best coolant? heating issues sr20

[irl86]

hi guys i have an sr20 de+t in my ae86
ran a standard radiator for ages and it used to get hot pretty quickly when drifting or long drives,
so ive just put a 52mm twin core alloy radiator in and used extra cold gold as coolant,
ive set up twin 12" thermos on it, (there cheapies though)
however its still gettin quite hot,
what would be best thing to do next coolant or fans?
has anyone else had similar problems with sr in ae/ke's

would be grateful for any help.

[lolwat]

to be honest i think, coolant and fans would be the last thing you should be worrying about, so does it over heat in traffic?
check thermostat and all the little things

[Juturna]

cheap thermo fans do NOTHING. go get a meaty one with big angled fans and a shroud. or better yet clutch fan and shroud. will have zero problems.

[lolwat]

get some EL falcon fans if you wont some good cheap ones(ring up pick n payless or a scrap yard of some sort)

[irl86]

one of the problems is gettin a big fan between radiator and engine pulleys as theres very little space,
its not too bad in traffic just gets hot at high revs the car is low geared so thats why it gets hot on the motor way..
what fans would you recommend? given they have to be pretty slim..
and thermostat is removed

[irl86]

clearance pic

[lolwat]

el falcon thermos

[blair]

how many rev's are we actually talking at 100kph?

[irl86]

bout 3.5 give or take..
are the el falcon ones 12''?

[ke70dave]

you shouldnt actually need any fans on at all when you are moving. my car only gets over 80 degress after the car has been sitting for 5+mins, and as soon i start moving again it sits on 80deg no worries. even if i thrash it it doesnt get above 80.

like ke slider said, fans and coolant should be the last of your worries.

if it is overheating when your moving then its not your fan

id be looking at your thermostat first, just buy a new one they are like $10, and make sure your cooling system isnt full of crap. take out your radiator and give it a decent flush.

i just buy the cheap green stuff from supercheap, like $10 for 5L or something. coolant is coolant, only real advantage over water is that it wont make your engine rust, and it glows in UV light:D

looks like you have some fancy alloy radiator so that should be up to the task no worries.

[lolwat]

(if you have them) pull your heater core lines off, turn your heater on in your car, and stick a hose into the heater hose and let it flush the heater core and block out

[irl86]

heater is disconected
just put the alloy rad in at the weekend but a bit disappointed with it.
i think one of the problems is gettin air to it as the intercooler blocks it alot ,
and i dont wanna start cuttin holes in the bumper,
if the thermostat is out would puttin a new one in make any difference?

[lolwat]

well if its fark it will only let a TINY amount of water circulate, so yes your rad will be cooling, yes your pump is pumping, but coolant will just circulate in the block

[irl86]

just had a look at where the heater hoses are disconnected and they do a bit of a stupid loop so i think il shorten that and put a themostat back in see how that goes first..
thanks guys

[sundee]

That "stupid loop" on your SR was done for a reason, it doesnt matter if its tight bend or not, that only circulates water to the heater core and has nothing to do with your overheating issues.
You need to test the thermostat.... take it out, boil some water, in a kettle or on the stove and drop the thermostat into the hot water... if the thermostat doesnt open then its seazed, you will then need a new one... this happend on my SR one day, easiest way to test before pulling it out is run your car up to temp, pop the bonnet and squeeze the Radiator hose coming from the thermostat housing... if its soft, the thermostat still hasent opened. I just threw it out and didnt run one untill i could get a new one. only really an issue in the colder months

[irl86]

the loop runs from in under the intake around the back of the engine turns an comes back to under the intake manifold,could it b blocked an causin problems?
as i said i have already removed the thermostat a while back,
i cant see how puttin a new one in will help as it will only stop circulation til it gets up in temp?

[H8CHIR6KU]

is it only happening since you put in the alloy radiator? is that radiator an ebay special?

[lolwat]

also guessing that this is turbs, have you ever thought see as you seem to have No shroud at all that the air simply isnt making it through the inter-cooler and the alloy rad

(ebay alloy rads kick ass)

[irl86]

yeah i think that could be an issue not enough cool air gettin in! but how do i cure that without changing the external looks of the car?
its an arc radiator from what i know guy had it in his crashed s13..

[irl86]

does any one know the diameter of the water pump pulley on a sr20det engine,
just a thought could it b possible that being a non turbo pulley set up could it make the pump turn too fast when the turbo kicks in and not give it a chance to cool? ..

[lolwat]

doesn't work like that, the faster the water moves, yes the turbo has time to radiate the heat into it but the faster there water moves the faster the water is replaced with cooler water( i run my computer pump at 5 volts (300LHP) core runs at 30 idle, i run it at 12 volts (1000LPH) it runs at 23)

[Jonny Rochester]

I can say for sure the problem is you have no thermostat fitted.

All cars need a thermostat, or they will eventually overheat. Very common mistake, even seen it at the racetrack.

[irl86]

going to get a new thermostat tomorrow,
also removed water pump seemed to be a small bit of play in it so il replace it too and take it from there..

[70XIN]

As above, absolutely definitely thermostat

[lolwat]

ok so if its the thermostat is it just because its not directing the coolant where its meant to go???

