overheating, water temps high while high speed crusing, blah blah. suggestions?
 

k, so my car is overheating ? maybe. crusing water temps = 80-86. high speed driving on freeway while boosting or right before boosting (o in/hg) 94-100.

my car never overheated before recently. i drove numerous times between reno and LA (8hour drive). with and without the turbo, no problems.

on my latest drive to LA i drove down perfectly fine, glanced at the water temp gauge once or twice and had to blast the heater to cool down a little.

before my drive back to reno, i installed a EMB using Phillip's 12psi tune. i drove up 395, past bishop, if you guys are familar with the area. once i got past bishop i smelled coolant. pulled over on the side of the road and overflow bottle was going ape-shit. steam spewing out and crap (i was running a 50/50 mix at the time). i let it settle down a little bit and trucked back into bishop to fill up gas and spray the rad with some cold water. my temp gauge in the car at this time was pinned in the hot zone. not even moving at all. got it to come down a little and tried to leave bishop only to have it pinned to the right again and the car die on me. ($400 later and a tow truck back to reno) im having the same problems.

since then im still using the stock rad, /w parallel fans running constantly, removed ac, starion intercooler, no plastic tray (but sheet aluminum ducting), new t-stat, distilled water with purple ice, replaced rad cap and i still push around 100 celsius while crusing on the highway.

i know this is a huge story to read, but hopefully maybe something i overlooked will become apparent for you guys. maybe the emb, timing retard incorrect?

Scott

One quick diagnosis method is to remove the thermostat entirely. Run your car as normal and that will tell you if it's the fans or something else.

Are you running cooler plugs (NGK BKR7E-11)? You can also change your radiator mix to mostly water as it dissipates heat better than anti-freeze/coolant mix does. You could also run an even cooler plug on the #3 cylinder, as it generates the MOST heat.

Also check under the car for small drips. When the water pump starts to go out, it should "weep" out some water thru a small hole in the pump housing. If this is occcurring, you should see a small puddle of water on the ground beneath the crankshaft.

i was thinking about removing the thermostat for this weekends autox and seeing what happens then.

im running the ngk, turbo application plugs and mostly water right now.

not leaking coolant either. just oil from the front main seal.

I'm in the same boat right now. I'm seeing 100+ celcius water temps on the interstate, but only sometimes.. it seems to be unrelated to ambient temps..

i've got a new t-stat (180 vs the oem 192) and some water wetter to go in soon.. going to run like 30/70 mix and see what happens.

Might you have something covering your front air inlet or any obstruction like a bag directly on the radiator

nah, i just fabbed up some sheet aluminum ducting from the r-lip to the radiator. and the intercooler to radiator distance is like 6 inches at least. so, nothing obstructing air flow. when i put my hand in front of the intercooler i can feel air being sucked through.

If the ducting stops at the radiator, there's room for improvement there. Ducting that goes up to and past the radiator will promote flow THROUGH the radiator instead of only TO the radiator. It'll make a big difference in hot weather under speed.

:werd: It needs to be channeled out the backside

50/50 is the problem. try 20/80 or 30/70.

I understand what you mean about the ducting. i forgot to mention that im running a erebuni extractor hood right now. so the fans are just dumping heat out of the hood, do you think that promotes enough airflow ?

scott, i also have changed the fluid since the first overheating issue.

i drained and flushed the radiator with distilled water and filled it back up with distilled water and some water wetter so im not sure what my coolant ratio is right now... had to run the 50/50 mix for the cold ass winters in reno.

Scott

it may be something as simple as needing your radiator "rodded" out to clean it....turbo or NA the basic rules of vehicle maintenance still apply.simply flushing wont do it.