without worrying about building up a lot of pressure. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with deleting your heater core, it is a costly mistake to delete that water passage.

So: You can either replace the water passage and the mixing manifold, run a water line from the back of the block back to the mixing manifold.

Or: You can remove the thermostat and run your engine cold all of the time - note: this will likely make your engine run rich, and you may foul O2 sensors and catalytic converters.
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Old 10-01-2010, 06:18 AM
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Originally Posted by thirdgen
So I read this and wonder...my factory coolant temp gauge runs where it should be, but tuner studio says like 200* while driving around. Is this hot or normal?
200* F is normal

200* C is a touch on the warm side
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Old 10-01-2010, 06:24 AM
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Listen to fooger. I didn't read all of his post, but what I did read was sound advice, you need a heater core or a hose going from the same place the heater core does, it should not be completely eliminated, or you will have no coolant flow until your Stant thermostat opens.

Which brings me to my next point. It has been proven that stant thermostats are inferior to the OEM $1.69 units from NAPA. They do not open fully at the correct temperature. Look up Joe perez's movie about them. It is both entertaining and informative.
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Old 10-01-2010, 07:23 AM
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Originally Posted by road-raser
well, first off my cooling system consists of 949 coolant re route, no heater core, eliminated mixing manifold, flyin miata aluminum radiator, two bottles of redline water wetter, distilled water, stant 180 degree t_stat and one piece flyin miata lower radiator hose. ok now the "problem". i installed my t_stat last night and gurgled the system of air, topped off everything and drove round. no problem. got up this morning walked out side started my car let it warm up and set off for daycare. never got over 60 mph the whole trip. temp looked good. right where it should be. started to work after a stop at daycare and found myself almost alone so i stretched my legs. temprature quickly dropped down to cold?!? slowed down and it slowly climbed back up to normal. not knowing what just happened i pick the speed back up and same thing happened. when i stopped at work i touched the top of the rad. hot. bottom very cold. couldn't have anything to do with the fans as they are unplugged so.... yea. it was in the 50s this morning too. is this something i need to worry about or have i just went overkill with my cooling system??

thanks for any information and im very sorry about all the spelling and puncuation mistakes.
LoL...idiot. Obvious problem is obvious. Obvious lack of searching/researching is obvious.

Or...


'Sup Hyper Jr.
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Old 10-01-2010, 10:29 AM
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In a car with a reroute, heater core lines allow coolant to flow past the "pill" in the thermostat causing it to open when the target temperature is reached. Without the heater lines allowing a small amount of heated water to constantly pass the "pill" of the thermostat the thermostat really has no idea just how hot your engine is. This can preclude it from functioning properly.

It is common to have an air pocket that might need to be re-bled after rerouting and running it briefly as well.
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Old 10-03-2010, 08:40 AM
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Why get rid of the core in the first place? You'll save what, maybe 5pounds with coolant? I left mine in my track car to use as a defogger - then the route loops to my turbo before back to the engine. Before I had the turbo in, I had blocked off the the core port (Mtuned reroute) but drilled about 5 1/4" holes (like the pill 6shooter said above) in the Tstat lip so the system wouldn't over-pressurize - but then it was always slow to warm up, but I can live with that on a track car. In 100F ambients flogging it at road atlanta, I had no heat issues - if it gets too cold, I block off a portion of the radiator.
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