Why is my car overheating?!~!??!!?!?

[Ritz S14]

Ok.. so here's whats going on.. drive the car around.. it gets hot(210F). I park, and top radiator hose is hot, bottom radiator hose is cold. Radiator itself is also cold. I have the clutch fan, fan shrowd, and I managed to fit the stock e-fan(kicks on at 160F) in as well. I touch the heater core hose, one side hot; the other is cold. The heater has been turned on to full blast, just thought it'd help cool down the water temp; but it doesn't do anything. So, my water temp gauge will hit 210F, and the buzzer will go off. But the damn thing isn't circulating! Could it be the thermostat not be opening? Water pump is internally FUBAR'D? I'm going to take another look at it tomorrow..

So far these things are new, or within 400 miles.

Thermostat 400 miles, then just replaced today.. 15miles
Radiator Koyo Full Al. two row
Water pump
Radiator hoses

Any suggestions?

[Sil Beer S13]

If your water pump was bad it would be leaking or at least making a really bad noise. Flush your system.

get a new thermostat. and go from there.

[Ritz S14]

Did you even READ what I wrote? I just replaced the theromstat TODAY.

I didn't flush the system, but I did drained it all out with the thermostat out, and topped it off with fresh antifreeze.

Old thermostat = Overheat, not circulate.
New Themostat = Overheat, not circulate.

[mrmephistopheles]

sil, he just replaced T-stat 15 miles ago.

Try running without tstat, that'll at least eliminate that question.
You're installing it in the correct direction, yes? (dumb question, but need to make sure).

[Ritz S14]

Yeah.. thermostat is pretty much idiot proof. The long spring thing goes inside the housing(towards the rear of the motor).

I'd like to remove the t-stat, but I get bad gas milage as it is :(. I guess I"ll have to try that though.

[mrmephistopheles]

also, did you fully insure that there is no air in the system? a large air pocket could cause circulation problems.

[Ritz S14]

Come to think of it, I didn't bleed it since I was in a rush to have my car tuned(which didn't happen). But I did pour 1.5 gallons in it, after it being all empied out.

[Sil Beer S13]

So far these things are new, or within 400 miles.

Thermostat 400 miles, then just replaced today.. 15miles

Any suggestions?


That threw me off sorry.

Bleed the system, even thought you poured 1.5 gallons air could still be in there.

[chmercer]

ritz are you running 1.5 gallons of antifreeze? lol

dude drain your radiator, stick a hose in it, let it flush for a little while. then re fill it with like 90 percent water 10 percent antifreeze. once you get your circulation problem fixed that will help lower your temps as well. ethyl glycol has really shitty cooling properties. it raises the boiling point slightly but for the amount of thermal capacity you loose you take a net loss in cooling ability.

[fliprayzin240sx]

That dont mean squat how much you put in there V. How I usually bleed the SR...Start the car, turn the heater to full blast, fill the radiator to the top and start massaging the upper radiator hose. Just keep massaging it and keep an eye at the radiator cap opening and watch for bubbling. Just keep massaging it and keeping it topped off till you start feeling the upper hose heating up. If you massaged it enough, should be fairly out of air pockets.

[chmercer]

edit - does sr not have a bleed screw on the water neck?

also this isnt really a direct fix for your problem but you could get a surge tank, it should *auto bleed* your cooling system basically.

[Buffalo Daughter]

That dont mean squat how much you put in there V. How I usually bleed the SR...Start the car, turn the heater to full blast, fill the radiator to the top and start massaging the upper radiator hose. Just keep massaging it and keep an eye at the radiator cap opening and watch for bubbling. Just keep massaging it and keeping it topped off till you start feeling the upper hose heating up. If you massaged it enough, should be fairly out of air pockets.


thats pretty much the gist of it right there. Prolly air bubbles still left in the car. Leave your cap off, squeeze the top hose or "message" it while the cars on. Watch all the bubbles come up. When no more bubbles, your done.

[Ritz S14]

Sil Beer-Don't mean to be rude.. just a bit fusterated. You'll often find me too , slippin.. haha

Yeah, I'll check for air pockets tomorrow.. I never had this problem before, so I didn't think that problem would ever happen to me.. haha

Chmercer- I'm running premixed, which was FREE and available to me :)
I don't know if SRs have bleeders, cause I'm running a KA.

Buffalo- I do what you just said religously after every coolant fill.

