Not your typical cooling problem .......

[SIL-LINE]

First off "Happy Holidays" ....and Happy B-Day to Sil240...

So here goes. i have reason to believe that the car hates cooler weather..

example : three days ago it was 79-80 degrees here and i started her to warm her up, and drove to meet up with my boy and she drove like a champ... i stepped on her a couple of times to get the feel from her since it had been a little bit ..

This morning it was 69-70 degrees , to drive her to work. i let her warm up. then took off in a very moderate manner . Half way there it started to warm up , when it got near the H on the stock gauge , I turned around and dogged her all the way home. I found a long strip of road and let her rip . when i get to the parking spot she was perfectly fine ...WTF..

And this is how its been since my stock rad got a leak and i had to put in a cxracing one W/ two puller fans that turn with the ignition signal.

I have just about had it with this thing .... and after two years of building her i dont wanna just sell her.. help me guys .. make it a christmas gift .

[gawdzilla]

probably normal.

what sender are you using for the stock gauge? rb20 or ka? if you are using the rb20 sender, it will read artificially high, at least for s14's. On mine my gauge sits at the middle between C and F at about 160F. It will be up over the "H" at about 185F. The other thing is when you dog the car, the temp gauge can move to read colder. the more rpm means the more water your water pump is circulating, and you are probably pushing in fresh cooler water from your radiator. after a while it will begin to heat soak and your temps will come back up. That's always what happens with my car - the temp gauge drops a bit when i first start flooring it.

[SIL-LINE]

Im using the KA sender for the gauge .

Yeah and when i first punch her she gets cold and then she starts to heat up again.

Mine on good days sits at 2 1/2 lines from the C on the gauge . Which is beautiful. But on the bad days all i see is it getting hotter then cold and then hot!!!!!

So if this is normal how come i can smell coolant , sometimes. Is that normal too?

I just dont like the fact that the car gets hot . i would like to cruise southbeach one day with her with out having to pull over and have to suffer the embarrassment .which happened twice already, twice !!!!!!

[gawdzilla]

you need to make sure the gauge is reading accurately first. maybe verify with an aftermarket gauge and another sender. if you have the ka sender for the cluster it should not be fluxuating much at all. the "middle" reading is a pretty wide range. maybe a sticky thermostat?

smelling coolant is not normal. a leak is not good, but it could be something as simple as an overfilled overflow resoivoir.

[SIL-LINE]

When i put the new rad on, i put the car on an incline and took off the cap let her run so all the bubbles come out . During that process it spilled a lot of coolant. I have a sponge between the fans ane the rad , would the smell come from that when it gets hot it makes the smell? It sounds like a dumb question .

I will have to wait to see about a new temp gauge, as i am broke for the holidays .

You are right though , It does seem unlikely , I had the stock KA rad and it ran for ever till one of my fans broke and punctured a hole in the rad ,and it locked the fan motor causing the relay to burn and i overheated really bad .. took me nearly 4 hours to get home from a 15 minute distance . the gauge was acurate then , cuz the minute it hit the H. I stopped and the smoke started coming out the rad.

Keep giving me suggestions i need all the help i can get .

[gawdzilla]

if you have a sponge there it will definitely smell like coolant for a bit until all of it burns away. you could just have a coolant bubble or a sticky thermostat.

[Carl H]

could be a crappy cap, i had an overheating problem and it ended up being the cap...lame.

[SIL-LINE]

Thanks guys , keep them coming .

I thought about the cap , that was my next question . Thnx Carl.

Also Sil240 told me that the best way to make sure that all the bubbles are out , that i should have the heater on full force . I will try this next .I will have some time tomorrow to look over her more ...Ill keep you guys posted .

[leesredgt]

This might be a stupid question buyt why do you have to bleed the coolant system? Ive always just pourned some crap in there and topped it off and went on my way and never had any problems?

[USMCgetsome]

hey lee it must be nice to just do that but most of us can't get away with that. Also, this is a good time to check your oil temps and water temps to get an idea of what is going on to the fluids. Coolant bubbles do cause overheating probs. do you have the stock oil cooler installed? or even an external oil cooler.

[leesredgt]

hey lee it must be nice to just do that but most of us can't get away with that.

I wasnt trying to be a d!ck or anything, just askin?

Whats the best way to get all the bubbles out of the cooling system.

[SIL-LINE]

It sux i havent bought either of the temp guages. and the reason i had to do the bleed was because i had to replace the stock RAD W/ a new one. and its not always as simple as just pouring in new liquid and go. this problem occurs to many. not to metion my lower rad hose burst on me one day , this is where the bubbles come into play .

Well as for the gauge cluster i replaced mine yesterday with my hud unit that i had sitting there for a while . I checked the temp sensor it seemed fine (it was warm out and she ran like a champ) . i left her on for about an hour, and nothing.

Oil cooler , nope i have a new oil cooler ( wich im still trying to make a write up about ) I have the stock motor and no oil cooler .

Tonight im gonna Get the bubbles out , correct me if im wrong ,but Sil240 said tilt the car motor up turn on the heater full blast and take the cap off and leave it idling . all the bubbles will come out (along with fluid unfortunately ) so have extra coolant / or water . I believe its the best way.

Forgot to tell you that i have just the oil pressure and it seems normal too.

[Shanejenkins1]

Get the air out of the anti freeze. Bleed the system.

[Sil240]

Thanks bro(a week late...)

yeah have you Bled her yet??

You need to jump on the cheapest aftermarket water temp gauge you can find.You could probably get one at Autozone for like $15.It wont be JDM tyte but you'll know the actual temp of your motor.

[SIL-LINE]

Not yet , havent had the time . Yeah now that you say Autozone , my secret santa at work gave me a 25 dollar gift card from there so im heading there tonight........

I will do it on new years since its my day off.

Damn i hope that doesnt , mean that im gonna be working ion her the whole year for problems.. im shooting for upgrades .

I will keep you guys posted .