1G How I lowered my coolant temps 6 degrees!!!

[dnhieu]

i seriously need to rewire my fans.

My Highway is still 195-203 @ 70-80mph (goes up a little more if load is on the engine)

but around the town is always 203-213

i think the KOYO is going in tonight.

hopefuly that will help... i mean im ONLY replaceing an 11 year old stock radiator.

thoes are the EXACT numbers i see right now...

 

[siceclipse]

thats good to hear!
this is my worried post i just made:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237780


see you all when i get back from VT!

awww who am i kidding ill be on avery day till i sell the DSM (like Lando ) <----WHO?!

 

[nightspeed87]

my fans on my 1g are wired to always be on, I connected a wire from the ac fan to the cooling fan and now as soon as the ignitions on i have it set were they both are on full blast, ( but i dont know about what happends at highspeed if it helps any more or if they automatically shut off since i heard one guy mention something about the ecu cutting them off after a certain point ) but it does seem to help idling and what not with the .fans that way and theyve been like that for a yr now with no problems. whenever i get a front mount im going to try to save up to by the koyo radiator and upgraded cooling fans so i can install them all in the same time, and making the sheet metal ducting like you guys did.

 

[alex99gst]

Just a comment on the fans, I found that with my one fan it would only cut on when it reached operating temperature. I also found that if I unplugged the blower motor that whenever I flipped the switch to turn on the air, the fan turns on. This way if I know im going to be sitting at a light or very slow cruising I can turn the fan on or if I've just driven hard and can have them keep going after the car is turned off.

 

[flacopower]

Here's what I got. The first pic is the top shroud to prevent air from getting out over the top. It mates with the top of the trimmed stock plastic shroud to seal. Second and third pics are the left and right shrouds. They seal the inside of the cut bumper and front fascia, preventing air from dumping into the fenders. They're riveted to the remains of the stock plastic shroud. Last two pics are the lower scoop. Air was bypassing the radiator and going under the car. This keeps the air flowing up towards the radiator and adds additional air while cruising. The radiator is completely boxed in and the four pieces connect at the box corners. I mocked it up in cardboard and transferred the templates to aluminum sheet.

dude that top piece looks a LOT like the cooling pieces that greddy sells for the evo and s2000 and such for a LOT of money!

http://greddy.com/products/display/?Category=oil&SubCategory=33

 

[flacopower]

and to add to what you guys did with the sheet metal, i have noticed that a LOT of cars have a big piece of black plastic that sticks out underneath the front bumper that diverts air up into the rad.. i mean everything from malibus, to tsxs, to corvettes..

 

[alex99gst]

and to add to what you guys did with the sheet metal, i have noticed that a LOT of cars have a big piece of black plastic that sticks out underneath the front bumper that diverts air up into the rad.. i mean everything from malibus, to tsxs, to corvettes..

I used to always wonder what that was on corvettes, but I guess there isn't any direct flow to the radiator with the way the bumper is shaped.

 

[ITSME4G63]

thoes are the EXACT numbers i see right now...

i got the kyo from ebay as well, will eb goign on saturday, the stock radiator had a green mist builing up along it. Did you use the stock fan or slim ones? After looking at it, its too much of a beautiful piece to put those slim fan plastic straps trhough it, I just wanna hang the damned radiator on my wall and stare at it.

 

[alex99gst]

I hate to wake this up again, but its a good thread and I just remembered I said I would put pics up. The first one is looking down inbetween the bumper and the radiator and you can see where I bolted the sheet metal to the frame. Second is the screws that I used. I drilled 3 holes in the sheet metal and then attatched those under the bumer so that I could push them in and they would hold themselves in place even if I hit something with the duct. Enjoy.

 

[dnhieu]

it looks good man!

let us know how the whole scraping thing goes....


how much did it lower your coolant temps so far?

 

[alex99gst]

I just picked up some sheet metal from home depot and made some ducting while I had my radiator and intercooler out. I straightened the fins on my radiator, fixed the leaky drain plug, put in distilled water and put on the ducting and my coolant temps went from 203 while cruising to a consistent 177 while cruising at 50 mph. I was very impressed overall. They rose to 186 while at a stoplight but once I got moving again they dropped back in the 170's. I'll try to get some of the pictures up sometime soon but this definately was a huge improvement. All I added was the scoop under the intercooler.

There is my post a while back about it. The temps stay in the upper 170's and lower 180's during normal curises, but on my way to and from college (1 hr interstate drive) I saw a highest of 196 while averaging about 90 mph . I'd say that is a good enough improvement from my 210's I was seeing on the interstate.

