ka24de overheating

[wild_bill240]

i have an s13, i blew my stock radiator at the track so i decided to redo the whole cooling system, i bought a cx racing aluminum radiator, new water pump and nismo thermostat and my car still overheats when i push it and i know its not the gage cuz my radiator get hotter than hell, and other times it will stay really cool, duz anyone have any suggestions?

[Z U L8R]

could have a restricted heater core. you could try backflushing it. you could bypass the heater core since it's warming up outside and see if that helps keep it cooler.

probably the easiest thing to check would be to feel the hose going in and going out of the heater core and see if there's a big temperature difference. if so, then you know it's clogged up and restricting the flow of coolant.

sounds like you're a little passed the obvious of just making sure it's burped correctly......i hope

are you getting any symptoms of the headgasket being blown? if you get one of those funnel apparatus from walmart. basically it's a big funnel that you fit onto the top of the radiator, it connects where the cap goes. they're cheap and they're AWESOME for burping a car, GET ONE.

you can fill it up midway with water/coolant, and start up your car. if you keep seeing air bubbles even after the thermostat opens then it's a blown headgasket.

you may not have clouds of smoke or any smoke billowing out of the tail pipe. you may have no coolant in the oil or vice versa, but if you keep getting consistent air bubbles out of the radiator into your funnel, then you have a blown headgasket.

if you do a compression test and see a difference in the cylinders of like 3 have 155 and one of em has 145, even that more than likely = blown HG.

i'm not trying to condemn your headgasket at all. i'm trying to get you to deduce that it's NOT the headgasket, that way you're not wasting any more time.

so test the heater hoses like i said, worst case try bypassing the heater core. see if that helps, if not, then go to wallmart and buy the burper thingy and do that test, and/or do a compression test.

basically whenever you're trying to diagnose ANY problem. test the easiest/most likely stuff it could be first, then if no problem is found, dig a little deeper. but the whole time you're TESTING things, and if they test good, then they're eliminated. if they test bad, then you fix it, see what happens, and if you still have other issues, you continue until you find the end all be all problem. <------ THIS is how you properly diagnose a car, ANY CAR, ANY PROBLEM.

TEST never guess ;)

so lets start deducing things by testing.

hope that helps, best of luck

Dave

[greencar]

wild bill, I have the same exact radiator, and did all the things that you put in too, ie w/p and thermostat. And I have the same exact problem... My problem was the radiator, I dont know what its doing internally, but as soon as i put it in these overheating problems would arise. I would drive it, and the temp would shoot up to about 215+. I am personally going back to OEM rad and cooling system.

-Dan

[Z U L8R]

honestly i know they're inexpensive but the CX racing radiators do the job...

Dave

[greencar]

I'm glad yours worked out, mine didn't :(

[Z U L8R]

well...to be honest...i have a 3" griffin rad on my 510, and an afco 3" or 4"on my 280z :P

but the ls2 s14 i did had a cx racing s14 rad, and all the sr swaps i've done in the last 2 years had those when i worked at Lethal and we didn't have any problems with em...

not saying you didn't get a defective one....i believe you lol

they'd work a lot better if they put plates in the tanks to block the flow and force the water to travel through the radiator. basically with just the up and down rows and a tank on the top and bottome...the coolant goes in through top, and just falls to the bottom........

however innefficient the design....they still hold more capacity than the stock radiator therefore they are slightly more efficient imo....

still tho, this is the difference and why a good racing radiator costs 200-400 instead of 100

if CX would put plates in the tanks to direct the water through the tubes, they'd be much much better as far as efficiency. i had meant to contact them last year, but never got around to it lol.

my .02

Dave