For those running half size rads, on their boosted setups, did you ever experience overheating issues? I bought a slim fan and kept it running the whole time I am driving. but it still overheats, I have one of those ebay half size rads, no koyo or fluydine, maybe I need a thicker half-size? It only started overheating recently because it’s been 90 degrees and above everyday around here lately. I am running with no bumper right now and it doesn’t overheat, as soon as I put my bumper back on the car will overheat, I know it’s the intercooler blocking most of the air flow, some help on solving this would be nice.
i havent had any problems yet but i’ve heard some people have problems with the single core rad… might want to try the dual core rad
i hear thats a very common problem with using the half sized radiators. some people suggest using water wetter in your radiator
my guess is thats the answer to your problems
ebay half rad would be problem 1
single core would be problem 2
my solution for you is get a dual core half rad off a del sol si or something.
i have it and it works wonders no problems fan on and off even after iv been doing some pretty mean driving this weekend. lol 40 degrees centigrate with the humidex and still no problems iv notied my fan stay on longer a bit but that’s about it
that’s my 2 cents.
i dont agree with that… i have a dual core oem rad that i order for a del sol and i have cooling issues.i’ve had cooling issues since i’ve started this project (3 years ago)…today io drove around for about an hr…after a while the needle moves up to close to red when i boost but it comes back down…i’m not sure if it’s b/c i’m in a 4 door or how close the mani is to the rad but i’m close to switch to a mani that supports a full rad…
that or heat wrap my mani and DP and dump the stock rad for a alum one…o and i’m running 2 fans on all the time:werd:
your probably running way too lean
i have a single cam civic rad in mine… making close to 500whp… it doesent over heat at all with 2+hrs on the dyno
maybe its thermastat problems???
see i wasnt sure about going to a smaller radiator… but everyone else seems to swear by them and thats the only way u can get the manifold to fit yeh???
what size intercooler r u using???
i wouldntve thought to lean would give u problems to the point of off the gauge overheating…
is ur cooling system in good order? is the pump working?
yes water pump is new, it’s not running lean afr’s are between 12.7-14.6 cruising, 11.2-11.8 WOT and idle it’s between 11.2-12.8 (still sorting out the idle AFR). I will try changing the thermostat, it is fairly new though too.
I had the same problem with the half rad. Put another slim fan on the other side and se what happens. Thats what I did.
wow. I just switched over to the slim fan and don’t know what you would do in your situation. it could be your slim fan that your using. is it providing enough CFM? is it spinning the right way? do you know how to check that? you should only need 1 puller fan instead of 1 on each side. the fan works more efficient when pulling air in instead of pushing(think about when your on the freeway, that fan in the front wouldn’t be pulling enough air and therefore slowing down your cooling efficiency). also ducting. air will take the path of least resistance so ducting and shrouding your fan would be very helpful. closing up the empty space next to radiator is going to help also.(take a piece of aluminum sheet metal and get it close to the size you need for the space next to the radiator in front of the turbo manifold.
just check the thermastat for opening at the right temp aswell look for marks where it could b sticking… it happened to mine it was just sticking closed
ya i would ck the normal overheating issues before blaming the radiator. That’s just me. I start with the problem solving. It obviously has a flow issue. like stated above ck thermostat especially if u have a cheap ass stant (get a honda one). If u got flow issues after cking everything else then look at that radiator. U won’t know really til u swap it out. It’s easy to change the thermostat so I’d do that first. hope this helps man
just bought a OEM honda thermostat yesterday, i’m putting it in today after work. I will keep you all updated. if it still does it after that, I’m going to put some water wetter in the cooling system.
installed new thermostat, still the same results. Guess I need a new radiator.
It’s not the rad. All the air is being pushed to the open path on the left side. Your going to need to make a “cooling panel” If I can find the pics of the one I made for my EF and my AE86 i’ll post them it really helped with the EF I was having the same issues.
It’s all just made out of sheet metal.
well what’s happening now, is the temp after start up is fine for about 10mins of driving, then it starts to rise to about the 3/4 mark on the temp gauge, while i’m driving, then when I come to a stop the temp gauge goes back down slowly, and as soon as I take off from a dead stop the temp drops all the way to normal operating temp. Then starts to climb back up to 3/4 as i’m driving. It makes no sense to me. I thought if anything the car would overheat while i’m at a stop not moving. It’s like everything is ass backwards. I had the fan as a puller type, now I switched it to pusher and same results. Only thing I can think to do now is put heat wrap on the downpipe, turbo and turbo manifold, and throw some water wetter in the system. I really think it’s just the radiator though. The current one I have looks to be a thin ass single core rad.
Like I said before, put another slim fan on the front of the radiator and wire it to push air through the radiator and wire the fan in the engine bay to pull it.
have u blead the system correctly???
ive seen these radiators used in the summer here in aus and there fine… it doesnt sound right…
this happens when u run low coolant on stock radiators aswell u just top it back up and u wnt have any problems… symptoms r rising when stopped and dropping dramaticly when driving…