[RightWheelDrive]

+1 on bleeding. If you used the make-you-own gasket stuff for the thermostat, make sure you didn't put so much it clogged the thermostat from opening. I overheated at track day and lost track time which was extremely frustrating because I later find out it is because of a measly radiator cap.:tweak: . If bleeding doesn't work, take out the thermostat. I have been running without one for a week because I was trying to figure out my own problem and the KA warms up just fine without one.Good Luck.

[fliprayzin240sx]

edit - does sr not have a bleed screw on the water neck?

also this isnt really a direct fix for your problem but you could get a surge tank, it should *auto bleed* your cooling system basically.

SRs do but this way is a lot faster plus you have a less likelier chance of getting coolant sprayed at you when you pop the screw when it starts getting pressurized.

[DJPimpFlex]

^better than 10% coolant, 90%water would be water (distilled or course) and water wetter. Same thing except water wetter has much better cooling properties.

[j00ni3]

just open the bleed screw .. take it out...

1. ignition
2. heat full blast
3. let it warm up ... ( and as you warm up you will see air coming out of the bleeder hole)
4. turn off after like 10 min
5. refill reservoir and rad. ( caution.. you might get hot coolant in face so take your time ) ( if you are in a rush put a towel over the rad cap while opening but i don't recomment it ) let it cool a bit first
6. repeat as neceessary until you see rad liquid level doesn't fall


my ka had that problem after changing my rad... it would over heat after idling for like 5 min

but after bleeding thoroughly.. ( very thoroughly ) no more over heating ... it's more like over cooling

hehe

[SR240DET]

if bleeding doesnt work, disconnect the heater core hoses and on the top hose on the fire wall blow some compressed air in that bitch and see what comes out.

[Buffalo Daughter]

yeah thats good that you do. Thats pretty much the standard to get all the air pockets out. Sometimes it takes a long time. I dont like using the air bleeder screw. I'd rather have the bubbles come up and watch it. Tell us how it turns out. Just spend more time with it on , cap off, heater on and off to get it all out.

[Ritz S14]

GOOOOD NEWS!!

Ok. So, I removed the thermostat.. it looked fine. I drilled 6 tiny holes around it, and reinstalled it. I drove it around town, then onto the freeway, and it stayed at about 160F(about 20min). I think that's a little to cold, but it'll do for now. If I get around to it, I'm just going to drill 3 small holes on my next one.

The problem?

Ok, so I have this huge Koyo(compared to stock), and it's cooling abilities work TOO well for DD. So what I think was going on is that, the outlet side of the termostat was only 70 degrees, and the inlet side of the t-stat is 200..which is about 130F if you mix the two. So, the t-stat was probably opening way too little for it to work properly.

[Cashizslick]

^ thats werid.

Ar'nt most aftermarket radiators designed to work with the stock thermostat? Do you think it was application specific in your case (ie having to modify it)?

[007jpang]

having the front of the car jacked up also helps the air bubbles come out

[zero.counter]

GOOOOD NEWS!!

Ok. So, I removed the thermostat.. it looked fine. I drilled 6 tiny holes around it, and reinstalled it. I drove it around town, then onto the freeway, and it stayed at about 160F(about 20min). I think that's a little to cold, but it'll do for now. If I get around to it, I'm just going to drill 3 small holes on my next one.

The problem?

Ok, so I have this huge Koyo(compared to stock), and it's cooling abilities work TOO well for DD. So what I think was going on is that, the outlet side of the termostat was only 70 degrees, and the inlet side of the t-stat is 200..which is about 130F if you mix the two. So, the t-stat was probably opening way too little for it to work properly.
You had vapor lock. When you opened the cooling system back up, you prolly forgot to mention that you bled the air out and duplicated the same procedures all over...but this time, maanged to let the air out. Drilling the holes in the TSTAT defeats the purpose of the engineering involved in the product. Let it do its' job, or you might as well remove the tstat all together...but then your fluid will always be quite warm, and never have a chance to cool, which can be bad. Next time boil it to see if it pops, that will be a giveaway as to whether it is the problem or not. Process of elimination.

One of the original problems with the ka24de was the problematic overheating after opening the cooling system due to vapor lock...air in the system. Look it up in the service bulletins.

At least you fixed the problem though, no matter which route you took whether accidental or purposely done. :)

[Ritz S14]

Well... it came down to.. remove thermostat, or drill holes. I chose the second. It works, and I'm happy. :)