Hello everyone, so I'm encountering a heat soak issue and it's affecting my radiator. I will start my car and drive with no issues. If I boost even once during a long trip, my coolant temps will start to climb. After installing my turbo kit this last month, I had purchased and installed a 3 row aluminum half radiator and the car overheated right away. I ended up removing it and installed my stock one. It works well but when I boost, my engine bay gets super hot (to the point where my tial wastegate is no longer bright red). The loom around my fan wiring started melting. My radiator support is burning and of course my radiator is hot. I was wondering whether removing the t-stat will remedy this issue? Anyone try water squirters? Anyone ever construct a contraption that vents oncoming air into the engine bay via vents piping ect? Extra fans help (I only have 1 slim ebay fan but highly doubt my engine bay heat will cool with even 10 fans lol)? Any help would be much appreciated!

My immediate reaction is that you're blowing exhaust into your coolant... have you tested your coolant? Are your fans working properly?

- J

Originally posted by J
My immediate reaction is that you're blowing exhaust into your coolant... have you tested your coolant? Are your fans working properly? - J

I have the one ebay slim fan, thats it (i just feel like 60/70 degree weather would not cause overheating at idle.) How do I check if i'm blowing exhaust into my coolant. The coolant doesn't look dirty.

I don't personally feel that 1x fan and a half-size radiator is 'enough', but I know others do it successfully. I believe in overkill myself, and have: a (fullsize) fluidyne radiator, flexalite fans, dei heatwrap, 160' thermostat, higher radiator cap, etc. You can also remove the relay for the fans and can run a short 2" wire to have them run all the time.

You can buy a cheap little tester from walmart/autozone/etc that tells you if anything is in the coolant besides coolant.

- J

Originally posted by J
I don't personally feel that 1x fan and a half-size radiator is 'enough', but I know others do it successfully. I believe in overkill myself, and have: a (fullsize) fluidyne radiator, flexalite fans, dei heatwrap, 160' thermostat, higher radiator cap, etc. You can also remove the relay for the fans and can run a short 2" wire to have them run all the time. You can buy a cheap little tester from walmart/autozone/etc that tells you if anything is in the coolant besides coolant. - J

Does your fluidyne get really hot to the touch? What vehicle was the 160 degree thermo? Do they sell it at autozone? What did you heatwrap, the dp? Will adding a pusher type fan from the other side of the radiator have any kind of significant impact? Sorry for all the questions!

Of course, the fluidyne radiator gets just as hot if not even hotter... as it is all aluminum, the point is that it will dissipate heat better (as opposed to holding it in w/ plastic). It's larger, increases the coolant capacity of the loop, and has a much greater surface area for dissipating heat.

Autozone is not going to sell lower temp thermostats I wouldn't believe... just search the boards here for different places. You can run 140' or 160' (I chose 160' because I don't want the ECU to think the engine isn't warmed up yet), and then I think 185' is the factory temp. Same thing for the higher pressure radiator caps (higher pressure equals higher boiling point).

Yes, I've wrapped my DP and intake pipes actually. I've also got a phenolic spacer which is basically a plastic spacer on the intake manifold to help contain and separate heating the pipes.

Fans are primarily present to help maintain airflow when the car isn't moving (going down the highway it shouldn't matter)... just about the only time you hear of using fans to push instead of pull, is because they want more space for a larger turbo.

- J

Do NOT remove the thermostat. It's there for a very important purpose, you will only cause yourself more difficulties later on if you remove it.

DO fabricate a heat shield around the turbo, and use exhaust wrap around the manifold and downpipe, to keep heat transfer to the engine bay at a minimum.

Originally posted by ez
Do NOT remove the thermostat. It's there for a very important purpose, you will only cause yourself more difficulties later on if you remove it. DO fabricate a heat shield around the turbo, and use exhaust wrap around the manifold and downpipe, to keep heat transfer to the engine bay at a minimum.

Any idea where I can get heat shield material? My dp is an inch or two away from the lower water pipe, could this be causing my overheating issues?

Just wrap it up, can do lower water pipe too... goes easy around brackets. I sincerely doubt this is causing your issue tho.

- J