[--Redwork--]

No its not about directing it.. Its about giving the water time to cool in the radiator before it re-enters the engine.. I was told this years ago by a very expierianced mechanice... nver really had a chance to test the theory though.

[Juturna]

no, system is designed with restriction to keep coolant at right speed.
too fast - wont have enough time to cool in radiator.
too slow - will soak with too much heat before being moved on.
put thermostat in.

[irl86]

would you recommend a low temp release thermostat
or standard..

[Eddy]

not running a thermostat at all will case you issues, it needs to slow/block the flow a littel bit, get a new thermostat and give it a go

[--Redwork--]

I'd personally try the lower temp one... Just cause I'm not a fan of hot engines..

[sundee]

get a low temp one - removing the thermostat wont cause imediate overheating, after time it will as the water/coolant heats and then the radiator doesnt have the time to cooler to coolant down.. but initially the coolant temp will be low and slow to heat from startup.
The line your talking about under the manifold - dont worry about it, it has been setup like that because your not running a heater, if you want to run a heater take the loop pipe off and run one into a heater core via a tap and back in the other pipe

[Stuntman Mike]

Not having a thermstat isn't a definate no-no, different motors/cars are more susceptible to problems from it than others, but for sure are most definately better off having it in there. If the thermostat doesn't fix it, I'd be looking at airflow/intercooler packaging. Remember also that a thicker radiator is NOT necessarily better. The thicker a radiator/intercooler is, the more restriction it provides for air to pass through and subsiquently air-speed through the unit will drop. If this is already hampered by a dirty big front mount, you're going to have issues.

[irl86]

on the topic of air flow if the fins were removed on the front mount would this affect the intercooler because it would def let more air to radiator?

[lolwat]

yes it would destroy the intercooler and defeat the purpose of what there for (its a radiator it "radiates" heat) the larges surface area the more heat it can disperse, that's why they have a shit load of fins (more surface area and air can travel through)

[Sam-Q]

Not having a thermstat isn't a definate no-no, different motors/cars are more susceptible to problems from it than others


I would disagree with that, any engine without a thermostat will not have the right tollerences due to not bein grun at the rated temperature

[sundee]

on the topic of air flow if the fins were removed on the front mount would this affect the intercooler because it would def let more air to radiator?

the radiator and intercooler and any cooler for that matter, oil, transmission, have fin's for a reason.
Fins are installed between the core rows cause the relative airflow to become turbulant, and cause the "cool" air to become in contact with the core itself.
so without the fins the core would be just about non effective.

[Nicko]

I can say for sure the problem is you have no thermostat fitted.


Haha... Maybe slightly but that isn't the problem.

I lived with one of probably Australias best SR20DET "garage tuners".

And I can tell you all that this blokes problem is AIR in the system

SR20DET's "look" full when they actually have big fuckoff air bubbles in them, due to the fucked inlet for the cooling, have a look at it some time.

Try "burping" your system with the hoses as you add water from start up, with the heater opened up (if you have a heater) Basically run the car and squeeze the inlet and outlet coolant hoses with your fingers, you'll hear the air in there. Can take baout 5 minutes to sort it out.

My mates car used to get thrashed to shit every weekend for 3 years without any major problems. I'm a huge follower of the SR20DET. People who bag them out, have either had a "mate" who didn't maintain theirs or didn't have it tuned properly and broke it. Bulletproof farken.

And disregard all the other BS you've read in this thread.

[sundee]

Nicko your last line is rubbish, all the things listed in this thread can cause overheating! with air in the water system... all you need to do is crack the screw that is on the inlet side of the head.. (exhaust side) and run the engine... all the air will vent to the highest point, and this point where nissan placed the vent is the highest point. air will travel to the point of lowest pressure.. run it for a while untill all the bubbles stop and its a constant flow of coolant coming out.

Their is no point shutting ppl down nicko everyone has vaild points worthy of further investigation.

[Nicko]

Sorry, was a generalisation, and I didn't mean to attack anyone directly. Apologies if it sounded that way.

Just, a lot of the people commenting in this thread are not qualified to be making remarks about SR20DET motors.

General advice is always that. I think we can also rule out the fact that the OP is a n00b

[sundee]

no worries Nick...

so ill just sum it up in 1 post.

replace thermostat with a new low temp item
Bleed the water system until no air remains in the system.
Use coolant instead of water
make sure you - i just thought of this... make sure you thermo fans are spinning the correct way, eg... if their on the engine side they need to be on draw thru mode.. and if on the other side needs to be on push thur mode.
Make sure you radiator has good airflow. bent fins are no good as it restricst airflow.

all this should get your car running at NOT ( Normal oporating temp)

[irl86]

so new water pump in and new thermostat,
all seems fine gonna take it a good stressful drive tomorro and see how it goes,
as was said in the previous post there was quite a bit of air in it and the bleed screw helps remove alot of it and so does the 'burping'..
thanks guys

[Nicko]

as was said in the previous post there was quite a bit of air in it and the bleed screw helps remove alot of it and so does the 'burping'.. thanks guys

No Wuckas.

Glad to hear you got it sorted.

Wish I had a SR20DET :)

[lolwat]

Wish I had a SR20DET :)
same :P

Glad it all turned out