Cooling System Issues

[bubba]

I had issues with a cheap china radiator, it would keep temps under control for a little while then to me it seemed like it was getting heatsoaked and the temps would just steadily increase (no HG problems, fresh engine). Ended up ditching it in favour of a 32R radiator.. then she would take a good +2mins at 6000rpm on a burnout pad in 40deg heat without throwing any coolant out or going over 105deg. So not a fan of cheap ally radiators.

[R31Nismoid]

5mm?

ye def get a top lid/deflector put on as well.

what about the sides? You might have to force it so it has no choice. but then sideways you might need a bit of side flow to encourage air to come in the first place rather than just using the clutch fan.

Side point - have you tried to go straight for a lap or two previously? I mean thinking about a car @ a 45 degree angle. Not a lot of air is being directed there at all

[ARTZ]

this may sound a little silly but are u sure the waterpump is actually working? Hasnt sheared a shaft or something. The water is moving

[DVS JEZ]

5mm?

ye def get a top lid/deflector put on as well.

what about the sides? You might have to force it so it has no choice. but then sideways you might need a bit of side flow to encourage air to come in the first place rather than just using the clutch fan.

Side point - have you tried to go straight for a lap or two previously? I mean thinking about a car @ a 45 degree angle. Not a lot of air is being directed there at all

My point exactly in my last post. Ur drifting so sliding sideways= very little airflow to the rad, so try it without the ducting

[rad100]

i constantly hear that oem radiators are one of, if not the best rad to use. thats why i sold my alloy rad i was going to put in for the stock one.

so far no temp issues on the track, mind you i grip the car.

[Simon-S14]

5mm?

ye def get a top lid/deflector put on as well.

what about the sides? You might have to force it so it has no choice. but then sideways you might need a bit of side flow to encourage air to come in the first place rather than just using the clutch fan.

Side point - have you tried to go straight for a lap or two previously? I mean thinking about a car @ a 45 degree angle. Not a lot of air is being directed there at all

yeah last time i was out i would slide a lap and drive 2 laps and temps would not come down.. thats driving straight at high speed with water squirters on... theres an issue

[Simon-S14]

TK test revieled nothing... pretty sure its not a hg now.

i have pulled thermostat out and tested it... pretty sure its not working as it should. it only starts to open around 90-95 degrees and fully opens in boiling water. by then i suspect its too late.

can any one suggest where i can get a thermostat from that opens earlier and a part number if possible?

[D_Stirls]

just get a trident one from motor traders or sprints. They have a catalogue and you find the one that suits your car and then they will have listings for different temp ranges in the same size.

[Simon-S14]

cool cheers i'll go for a drive to M/T now

bloody trident crap is shit tho

[D_Stirls]

I have never had an issue with mine, infact i have never had an issue with any trident stuff. If they work for 100,000+ km's in street cars then for the little bit of use/abuse that we use our cars for they do the job fine. At the end of the day the thermostat is one of those parts that does the same job in a 100hp car as it does in a 1000hp car.

And at the moment you are fault finding so if you pay $30 for a trident item and it fixes the problem then you can go and pay $130 for a billion one down the track if it makes you feel better/safer. But if it doesn't then you ahve only spent $30. There is an issue there though as cracking temp for a CA's 82 degrees and is full open at 90 degrees and i'm pretty sure that RB's run a lower temp than CA's

Edited March 9, 2011 by D_Stirls

[Simon-S14]

i put trident in the same basket as ryco. they work 99% of the cases but everynow and then one comes along and f**ks you right up lol. Ive had a few trident products prematurly fail in the past.. but i realise that like any mass produced item, nothings guarenteed.

i picked up a dayco 77degree unit

[Supa Steve]

i put trident in the same basket as ryco. they work 99% of the cases but everynow and then one comes along and f**ks you right up lol. Ive had a few trident products prematurly fail in the past.. but i realise that like any mass produced item, nothings guarenteed.

i picked up a dayco 77degree unit

Nismo make a 65deg (or around that) one. Due to the engine vs radiator height on the VL plus the height of the turbo water lines etc if its high mounted needs a header tank to ensure cavatation bubbles at high rpm are bled from the system.

I can run the engine very hard on a hot day and not have an issue, but id say the late opening of the thermostat you had may have been your issue as this would have severely decreased the efficiency of your radiator.

[Bond]

Mine gets too warm so i have flushed the rad and block (all fine), pulled the rad out and cleaned all the fins ( a lot of junk) but still gets warm. I pulled the thermostat out and found it was a Nissan 65 degree one!! I have put a brand new Nissan 76 degree one and now waiting for a hot day to test. Drove it last night as hard as i could and i hit 90 but it wasn't exactly hot. Next i will take the pump off and inspect.

PS: Not sure why but bleeding was a pain in the butt!!! It took me well over 1.5 hours to get the air out!

Jimmy

[Garage_Kaizen]

With thermostats, and brands, Tridon seem like cheap crap, I have always opted for genuine parts..

[Beer Baron]

Does anyone have info on the effects of adding in more passes in the radiator to the water pump and the rest of the system?

no visible negative effects. plenty of GTRs running around with twin pass or tripple pass ("Z flow") radiators. I have never noticed any premature pump failure etc. i mean it's still moving the same volume of water, all that's happened is you've effectively increased the length of the coolant passage.

[N1GTR]

Yeah BB thats what i thought, but then surely there's an increase in resistance from the extra distance and turns involved for the water and of course its logical to conclude that will increase strain on the pump as a result....or so im thinking...

[Beer Baron]

possibly but in practice it's a complete non-issue. every decent aftermarket radiator is twin or triple pass. it's why they work well. it's the cheap shit single pass chinese ones that perform worse than standard that suck. all the good ones like koyo, PWR etc make twin and triple pass for GTRs.

[gotRICE?]

possibly but in practice it's a complete non-issue. every decent aftermarket radiator is twin or triple pass. it's why they work well. it's the cheap shit single pass chinese ones that perform worse than standard that suck. all the good ones like koyo, PWR etc make twin and triple pass for GTRs.

I know its not ideal, but have a go without a thermostat and see if it does the same thing.

Iv had a couple of Thermostats fail on my cars, luckily for me they were stuck open, but not enough for it to take a long time to warm up. The temp would plummit (even on the stock gauge) if i coasted down a hill at night. lol.

But then i also had a brand new OEM Toyota Thermostat not open till 100'C in my freshly rebuilt Hiace engine!

Replaced with a Trident and never had an issue. So ehh..

[Simon-S14]

new thermo didnt make a diff...

keeps pushing coolant out the radiator. keeps overheating.

gonna bite the bullet pull the head off. inspect it and fit an MLS and ARP studs.

[The Dan]

new thermo didnt make a diff...

keeps pushing coolant out the radiator. keeps overheating.

gonna bite the bullet pull the head off. inspect it and fit an MLS and ARP studs.

what water pump are you using? I didn't read back in case you already answered that sorry