EDIT: I have gone up this hill a couple times where the road dips down and then slants up and the sheet metal scraping sounds like I bottomed out at 30 mph . Yea I got some crazy looks but other than that if I'm careful it wont scrape, but if it does by chance its not a huge deal since its taken its fair share of scrapes so far.

 

[ITSME4G63]

I hate to wake this up again, but its a good thread and I just remembered I said I would put pics up. The first one is looking down inbetween the bumper and the radiator and you can see where I bolted the sheet metal to the frame. Second is the screws that I used. I drilled 3 holes in the sheet metal and then attatched those under the bumer so that I could push them in and they would hold themselves in place even if I hit something with the duct. Enjoy.

hey, I've seen that somewhere before......... Oh yeah, my car. You Copycat

 

[MyBeatGSX]

I got to this topic kind of late...

Some of the temps people are seeing are rediculously low. 170's? Are you guys running without a thermostat?

What is normal temp supposed to be? I have a large front mount that blocks 100% of my stock radiator but with no modifications I see 195-199 highway and 206 around town until the fan kicks on and within 10 seconds its back to 199 or 195. I saw a low of 172* while coasting down a hill at 80mph on a 50* night, but that went away the second I got back on the gas. I thought that was good until I saw these sub 190* temps people are getting here.

 

[toojung2die]

The cars with the low coolant temps are 1G's. The 1G's are designed to go into closed loop operation at a lower temp than the 2G's. Your temperatures are normal for your car.

 

[MyBeatGSX]

Ok here's an interesting thought I'd like to get a wiseman (or 3)'s opinion on.

What about those of us with 6 bolt swaps (full swaps). We have a head with combustion chambers designed with 175* coolant temps in mind and designed to not knock at those temps. But now we're running much higher 2G coolant temps, temps that were meant for a better designed 2G combustion chamber. So how does this all work out? Do we now get stuck with crappy 6 bolt chambers that will get their crappy effect amplified by 25+* higher coolant temps? Or is it not that significant.

 

[alex99gst]

My coolant temps were only that low during some slow 50-60mph cruises in 5th gear and I was barely on the gas at all. On the interstate however I will see temps in the 190's. I think i failed to state that clearly.

 

[MyBeatGSX]

Oh ok, well that's a little better. But there is still a 10* difference between 1G and 2G thermostats correct?

 

[dsmsucks]

Food for thought!!
I noticed that the lower radiator line is right under the hot exhaust manifold. Would wrapping the lower water pipe lower coolant temps alittle??

 

[alex99gst]

Food for thought!!
I noticed that the lower radiator line is right under the hot exhaust manifold. Would wrapping the lower water pipe lower coolant temps alittle??

I'm sure it would help, but how noticable of a difference it would make, I don't know. Either way the exhaust manifold would give off tons of heat and it could be trasnferred to the radiator hose. If you wrapped it with something that would deflect heat I'm sure it would do something.

 

[dsmsucks]

Yeah I might do that just go see what happens. Just think the uicp get so hot from the manifold! Well mines used to till I super heat wrapped it now it stays colded

 

[dnhieu]

well here is some more food for thought....

i dunno if you have your heat shields or not BUT mitsubishi did design the car like that and in its stock form did alright with it as it sits...

but try it and give results...


new update on my car is that im having to take off all my stuff i made to get my coolant temps back up HAHAHA...

 

[olmytsi]

I have a 6 bolted 98 tsi awd wth a huge dejon tool race fmic. I got a 160 degree thermostat and my temps went down ALOT! Before the lower temp tstat, when fully warmed up, the temps were between 196 and 206 and 210 at idle. Now, the car gets to 190 at most at idle and usually around 170 ish when cruising. Now, my coolant temp gauge rarely goes to the middle specially on the really cold days.

I got it from dsmotorports. The lowest they have for a 1g head is 160 and the lowest for a 2g head is 170. http://www.diamondstarmotorsport.com/maintengine.shtml

PS: keep in mind a lower thermostat means lower temps and sometimes the temps will not go above the learn mode swithover point which means you will run richer than usual. In my case, i have dsmlink, so i just offset the coolant temp so that the ecu does go out of learn mode.

 

[Bestwestranger]

Food for thought!!
I noticed that the lower radiator line is right under the hot exhaust manifold. Would wrapping the lower water pipe lower coolant temps alittle??

I had some leftover header wrap laying around and wrapped that pipe when I rebuild my head. Couldn't tell you if it did any good, though I would like to think it did.

 

[turbo90gsx]

I had some leftover header wrap laying around and wrapped that pipe when I rebuild my head. Couldn't tell you if it did any good, though I would like to think it did.

I take it that heater wrap with different than the exhaust wrap, because that stuff is not good.

 

[Karma]

Is a 160 thermostat too low? I was looking tonight, it was either 160 or 180.