Overheating Problem #2

Just now I ran it warm with the cap off, I kept getting a constant stream of large bubbles with foam comming out, I waited untill the bubbles stopped & topped it off with tap water because I ran out of distilled water (Im going to reflush on saturday anyway).

Is this normal, or could this be part of my problem?


Today I drove the long way home with less traffic, I didnt have any problem at all save for getting a little hot at stoplights, even after almost redlining it to pass some ass who cut me off(I know it wasnt the smartest thing given the circumstances, but we all get road rage). Would a plugged radiator keep a normal temp with air flowing through it? Seems like it would still be hot...but im no expert on radiators...

Yea POS, I got your email, I plan to go through it tonight, thanks.

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Originally Posted by SilverToy

I was glad to see this post--My 99 overheats every summer in traffic, I overheated yesterday in the 98degree heat. Today I got a new flush and fill (50/50) and added Waterwet, never tried it, but I'll see what happens and re post.

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My 10AE used to do that. If the temps were over 90 and I was in rush-hour traffic it would over-heat. Took it to the dealer several times and they never found a problem. Waterpump blew at 19k miles at Deals Gap in the middle of BFE. ::Censor:: Sadly, I was never able to resolve the issue as it was totalled the next February. :(

Don't forget about this little gem! It is not a lifetime part on a Miata. (or at least that has been my experience)
http://www.heating-cooling-parts.com...1033910stn.jpg

The water wetter stuff still makes me cry when I think of all the damage it did to my '74 Corvette it made a jello like substance in the entire cooling system I had to replace darn near everything......

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

Don't forget about this little gem! It is not a lifetime part on a Miata. (or at least that has been my experience)
http://www.heating-cooling-parts.com...1033910stn.jpg

The water wetter stuff still makes me cry when I think of all the damage it did to my '74 Corvette it made a jello like substance in the entire cooling system I had to replace darn near everything......

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Yea, I swapped mine out with another one I had in the garage, just to see if it made any effect to the problem, good or bad, that would indicate the cap was the problem. No real difference that I can tell, I think im going to grab a cheapo from Oreilys & see what it does.

Ask for one for a 93 RX-7. Same size as the Miata but is a higher rated cap. 16psi

I have the same problem. I have a new rad in the car for an automatic ( a wee bit larger) and I'm running warm too. One fan works for the rad, the other one for the ac work, the t-stat is working too. I backflowed the cooland system and no blockages showed themselves, but I may have too rich of a coolant mixture (just bought the car). Next time it gets hot, we'll know if that fixed it.

I'm starting to think these cars just came with too weak of a cooling system. I'd like to get my hands on a fluidyne radiator sooner than expected now.

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Originally Posted by Jiggerachi

Man, $150 is definately not what I want to hear right now. Im going to see how much it would cost to get this one repaired first.

I remembered I had a spare cap...not sure if it was the one I bought a year ago, or the one that came with TurboDuane's radiator. Either way if the cap is part of the problem it should act differently, better or worse. I threw it on, we'll see if it does anything different.

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A dumpy little shop in Irving called "Santos muffler" does excellent work. They did a 3" system for my daily driver that looks great. They also did piping for the turbo system for a damn good price, and I'm very happy with the quality.

Not worth starting a new thread, but I found this on ebay...

Koyo aluminum radiator...$120 shipped

Is this a legit deal?? I just finished working out so im a little woozy, maybee im missing something.

I bought a new cap(93 RX7) yesterday, but damn this nice weather, I couldnt tell if it did anything or not...

Im taking the car to a family friend mechanic on Saturday, found out he has his own shop with all the diagnostic gagets, we'll see if he can come up with anything.

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Originally Posted by Jiggerachi

Not worth starting a new thread, but I found this on ebay...

Koyo aluminum radiator...$120 shipped

Is this a legit deal?? I just finished working out so im a little woozy, maybee im missing something.

I bought a new cap(93 RX7) yesterday, but damn this nice weather, I couldnt tell if it did anything or not...

Im taking the car to a family friend mechanic on Saturday, found out he has his own shop with all the diagnostic gagets, we'll see if he can come up with anything.

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It depends what they will do to you on shipping. I think thats just a stock replacement radiator, nothing special.

email me i have a stock radiator taking up space for $50......

Noted...

Ill let you know what I find out on Saturday.

Ok, well the mechanic basically said the same things as I already knew, but also suggested that I check the condensor for blockages.

I looked under there & notices significant rock dings, small pebbles & bugs imbedded in there. I snapped a quic pic of it. Im sure this is normal for any car thats this old, particularly low to the ground & drivin frequently through a perpetual construction zone(121) but do yall think this is bad enough to be part of my problem?? I plan to clean it out thoroughly anyway.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...adiator006.jpg


Also, after driving through moderate heat / traffic / AC on, with the new radiator cap the problem seems to have diminished significantly. I still see slight rise & fall of temperature, but I am not convinced these fluctuations are not any more than normal(up to but never over the half mark on the gauge). Definately more moderate conditions than earlier, but I have seen the temp go way up in these same conditions.

I guess at this point, time will tell, I just have to wait for the next heat wave & uber rush hour traffic. But for now I think ill put the replacing of expensive parts on hold for now.

I have heard of an off the shelf radiator cleaner that supposedly works on older engines, anyone know of any ill effects this stuff might have on the miata cooling system? I might give this a try if it wont hurt anything.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jiggerachi

Ok, well the mechanic basically said the same things as I already knew, but also suggested that I check the condensor for blockages.

