What temps are too hot to be normal?
 

My 2001 has had the turbo on for about 2 months. Running hot has been an issue. I have and use AC. I have closed all the holes in the undertray and around the radiator/ IC / condensor. It was still not able to drive at 80 mph, with the ac on for more than 20 minutes without the temps running up to over 230. I changed to water wetter and bought the Flyin miata fan kit, with the dual Spal fans. Yesterday I drove, in 90 degree heat, with the ac on, for about 45 minutes between 75 and 85 mph, with a couple of boosted jumps. Temps went up to 220. I think this is as high as it's going to go. Is it still too high? At slower speeds, or with the ac off, temps will run between 195 and 210. I have the MK turbo kit. It's oil fed only, so no water lines going to it. Friends are telling me to do a reroute on the cooling but I've read mixed reviews on doing that to VVT cars, without changing the head gasket. Am I being too paranoid about temps or are they ok. Car has 55mm Mishimoto radiator and Vibrant intercooler, that is a knock off of the Fab9 one. It all just seems too hot to me. I'm using a 180 thermostat as well. I don't want to get stuck driving all blazing summer either not using ac or only driving 70 mph max, so I appreciate any responces.

Just do the reroute. Me and a bunch of friends with nb2's did it and we haven't​ had a problem.
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As i was using the same IC, i assume you are mounting it way up front and blocking all the air to the radiator. No reroute is going to save you.

You weren't overheating before the turbo and now you are. To say you suddenly need a reroute doesn't logically follow. A reroute will change the evenness of temperatures across the head for those with the impaired flow of the earlier head gaskets to certain cylinders but will not increase the cooling capacity of the system. The intercooler you added is large and can block much of the airflow to the radiator. If there isn't enough space between the top of the intercooler and the crossbar then the engine will overheat. Remember the radiator is primary and the intercooler is secondary when discussing relative importance. Depending upon current placement, lowering or tilting the top of the intercooler rearward can allow more air to the radiator. An intercooler stuffing up the mouth of the bumper entirely will certainly generate an overheating condition.

hitting 220 at normal cruising loads with all of his cooling mods is not normal. "just do it" is not a good suggestion, he needs to figure out the problem.

Remove the IC temporarily and see if the problem goes away. that's where I'd start

Here are pictures of how it is mounted and such when I was test building it.

Sixshooter has some pretty good posts with pictures showing simple changes that can get more air around the IC and to the radiator. He's too modest about it. Try to find them.

It's because my car was overheating and I was miffed about it.

From Lars' link, the circled area is a problem. I had to create an opening between that crossbar and the intercooler.

1. You could do something with the bracketry to lean the IC back
2. lower it a couple or three inches
3. tilt the bottom rearward and allow air to freely pass beneath it to the radiator (which may be easier in this case)

If you do #3 you will be sealing the bottom of the bumper lip to the bottom of the radiator and not the bottom of the bumper mouth to the bottom of the radiator. Trimming the black plastic in the rearmost bottom of the bumper mouth opening may facilitate an increase in air taking this path as well.

Stock hood? Some vents would help the cause I'm sure.

He's having trouble getting air into the radiator and not out of it in this case.

I've been thinking the same as #2. You may recall that I was contemplating rotating the IC 90deg forward and then ducting the outlet under the radiator. Then it hit me that the easier solution would be to lower the IC, and then a straight ducting piece tied to the bottom of the IC, Radiator, and under-engine piece would do the job (basically replacing the "air guide"). Then, the rest of the ducting would be normal. Seems a good solution.

Ah, now that I looked up the size of the fab9 IC that makes sense.

there are different sizes of that core. the smaller one is not that big.
but I do recall people having airflow issues with the vibrant cores, so a quick/easy test is to remove the core temporarily and go cruise on the hwy and see If problem goes away

Why wouldn't that help? He needs more air through the radiator. Adding properly designed vents to the hood will reduce the pressure in the engine bay and give more delta pressure across the radiator and intercooler and therefore more airflow.

If you have duct tape over 3/4 of the radiator, cutting holes in the hood won't help much. He has an obstruction. He's not making big power and he's overheating just cruising when he's not even boosting and he was not before the intercooler was inserted. Change one thing at a time and it's easy to see what happened. Start changing new things and you may not ever get to the root problem. As 18psi suggested, a logical A - B test is the way to determine the source. Isolate variables, don't create more variables.

I had this problem, I hate to go against what the mods say, but I was hitting temps of 225 sitting in traffic with my big intercooler. Maybe it was a coolant flush or something, but when I did my reroute my temps dropped rapidly, down to the normal 180 that everyone should see. I did no intercooler mount modification, just simply did the reroute with my motor out and bled my coolant system. Before the reroute I was seeing 220 normally with an aluminium rad and 2 fans, after the reroute it was 180. What they are saying does make complete sense, your huge front mount is probably the reason on why your car is overheating. I would also try adding your oem splash guard back on because that will help a lot with airflow on the highway and at cruising speeds

What I saw on my NA's with a reroute was that I got more flow to the radiator. The increased velocity also increased the heat transfer. So, yes, I did see a gain beyond simply the balancing within the engine. I do not know if you would see this effect on an NB2 though.

I can't see how I can tilt or lean the ic because it's tight against the ac condenser now. Maybe a dumb question but, if I lower it 3 inches I have 2 questions. Is it going to hit easily? The car is stock height. Will I be able to use my ic piping or will I need to make new ones? Just your opinion. I'm sure it's the ic causing the air blockage. It was running around 190 before it went on.

How about some ducting to force all the air that enters the mouth to pass through the heat exchanger stack (and not around it)?

If you already did this you can ignore this post.........

I will say I did get it as high as possible just because I did not want it to to low and to hit stuff. You may be able to lower it an inch or two. I am also wondering if spacing it a little forward to give a little room between it and the AC condenser would help any.