Help Me Solve My Overheating Woes

[Simon-S14]

hey guys.. weather is warming up again and i still have cooling system woes and nothing i do seems to solve it. Ive tried various things and nothing seems to work :S

currently has

RB30E fan hub

RB25 neo fan blade

shroud

brand new GTR calsonic rad

new water pump

new thermostat

good coolant

problem was huge at an event just gone.. was 30+ degrees and with just one lap (drifting, lap last 30 sec's tops) temps go from 85 degrees to 110 and oil temp around 100-110c. if i run the water squirters i have for the cooler/rad it comes back down to 100 but no lower. then if i do a few more runs it just gets real warm and coolant sits at 110 and oil at 110-120 :S

cooling sys is bled and head was off not long ago and checked for issues.. none found and MLS gasket and ARP studs fitted and reinstalled. havent had an issue lately due to mild weather but yeah even then with extended runs the temps will climb.

thinking about chucking two thermo's in front of my intercooler to force air thro them and the radator. only thing i can think of is that because tghey are close together then the clutch fan is finding it harder to draw air thro.... but im open to suggestions.

[89CAL]

Fan hub engaging properly?

[blue_vl_t]

do you run a bar and plate or tube and fin intercooler and how thick is it?

do you have any shrouding and/or ducting to force air through the radiator with no choice for it to escape elsewhere

are you running a shroud around the engine fan?

Edited November 6, 2011 by blue_vl_t

[Simon-S14]

yes as far as i can tell it is working correctly

ive got a tube and fin I/C its located 10mm in front of my radiator. its 76mm thick also.

i made an alloy under tray and an alloy air box to funnel air from front bar to the intercooler. this helped at higher speeds but doesnt make any difference at low/medium speeds.

Edited November 6, 2011 by Simon-S14

[SargeRX8]

Do you have the standard oil cooler/warmer? I don't know if this could happen but maybe the oil is heating up and in turn heating up the water...

[Simon-S14]

nah ive got a 16 row oil cooler which is in the front corner of the car in direct air flow

[blue_vl_t]

run methanol

[Simon-S14]

its on e85 :s

[R31Nismoid]

Calsonic meaning factory GTR one?

Need bigger alloy one! 2-3 pass style for max effect

[Dobz]

Having the intercooler 10mm away will be contributing. Depending on how old you fan clutch is it could've loosened up a bit and doesn't spin the fan as well as it used to.

[kitto]

Still having issues Simon?

I thought you fixed all your issues after put in a brand new factory radiator?

A large radiator isn't necessarily going to fix the issue. If the coolant passes through the large radiator too fast, the radiator doesn't have enough time to dissipate the heat from the coolant.

Is the GTR radiator you have a single or twin row one Simon?

Failing fan clutch would certainly be a look in!

Considered a Nismo low temp thermostat? Not ideal,but your radiator is never going to get heaps of flow over it because of the low speeds and angle your at But your still asking huge amounts of work from the engine, so it will want to get hot.

Are other guys like Hayden having any issues?

[Simon-S14]

nah haydens car never overheats. so defo something up with mine.

due to it being a silvia engine bay im restricted as it is. i can only just fit the clutch fan in with a stock GTR rad (which is twin row) anything thicker and i cant fit a shroud. I used to run a ASI 40mm alloy rad. but had issues with that also!

i will chuck another clutch fan/hub combo on and see how it goes

sofitting termo to the front of the IC not gonna help much?

[battery]

When I went to a front facing plenum I re-routed all the coolant lines to bypass the stock oil to water cooler and I used Castrol radiator inhibitor fluid(just a simple anti rust solution).

Now my water temp sits around 70-74 this is with the stock rad/water pump/fan/thermostat, before i did this it would sit around 80-84. Also now it takes like 10 minutes to warm up so not ideal for a street car.

My turbo is oil cooled only so this could be a big factor also.

[Simon-S14]

So you reckon retaining the factory oil warmer/cooler is no good for performance application?

[StevenCJR31]

Do you have bonnet vents to help let out the heat? or a cheap/quick way would try to add some washers tween the hinges and bonnet to let some hot air out

[Simon-S14]

Yeah I have a vented bonnet. So frustrating!!

[Run-It-Hard]

Ever tried Redline water wetter Simon? had a few mates use it when they had slight overheating issues and it seems to help. Or maybe get a 52mm radiator, and run twin thermos (not exactly cheap though is it).

[battery]

So you reckon retaining the factory oil warmer/cooler is no good for performance application?

Well I removed it because all the pipes needed to be changed, I had a dedicated oil cooler and it just made sense to simplify the piping to reduce points of failure.

The unexpected side affect of this was that it drastically reduced running temps... I never had temperature issues before so to be honest it would be better to run it just to have the shorter warm up period.

It seems like you have tried everything else so I thought it was worth a mention

[R31Nismoid]

I wouldn't call the ASI radiator decent though? That's the problem with the cheap ones, they are bigger etc, but the water runs through them too fast and they don't cool much so motorsport applications it's a struggle.

A good triple-pass rad from PWR or similar is around $800 if memory serves correct, not cheap but they do exactly what they should.

Could you get a better rad and make your own shroud up to suit? Or even cut one up? Wouldn't be "too" hard, just more a fiddly/time consuming job than anything else.

[Dobz]

You should try and move your I/C at least another 15-20mm further away from your radiator. With it only 10mm gap how it is airflow can't get in from each side of the radiator, you'll just be forcing air that would usually direct into the radiator through the head light holes and off into the wheel wells.