I just installed my own rebuild into my car this weekend. The engine fired up right away, however I am having some cooling problems with it. The water temps seem to continue to rise. I have an aftermarket gauge tapped into the water pump housing on the outboard side of the coolent so I can get accurate coolent temps. The engine warms up and then continues to rise. I have not drove the car around since I would rather not be driving a car around that continues to overheat. The radiator, water pump, hoses and theromostat are all new or with less than 100 miles on them. Since it is over heat I tend to believe that it is the fan clutch that is gone but I have no way to test that. Also, I have headers on my car, and they get glowing red hot with in 5 minutes of the car running. I have not had headers on my car before but I do not believe that the headers should get glowing red that fast. Any help would be great since I would like to get the car running asap.

Thanks

~Anthony

 

Do you still have a fan shroud?

What kind of headers do you have? And I'm sure they shouldn't get redhot at idle.

Also make sure your thremostat is working properly.

 

Well at idle the cars fan can only pull so much air away from the engine. Movement is what keeps the car cool.

Idling will have the temps lowly rising. Fan shroud is a must if you are running stock fan. A bad fan clutch is possible.

I would drive around a little bit(stay close to home) and see if the temps drop or level off. If it starts to go high then shut her down and pop the hood if needed or hurry your *** back.

My SE ran at about 180*F and I used a autometer temp gauge placed in the secondary fan outlet on the back of the water pump housing.

Things you might want to do are. Get the Radiator cleaned and buy some water wetter(It dropped my temps by 10 degrees). Also make sure none of the hoses are collapsing under vacuum/pressure from the pump.

 

Oh damn like he said! Thermostat!!!!!!I totally forgot that. My car on the highway would constantly rise in temps because the thermo had failed.

Sometimes air in the system can raise temps too.

 

first make sure theres no air trapped in the cooling system. after you're positive the system is bled properly watch the overflow tank for bubbles or do a coolant system pressure test. You might have pinched an O ring during engine assembly, resulting in combustion gasses entering the cooling system.

 

I still have the fan shroud on, the theromostat is a new mazda one. I know that driving around would cool it off, however, it is not like it is gradually getting hot, the engine warms up, the thermostat open and then the temp continues to rise.

 

Oh, and the headers are standard racing beat ones.

 

well are you sure that there's no air in lines?

 

The lines are pretty air free.

 

Well if you want to check your cooling system for air bubble to see if you damaged a seal.

Take the cap off and run the engine. If you see a lot of small bubbles or if it geysers out then you got a hole on the coolant ring.

The sign my cars showed when it blew a seal were:
-Over pressurized system.

-Hard starting/had to give it gas on one of them to get running.

-Radiator cap pushes open and dumps coolant into and sometimes out of the overflow and onto the ground.

-low level of coolant due to pushing it out or consuming it

 

The glowing headers and temps not falling suggest a blockage in his exhaust system to me...


I also have (more like had) a high flow cat and one day this past fall the brick broke loose. It rattled around in there for a while before plugging up the hole to the y-pipe and mufflers. I was halfway to work one morning when that happened. My power all but disappeared, my temps wouldn't go below 190F and the exhaust noted changed. Dunno if the stock header was glowing but you can be sure it was pretty damn warm.

Have you driven the car yet? How's the power? Getting to 3k in any gear took patience, and getting above 3k took creativity.



And I disagree with the statement that "If you see a lot of small bubbles" the seals are gone. I had cooling issues two summers ago and I noticed those bubbles. I've since put about 80k on that motor and she's still going strong.

Geysering - you've got a problem.

Occasional bubbles - start looking elsewhere.

Btw, the cooling issue was solved after using RETed's mod cooling flush, a new thermostat, an e-fan and two bottles of water wetter. Don't know which of these made the difference, although I believe it was the mod cooling flush, which I would think is unnecessary on your rebuild (since it's so new.)


Your cooling system was meant to be able to maintain normal temps without water wetter (so using it may be a band-aid solution at best,) although adding a bottle certainly wouldn't make things worse.

If you don't think your neighbours will shoot you for it, I'd suggest disconnecting the exhaust between the header and the cat. Then start the car and see if the headers glow like before, as well as the temp problem. I'm really curious about the headers glowing like you say, and I think that it's an important clue...

 

the engine getting that hot that quickly seems a little strange to me. Check your headers and and exhaust ports to make sure there is nothing blocking them. Headers shouldn't be glowing within 5 minutes.

Check your thermostat also, possibly put in a different one which opens farther. Do you know if your fan is turning on at all? I don't if you mentioned it or not. Sounds stupid, but make sure no coolant lines or passages are blocked either.

 

GLOWING HEADERS AT IDLE? Dude, your Crank Angle Sensor is off a tooth. That's the only way headers will glow at idle -> The timing is off.

 

I think you are right, I am now pretty sure my timing is off, I am going to reset it again. Hopefully this works. Thanks guys.