Civic EG

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but i recently had my car tuned and it seems to run a little warm. i will try and give all the details.

first i found i had a bad rad cap so i replaced that with a 1.3 bar thinking that would help. when i say hot i mean it gets about 200-216 while driving. when i stop it quickly starts to cool. if i let it idle the car will cool down to 190 no problem. i pulled my radiator and ran a hose through it and the water seem to flow pretty good from the top and bottom. today i bought a brand new oem honda thermostat because the old one seem to be stuck open based on my defi temp gauge i have right after the tstat housing.

the only issue i have is when i cruise around, it gets warm. The needle on my gauge cluster never goes above normal but my defi gauge and hondata smanager show its getting around 200-216 consistently while driving. i have a oem style all metal copper radaitor. im wondering if the radatior is just to small.

hopefully this is enough info , let me know what you guys think.

Thanks

Is it the 5/8" thick oem radiator or the 1.25" thick one? Also, is it the original one? After years, the insides get gunned up with calcium deposits. Also consider your intercooler setup. Is it blocking most of the radiator?
Do you have the plastic plate covering the empty space to the right of the radiator? If not, some air will go through there instead of being re-directed to the radiator.
All of the above can affect cooling.

teal_dx wrote:Is it the 5/8" thick oem radiator or the 1.25" thick one? Also, is it the original one? After years, the insides get gunned up with calcium deposits. Also consider your intercooler setup. Is it blocking most of the radiator?
Do you have the plastic plate covering the empty space to the right of the radiator? If not, some air will go through there instead of being re-directed to the radiator.
All of the above can affect cooling.

Thanks for the quick reply. Maybe these pics will help. The radiator isn't original but I think it's a oem replacement. Looks to be the 1.25 inch one if I'm measuring right. And no I don't have the plastic peices you are talking about.

Have you attempted to run a higher water to glycol concentration since you live in Texas? The higher the water content, the better the heat transfer. If you're running an off the shelf 50/50 mix, I would try to make it more like a 70/30 mix and see if that helps. I don't have a chart off hand but mix it to stay above a safe range for the lowest temperature in your area

I tried different water to coolant ratios and also tried straight water with some royal purple ice(water wetter). I'm starting to think the radiator just isn't big enough.

Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem.

Sounds pretty normal to me. How long have you had the gauge?

Should think about upgrading to a nice aluminum anyway since it's boosted.

JUICE wrote:Should think about upgrading to a nice aluminum anyway since it's boosted.

Yea that's what I'm going to do, just trying to decide between a 2 row or 3 row.

Got my new radiator and shroud mounted. I should have it running tomorrow, I will update with results soon.

looken good hope it fixes the proablem

Let us know how its running with the new radi,
I have the same in the box waiting to go in.

Thanks !!!

Driv-it-hard wrote:Let us know how its running with the new radi,
I have the same in the box waiting to go in.

Thanks !!!

Well unfortunately I was really disappointed. The new rad made little improvement .It must be the turbo manifold heat soaking the rad. Tomorrow I will try and burp the coolant system again and make sure all the air is out but I don't think that's going to help. I'm going to get the manifold ceramic coated and go from there.

Your vehicle is probably heating up when you are driving and cooling when you are stopped because of the opening where the condenser should be. Air like electricity and water will take the path of least resistance. It's harder for the air to pass through the radiator than it is to just go through the gigantic opening. Therefor little to no air will go through the radiator while driving. Then the temperature comes down when you stop as the fan comes on and the air has no choice but to go through the radiator. You HAVE to fill that space.

As an experiment you could fill the void with cardboard and duct tape and go for a test drive. Just be sure it is strong enough and secure enough before driving.

Schmuck wrote:Your vehicle is probably heating up when you are driving and cooling when you are stopped because of the opening where the condenser should be. Air like electricity and water will take the path of least resistance. It's harder for the air to pass through the radiator than it is to just go through the gigantic opening. Therefor little to no air will go through the radiator while driving. Then the temperature comes down when you stop as the fan comes on and the air has no choice but to go through the radiator. You HAVE to fill that space.

As an experiment you could fill the void with cardboard and duct tape and go for a test drive. Just be sure it is strong enough and secure enough before driving.

So you think the space between the intercooler and radiator is to big? The fan is set to come on at 180 so it's pretty much on the whole time when I'm driving. It's worth a try to block the front of the radaitor, how much of gap would you recommend between the radiator and the cardboard?

Ideally there should be no gaps, and all air would go through the intercooler and the radiator. The area to fill would be the large opening to the left of the radiator (in front of the turbo manifold).