*** WARNING: Skip to bottom if you don’t like reading stories ***

Heater Core
My heater core/hose has finally kicked the bucket... (also) the steal piping *to* the heater was fine, but the return pipe to the thermostat housing was very much rusted through and milking up my coolant with orange/brown/rusted crap; really bad. I had periodically flushed the system with no real change to contaminating, and here I am in South FL... so it was time for the heater to go. I just ran heater hose from the bottom radiator straight to the thermostat housing bypassing the heater entirely. Now my coolant is instantly and obviously the better for it, although there is still a faint orange/brown from what’s been caked in the system for all this time, but it appears to be slowly cleaning up (going to flush once again).

Fans
So anyways, the next day I wired my fans to run whenever the car was on (by removing the relay and bridging the circuit - thanks azdave for helpful illustrations in search). My fans have always worked just fine, but only turned on when the engine gets hot - and my goal was to lower under-hood ambient temps. The radiator reservoir is now much cooler because of it, and I believe my EGT’s have also dropped slightly.

Bumper Ribs
Last night I made wonderful work of the (stupid) black ribbing in the scoop of our front bumper to open up another two inches of airflow across the FMIC/Radiator (took about ~3 hours)... now the FMIC is completely unblocked with only the piping still hidden. Now, when I drive around town the radiator reservoir is significantly cooler, almost room temperature one might guess and easy to touch... the post-intercooler piping is also much cooler and it doesn’t hurt that the FMIC really shows off now A note to those who might do this: a dremel’s cutting wheel works wonders (3~4 actually) on the polyurethane bumper and foam, but only a jigsaw will adequately cut through the bump stop... expect to go through 4~5 blades as well. Oh, and wear a glove, mask, and goggles... lots of dust and molten plastic headed your way.

Cooling Setup:
Fluidyne Radiator, Flex-a-Lite Fans, OBX Radiator Hoses
Ceramic coated exhaust manifold
DEI Heat Wrap on DP and Intercooler Piping
DEI CoolTube on all wiring to starter/fusebox/alternator/grounds/etc
Paul’s Phenolic Spacer (SymTech)
Removed weather stripping on Hood

Planned for this week:
Going to raise the hood a bit via washers to get more negative pressure
Going to pipe some dryer conduit from the driver’s brake scoop to the air intake
Need to find some gutter-guard that is 8+ inches wide now, since the main scoop is that much taller
Going to cover the top radiator hose with some SS braids with maybe a layer of heat wrap underneath
Would like to try fabricating a heat shield for the S16G using the DP bolts as a mounting point

The BIG Question(s)

I’ve had the Fluidyne radiator for some time now, it’s been great, and is quite impressive compared to the OEM radiator… with all I’ve done to try and reduce temps in coolant/intake/ambient temps, the radiator is still cooking (very hot) as I feel both the top and bottom of the radiator. With the aluminum’s ability to draw heat, I’m wondering if it’s also being heatsoaked by the turbo. I’m no longer being greeted by a plume of heat when I pop my hood after a long drive, but that’s not to say the turbo still isn’t baking it either. Also (a bit more of understanding), if my reservoir is now holding cooled coolant and the radiator is hot trying to cool other coolant, is it not the radiator’s hot coolant which floods the engine first when the thermostat opens? I *had* a coolant temp gauge built into my radiator cap (which started leaking on me), but is the coolant sitting in the hot radiator actually cool and the radiator is simply doing the job of extracting its heat… to where I wouldn’t be able to identify that the fluid really is cool inside it by touching the aluminum?

A couple more questions:
I had a 160’ thermostat in, but have recently replaced with 195’ superstat as it had failed and that’s what was available at the time… I’m considering putting in a 180’ back in to give the coolant more time to actually cool, do think this is wise? I was going to add Water Wetter, but anyone have any experience w/ DEI Radiator Relief? Any other ideas?

I’m sorry for the novel, but I’ve been spending a lot of time (and searching) on the subject, and wanted to know your thoughts... thanks for reading!!!!!

- J

No apologies needed for a long post - good info and some ideas to toss around.