I looked under there & notices significant rock dings, small pebbles & bugs imbedded in there. I snapped a quic pic of it. Im sure this is normal for any car thats this old, particularly low to the ground & drivin frequently through a perpetual construction zone(121) but do yall think this is bad enough to be part of my problem?? I plan to clean it out thoroughly anyway.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v449/jiggerachi/Radiator006.jpg[IMG]


Also, after driving through moderate heat / traffic / AC on, with the new radiator cap the problem seems to have diminished significantly. I still see slight rise & fall of temperature, but I am not convinced these fluctuations are not any more than normal(up to but never over the half mark on the gauge). Definately more moderate conditions than earlier, but I have seen the temp go way up in these same conditions.

I guess at this point, time will tell, I just have to wait for the next heat wave & uber rush hour traffic. But for now I think ill put the replacing of expensive parts on hold for now.

I have heard of an off the shelf radiator cleaner that supposedly works on older engines, anyone know of any ill effects this stuff might have on the miata cooling system? I might give this a try if it wont hurt anything.

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thats booty. I'm about to go outside and check mine. :confused: Just get a little nail out and bend them all straight. It will be fun.

Yeah... that blocks airflow... Straighten 'em out.

They make flush kits that do work to clear out crud from the cooling system. Follow the directions. I did it on an old Jeep once and damn... there was some nasty ::Censor:: that flowed out. If your car wasn't properly taken care of by the PO then you should go ahead & flush it.

If you don't want to do it yourself then just about any oil change place will do it but they want $$$ for it.

RJ

Yea, I think ill do it myself...im a cheap bastard. Any preference to a brand in particular, or will any flush kit do the job??

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Originally Posted by Jiggerachi

Ok, well the mechanic basically said the same things as I already knew, but also suggested that I check the condensor for blockages.

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I should rephrase...he felt the air coming out of the fans & said is wasnt warm enough, being most likely that the air flow was slightly blocked. Not too bad, but enough to pose a slight problem.

I have already started straightening out the fins with an ice pick-ish type tool, took about 20 minutes to do just one row...this might take a while, some of the areas were pretty fubared, I had small gravel falling out everytime I straghtened one out.

Im going to have to pull the radiator when I get them all straight & take it to a high pressure car wash to get all the bugs dislodged.

Jigger - those fins are hosed. A radiator works by passing air through the core - as the air passes through, the some of heat from the coolant in the core is transferred to the air flowing thrugh the core. No airflow, no heat transfer (or very little), no cooling.

Another problem with older radiators that can't be fixed with an ice pick is that scale and deposits build up over time that decrease the coolant flow through the passageways in the radiator. I'd suggest just replacing the radiator with an all-new unit.

I've had similar issues with mine in the past, and I noticed on the way home from Houston this afternoon that it would start to creep if I was too close behind someone for too long where the radiator couldn't get a good constant source of cool (relatively speaking, of course) air. I definitely need to replace mine before I start dragging the trailer out to Mineral Wells this summer.

Yea, I know this radiator is on its way out. But im trying to get this one working well enough while I can save up some cash for a nice all aluminum one. If the problem still persists, then ill just have to spring for a new one.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

I have one of these in the turbo vw, for teh hot summers. Buy this, take $30 to a radiator shop and have 3 ports tig'd on and you have a race ready radiator, for about half the price of a pwr.

Ok here we go again...

I put some of that coolant system cleaner in on Saturday, This morning the radiator sprung a leak on the way to work, on the way home it got so bad that it took 3 stops & 2.5 gallons of water to get home.

I also tried straghtening out some of the bent fins on saturday, without incident, but I dont think that would have contributed to the leak, seeing as there was absolutely no leak untill 4 days later.

Im guessing that someone used some radiator stop leak previousely in this radiator & the cleaner removed the plug slowly, seeing as the leak is so bad & didnt show up untill now. Maybee also would explain the plugged radiator.

I sent BAM an email to see if he still had that radiator laying around, just to get me by untill I can afford a new one. Anyone know if the radiators are the same for 1.6 & 1.8?

Iain is right in what he said about being behind other cars will cause overheating in stop and go traffic, after all you are sucking in his heated exhaust. Keep further distance between if you see temperatures climbing.

On aftermarket radiators here is why they are better:

More volume, more efficient fin design for better heat transfer, all aluminum construction for increased heat transfer surface.

Why choose a PWR over the Koyo:

PWR has 9 fins/sq in VS Koyo has 7 fins/sq in for better heat transfer.

PWR is 1.57" deep VS Koyo is 1.40" deep, bigger is better up to the point of diminishing returns. Koyo has a 55 mm which is 2.16" deep, but the efficiency increase by the depth is lose due to less efficient heat transfer and the extra weight and packaging are not a benefit.

PWR uses one large single core design for more volume, increased surface area and better heat transfer VS Koyo uses dual core design with less heat transfer and efficiency.

PWR uses a machined neck with a flat surface contact for improved sealing of the radiator cap VS Koyo uses a stamped neck with a raised surface that is about half of the PWR contact surface.

PWR uses shorter fan standoffs by .20" to allow the fan shrouding to be closer to the radiator with less air losses from the sides.

PWR comes with a nice 16 lb. radiator cap standard, Koyo does not.

PWR tanks are thicker providing more mass for better heat transfer VS the Koyo is a press tank

PWR is the preferred radiator for forced induction and the only one we will recommend. For normally aspirated the Koyo is fine, but for the extra $50 you get a more efficient unit and the 16 lb. radiator cap.

We sell both, but you can see I am bias to the more efficient PWR. That's my story and I am sticking to it!

Gary