Overheating Phantom

[kwayzivietnamese]

Oki..
Heres the situation..
Mate bought a car a few weeks ago and only drove it at night. He started to drive it during the day and noticed the car start overheating...car had a copper radiator and no thermostat...
He noticed coolant leaking abit from the cap...replaced that...
A day or two later, a radiator hose blew...replaced that...
Next night, another radiator hose blew...replaced that...
A few days later the radiator cracked (small hairline crack above the bottom hose outlet)...replaced with a second hand (good condition) standard aluminium item...
Still overheated...
Purchased a brand new 12" Davies Craig thermo fan...still overheated but took a while...
Purchased a second fan (made in Japan 12V rated at 85 watts with skewed fins) - dissapated twice of not 3 times as much heat as the Davies Craig fan...was fine but upon stand still of about 30minutes +, the needle would climb...
Put in a thermostat today (was not previously running one)...was marginally better...good for normal driving and stand still...(today's temp wasnt too high) and one boot or two...but continual booting it would overheat...
Head gasket was checked and perfectly fine...
What is there left to do...
He noted that there is about a 15-20cm section of the 3" dump pipe which runs parallel with the radiator and is about 10-15mm away from it...he will be putting exhaust heat wrap around it 2moro and pray that it makes a difference...will it? Or is he wasting his time?
What else can be done to kill this overheating phantom? Or what else might be causing it? Any solutions?

Cheers

[mullett]

Ok, first thing: Why is the car sitting still for 30min plus? Secondly, how's the airflow to the radiator? Is it blocked by a FMIC, aircon condenser, etc? Thirdly: What's the general condition of the motor? Is it corrodoed, does it have blocked water passages, is the gauge stuffed (good chance)...etc. Are you running good coolant, is the heater circuit blocked, is there air in the radiator...
Next, replace ALL the hoses. If one goes, the rest will soon, and for the sake of $100 worth of hoses, it's worth the peace of mind. Re-do all the hose clamps, check the water pump (may be missing a fin, corrodoed or just plain stuffed). If the waterpump is belt driven, check the belt and tensioners. What's been modified on the overall motor? Is there a turbo pumping excess hot water into the cooling system that doesn't belong there, and if so, how has it been setup? etc etc...

RM.

Last thing: Why all the overheating threads?

[kwayzivietnamese]

All the overheating threads to try to help a mate out to sort out his car and have it back to 110%.
Sitting for 30minutes to test it...
Radiator has a/c infront of it...and infront of that is an fmic...
Motor is good condition...compression tested at 160 across all 4 cylinders...
Well the coolant is crystal green clear..no funny particles whatsoever..
Hoses were replaced...rear/underneath engine..n the 2 front main ones...
Mmm not sure if gauge is stuffed...wouldnt think so..i mean it stays fine UNTIL it gets hammered a fair bit...kinda a coincidence if it climbs the same time as the motor starts to be hammered for a while...
He is using Nulon concentrate...one small bottle makes 10L.
How do you check if heater circuit is blocked? I mean heater works fine and so does a/c.
Not sure if there is air in the radiator...how to check or get rid of them?
He is hoping that the exhaust heat wrap solves it...apparently a mate of his heat wrapped his dump pipe real good and you can place your hand on it and its just warm...and its about up to 70% more efficient/cooler under the hood...
Definately will check the water pump tomorrow...

[EldarO]

my headgasket was blown, i had around 170-180 psi across all cylinders, radiator was clear, oil was clear, the hg was blown between a water gallery and the cylinder.

90% not the problem though.

id assume, if it was a modified engine (for example, 4agte into ae82 corolla) that the standard radiator may not, simly, be up to the task, as in, not able to flow as much water as it should.

if the motor is upgraded, the radiator should be too (theres a fair bit of lee-way here, but a few mods, and you'll start running into the problems you listed).

id be inclined, to spend a little bit extra, and take the car to somewhere like autobahn, or natrad, and have the cooling system CHECKED.

some places even do this for free nowadays, and even if it costs a few bucks, it'll pay off bigtime if you find out what it is.

best of luck to ya!

Eldar.O.

[kwayzivietnamese]

Mmmm...ill get him to pay natrad a visit tomorrow then...hopefully its free for diagnostic...

[EldarO]

yeah, it should be, they usually have a sign out the front with "free cooling system check" or the like on it ive seen it outside a couple of places now.

Eldar.O.

[Soarer_D00D]

Sounds like theres a lot of pressure in the cooling system, have you tried to bleed all the air out of it? Probally not the cause, and i am by no measures a mechanic, but it happened yo my Soarer where there was so much pressure, the radiator cap blew off.

[kwayzivietnamese]

The heat wrapped solved the problem!
Temps are now beautiful...reaches half way...fans turn on...a minute later turns off and temp gauge is just below half

[mullett]

I think your main problem is heaps of shit blocking the airflow. Get rid of the AC, will make a world of difference.

RM.

[kwayzivietnamese]

a/c is a must for my mate during summer....his one fat mofo that sweats like no tomorrow with no a/c

[mullett]

Ah, well there's your problem...the engine is working too hard to push the excess mass. Solution: Jenny Craig.

RM