Quick overheating fix?
 

After my intercooler install my coolant temp needle sits completely vertical at 90* running a tad hotter then then normal. While sitting in traffic or at a light it rises and rises until I get nervous and blast the heat or kill the engine with the fans still on. This is with 90% water, 10% coolant and a bottle of Watter Wetter. I'm sure an Aluminum radiator will probably fix the problem but I have an autoX to go to on Saturday that I can not miss.

My question is, what can I do to keep the temps under control until I have time to order the upgrades? Am I royally skrewed?:sadwavey:

get some turn signal scoops (diy or purchased) and use dryer ducting or like tubing to route that either into the radiator or onto the engine. might help a little bit. probably will get you till saturday, maybe even through all your runs:bowdown: also you can connect the second fan so that it turns on with the other one instead of just when the a/c is on.

fans kick on without your intervention? parrell?

is your undertray installed?

is your cap good?

is your thermostat new?

coolant level still good? been burped?

I can't visualize how the ducting is going to make it to the front of the rad. Blowing air on the engine might cool it down, but it's also going to create positive pressure on the wrong side of the rad. You'd be better off running one of those to the intake. Even then, the turbo doesn't need forced air.

Are your fans (they are wired parallel right?) bringing the temps back down? If so, then that's your "safety net" knowing the car won't overheat while sitting. I think you're biggest hurdle is the low speeds of an autoX won't do much to force air through your thicker heat exchanger "sandwich". Bring a heavy duty spray bottle filled with ice water and soak everything in the mouth prior to your runs. Keep the car in the shade IF possible. Seal up the gaps in the mouth around the "sandwich". Somebody used those "pool noodles" to seal up the gaps and it looked like it did a good job. Lay bags of ice on the rad top and face of the IC to drop the core temps of the fluid and exchangers prior to your run... That's all I can think of that doesn't require "parts". - rob

I'm glad I've never had cooling issues, but I think I've been lucky.

My setup is:
All metal AUTO TRANS OEM radiator
Stock Thermostat
50/50 Prestone (green stuff)
No undertray
No nose scoop/funneler/black thing
No A/C consensor
Randall CAI hole in radiator with K&N placed right next to it
Been running all different weights of oil, but I'm going back to Mobil1 20w50 as nothing else has proven better or worse and that's what the book calls for.


All winter, all summer, all manner of driving intensity... it sits just left of vertical.

parallel wiring the a/c fan is the quickest fix i can think of. and sealing the area between the rad/rad support with weather strips, etc. like m2cup suggested.

g'luck this saturday!

Sevan, if you're in a serious bind, I'd consider pulling my radiator out for you.

acutally, try taping your TSIs shut and seeing if that helps.

But if the fans kick on and it doesn't cool, something is amiss.

Spray bottle with water is a really good idea. Keep the spray bottle in your beer cooler, and give the intercooler and intake manifold a misting before you run.

My testing shows lower coolant and intake temps with my turnsignals removed. However, I also have a big ass hole in my hood.

You could remove your hood at the auto-x.

B

yeah no hood = maximall flow at the autoX speeds of less than 80 mph the aero drag should not be to significant to hurt your times.

Pull the thermostat... Run the car with out one.

bad idea

how so?

idea of the t-stat is to get the car to op temp as quickly as possible. removing it will cause the engine to run under temp for a very long time. when the motor isn't warm, and the oil isn't warm, it causes excessive wear and lowers economy.

This isn't something I would recommend all the time, but as far as an emergency fix for one event it would work. No one cares about economy at an auto-x, but performance might suffer if the car is running cold in the event. Chances are if you drove all the way to the event, and it was at least a warm day the car would have no problem maintaining a reasonable temperature. As far as wear on the engine I would say it would be minuscule if at all. Modern synthetics are suppose to combat cold start problems.

:gay:

that reminds me. a friend just got a job doing web dev at a gay pr0n site this week.

sevan, just adding an IC shouldn't make your car overheat at idle. it sounds like water is either not circulating properly or the fans aren't coming on. fans should provide more than enough airflow to cool an idling car.

My one fan is working. Is there a writeup on how to parallel them? Thanks for the offer Scott, i'll see if I can get something worked out first.

yeah.

http://www.miata.net/hakuna/parallel...%20wiring.html

I gotta drain my coolant anyways to pull my head. if you need an undertray you can borrow mine as well.

hear's a trick I learned awhile back, and takes less than 10 seconds: unplug the wire going to the a/c condensor. Then when you turn your a/c 'on', both fans will kick in.

I have since taken out my a/c, and my car is a track day only car. If I notice the temp creap up, I just turn it on. I usually also turn it on during cool down laps.

Now that's a quick fix. :bigtu:

In the parallel fan mod they said it's bad to tie the relay triggers together...
"Also note that you should NOT hook up the old AC triggered hot wire...it goes to ground when the AC is off."
...but if you used a diode on the a/c trigger side and tie that trigger to the rad fan relay using a diode you should be ok. On my '94 I believe the ECU grounds the relays to activate them. In that case there's no issue tying the triggers together. That's how I did mine because when both fans were connected to the rad fan relay, it got the relay so hot that when it shut off it melted the switch arm into the plastic and didn't turn back on.

Good tip i was thinking the same thing :bigtu: