High Water Temp with Aluminum Radiator?

G

GRAY86T-TYPE

Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
I drove my car today for the first time and ran into some problems. First of all I have a TR Custom Parts Aluminum Radiator, and a big boy 4" thick intercooler (they are both made by GN1 performance). Now heres the deal. The car was on the driveway for 2 hours idling and was at 180 degrees and didn't go above it. Then I was driving it up and down my driveway and it was still the same temp. The radiator fan is working. Then I took the car out and thats when I had a problem. I was driving and I saw the temp at 200 degrees, but I was stopped. Then I started driving and instead of going down it went up to 205 degrees and didn't go down until I shut the car and left the fan on. What kind of temps should this thing be running? I have an 86 with a front mount, and a stock rad. and it doesn't run this high? What kind of temps are you guys running?
 
the other day i was driving back home from DR BOOST house which is about a 45 minute drive on the E WAY,it was about 90 plus degrees out,my highest temp ready was to 200 and that i was stuck in heavy traffic:mad:doing 5 mph on the express way
I have a new radiator,water pump and t-stat.Well i hope that answers your ?
 
DIAZ 87 said:
the other day i was driving back home from DR BOOST house which is about a 45 minute drive on the E WAY,it was about 90 plus degrees out,my highest temp ready was to 200 and that i was stuck in heavy traffic:mad:doing 5 mph on the express way
I have a new radiator,water pump and t-stat.Well i hope that answers your ?
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Thanks for your reply, everything is new on the car, not just most stuff, everything, Unless the thermostat is stuck or the water pump is bad? Maybe there is air in the system, but would it run for 2 hours at the same temp and then have a problem when I drive it ?
 
probably an airflow issue- are all the proper air dams in place to direct all the air that comes in thtru the grille goes thru the radiator?
since you have a front mount, i'll assume that you ditched the oem "air box" material between the grille and radiator support? if so, put an air dam under the radiator support to jam as much of the air that goes under the car up thru the rad core- this also creates a low pressure area behind the radiator, which helps air flow thru the core.
 
novaderrik said:
probably an airflow issue- are all the proper air dams in place to direct all the air that comes in thtru the grille goes thru the radiator?
since you have a front mount, i'll assume that you ditched the oem "air box" material between the grille and radiator support? if so, put an air dam under the radiator support to jam as much of the air that goes under the car up thru the rad core- this also creates a low pressure area behind the radiator, which helps air flow thru the core.
Click to expand...

The only thing I can think of that is missing is the long piece of air dam that the factory intercooler fit into. I believe the other pieces are there but I will check. On the other question, the a/c was not on
 
Are you running pure water with watter wetter or similar? This will help a bit to cool it. What fans are you running?
 
I am running the factory fan. Purchased the dual ramchargers fan with caspers harness, and it doesn't fit with the GN1 big boy intercooler. I have a 160 degree thermo. I got some air out today but it was still at 200. I drained some antifreeze, that was 50 50 and added some straigt antifreeze and the car didn't go over 190, so I am going to remix, I think that was the problem.
 
Its the radiator, I just installed the same one and am having the same issues. It runs hotter than the stock recored unit I took out. I also have a 4" thick FMIC, dual fans, new water pump, new 160 stat and am running purple ice. I just took the damn thing out and it was 195 with no AC and 200 when i drove back home. (215+ with the AC on the other day) Yes its hot outside but this is unacceptable imo. These radiators are garbage, I have talked to Mark and I don't expect anything to be done. Maybe they are ok for a car up north that rarely sees 90, but here in Houston it does not cut it. BTW way im running plain old distilled water with no anti freeze.
 
btw i also boxed in the radiator which helped bring it down from 205 with no AC to 195-200. My main issue is that once there is heat introduced to the system it can't get rid of it. If I turn the AC on and it gets to 215-217 and then turn it off and continue down the road at 65 for 5-6 miles it won't drop down past 210ish.... If I go for a quick pass with some boost it hits 200-205 and then stays there.
 
with extreme heat its going to run hotter no matter what.today i ended up driving the car to a car show to see the temp at its highest at 167 and that was driving around the city for 30 minutes or so
 
DIAZ 87 said:
with extreme heat its going to run hotter no matter what.today i ended up driving the car to a car show to see the temp at its highest at 167 and that was driving around the city for 30 minutes or so
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by the way today was in the 80's
 
I have a GN1 Performance radiator (the smaller of the two) w/ a 160 deg thermostat and I also am using a GN1 FMIC (2.5" piping). On a 80 degree day driving for more than 30 minutes (a/c off) my temps stay under 174. While at the track a month or so ago on a 76 degree day (after several runs) my temps never exceeded 200. I use green prestone antifreeze 50/50 mix. However I do run 100% methanol, and have a new h/d stock style water pump.
 
GRAY86T-TYPE said:
I am running the factory fan. Purchased the dual ramchargers fan with caspers harness, and it doesn't fit with the GN1 big boy intercooler. I have a 160 degree thermo. I got some air out today but it was still at 200. I drained some antifreeze, that was 50 50 and added some straigt antifreeze and the car didn't go over 190, so I am going to remix, I think that was the problem.
Click to expand...

Just so you know the more antifreeze you run the hotter your engine will run. Antifreeze doesn't transfer heat well.
 
Big thick alum rads don't work well in street cars! Your better off with large tube thin core that passes more air
 
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