To address the thought of your turbo cooking your radiator: At any speed above zero you will have air flow moving through your radiator against your turbo. I am no expert in aero/thermodynamics but I assume this keeps a good amount of radiant heat from the turbo off your radiator.

Thermostat: I have been running a 160* for about 4 years operating between Phoenix and SoCal and it has done a great job of keeping the operating temps between 160-170. I rarely hear my fan kick on; only when sitting stopped for a period of time will the coolant rise to 205-210 and the fan activate. Recently I installed my Visteon Aluminum w/single fan and the efficiency has been outstanding. Keep in mind I am not turbo either however after some serious stop and go I do not have a heat blast either upon opening the hood.

This summer when the next motor goes in I will throw in a Stant 195* as I have a new one on hand. The argument can be made that Chrysler engineered the 420a to operate at a particular temperature and therefore the OEM thermostat is why it is where it is.

As far as the difference in temperature between the radiator's exterior and the fluid inside I would assume the temperature would be near each other.

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2012 2500HD LML

Here's an idea for a relatively cheap turbo heat sheild:

http://www.supraforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=326366

Some sort of lip mounted under the radiator support to grab air under the front bumper and direct it into the radiator would probably help also.

96' eclipse gs, 2gb conversion
built bottom end, crane #16 cams, hx40 pro billet, MS1 v3 MSn'S-E, 3.55 trans, quaife lsd

Just wanted to comment on the heatsheild setup, I've tried the cooking pot method and to me it just didn't look right, although if you can find a nice one like on that Supra it wouldn't look bad. Every one I found either had a copper bottom, weird lips, wrong size etc (basically still looked like a hacked cooking pot) so I gave up on that idea lol. I did however find something that I thought looked much cleaner, a stainless steel spare tire cover off some van they hauled in to our junkyard. I just cut a section out and trimed it down, replaced the center valve cover bolt with one that uses the extra nut to mount the top of it to, and still need to fab up a flexible type bracket to secure the bottom to the fan bolt but that shouldn't be too hard, just need more spare time. Here's a few unfinished pics to give you an idea...

I have also been researching this quite a bit.

Think about removing your hood latch and installing locking hood pins (aerocatch) and covering the hole which the latch use to occupy so air doesn't have a route around your radiator. Boxing in the front mount and the radiator with sheets of aluminum forcing the air to go through the intercooler and radiator instead of flowing around it helps.

Also, bumper vents where the mitsubishi logo is will greatly increase airflow. I know it may not be "pretty" but will definitely effect cooling. OR, ducting the fog light holes into wards the radiator.

And a thought on your idea about raising the hood with the washers. Doing so may be sucking air into the engine bay instead of it being pushed out. A scoop more near the front of the hood, with the scoop facing to the rear will pull hot air out of the engine bay.

Does ceramic coating help alot? Im needing to keep the heat down cause my cf hood is already getting cracked.

Car Status: P0140 o2 circuit number bank 1 sensor 2 Cel. Ill fix it tomorow lol.

Estimated mileage on engine: 15,xxx

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

That's a great link on tuners, not seen that before... you can tell he put alot of effort into it! That's given me something to think about.

Question:
It's been a long time since I've had my fenders off and I'm all for making a car 'pretty', but I definately prefer when form matches function... SOoooooooooooooooo... does anyone know what the potential is for picking up some vented fenders and making them functional (i.e. duct the heat out from the bay). I wonder how much cutting that would take, and if it'd be possible without compromising the chassis.

I just picked up a sheet of mesh @ Home Depot, I think meant for stucco'd exterior or masonry. It's the same exact thing as gutter gaurd. I'll be cutting it up and hopefully ducting my brake scoop tonight.

- J

Thanks for the info. I wont get my manifold coated till winter but aheat shield id definitely in the process. Anyone have a link on a place that has some or a diy link? I saw one done on a supra. And I like the idea nightfall has. I know all I need is some sheet metal but I want to make it look clean and not look half ass or ghetto fabbed lol.

Btw love your car nightfall your my inspiration ahhah.

Car Status: P0140 o2 circuit number bank 1 sensor 2 Cel. Ill fix it tomorow lol.

Estimated mileage on engine: 15,xxx