Overheating. How do i test to know the waterpump is working?
 

K this is what I got going on... 88 vert with a jdm t2 swap. After putting on the front mount intercooler I noticed my coolant temps gettin high. The koyo rad I have was leaking so I figured it was that... It normally ran about 185* on idle and never went past 200* before the front mount. So I changed the rad to a stock fc rad till the koyo gets fixed or replaced and now it'll idle at a good temp but as soon as I drive the car it skyrockets! I watched my defi gauge go to 240*! So I pulled out the thermostat and check it in a slow rising to boiling pot of water and it opened at 180* like it should. So that's good. Now what's left? Waterpump. How do I check to see if it's spinning inside? Is my front mount blocking that much air? I know my fan sux its a shroudless perma cool fan, could this fan really be making it run this hot??? I'm at a loss... I tried to stick something in the thermostat outlet and turn the engine by hand but didn't feel anything... I guess I'll try hooking it up without the thermostat in it and start it to see if it comes out the top hose? Is it ok to just run the car without a thermostat so it's always flowing???

if it's spinning on the outside, its spinning on the inside.

the only real "check" I know of without removing the waterpump is to check the weephole and see if theres any water coming from it.

It is possible that the impeller blades on the pump are deteriorated. There is a bigger possibility that your lack of proper equipment (shroud) is causing the issue.

Ok thanx! It just checked the and it's good. So I'm gonna borrow a new electric fan from a buddy of mine to see if that helps till my new fans come in. I ordered 2 fans. A 14" 1800cfm for the normal pull fan placement and a smaller fan to push on the opposite side of rad. Good idea bad idea? I figured it would help with the airflow I'm losing from the front mount...

Just check the pump. It's good. So I'm borrowing a buddy's fan for now till I get the new ones. I'm gonna order 2 fans one pulling in the fans normal place and one on the other side pushing. Good idea? I figured it would help with the loss of airflow from the front mount...

even if you have updated your radiator, you should still keep your stock fan and shred unless you get a electric fan

The fan is an electric fan

The fans generally shouldn't be used at highway speeds, which is where you indicated you are having issues.

Overheating at highway speeds would indicate to me a lack of coolant or a lack of ducting. I'd suspect that when using a FMIC, the plastic undertray and even some custom ducting for the sides of the radiator would be needed.

Push/pull is not a very efficient fan config and a 14" fan is too small for your application anyway.
I don't see this ending well.

Yea I've filled the coolant so many times I'm wondering if there's an air pocket somewhere? Tomorrow I'm gonna try putting the car on ramps to burp the system better. I figure if the rad is higher than the engine it should help. And I found the plastic undertray will this really help? I guess it do t hurt to try. The car always ran at 186*-195*ish but never thought about the undertray... Thanx for being helpful with your posts!

Ok so how about helping with a solution instead of pointing out what's all wrong? And a 14" fan is the biggest fan that will fit on the rad. I'm not joy riding the car with it overheating so why would it not end well?!?! I'm tryin to fix the problem which is why I'm here. So please, positive and helpful comments are all I'm really looking for.

There may be an air pocket. There usually is after refilling coolant. It should eventually go away though. Depending on how many times you've had to do this (squeezing the various coolant hoses to fill the "pockets") your next step would be to pressure test the coolant system.

Testers are sometimes available at parts stores as a free rental, or HF sells them for less than 100 bucks.

Getting the engine up to 240 degrees is a REALLY bad thing, and could have potentially killed it.

Yes I was very scared! I was on the highway with no where to pull over I wanted to cry!!! I'm gonna look into a tester for the coolant system... I need to fix this issue fast I hate it when I gotta drive my work van around lol. I tested again tonight when it got really cool out about 60* outside and no difference. It seems like the outside temp doesn't matter at all so I'm hoping it's just an air pocket. It idles perfect temp I can't even drive 1 mile before it reads almost 200* I'm so friggin aggravated...

OK then.
The stock fan pulls north of 3000cfm, so the 1800cfm replacement you have ordered is less than 2/3 as good as original.
A Volvo or Taurus fan should fit even a stock rad and both have integrated shrouds to boot, a very necessary thing.

The smaller "push" fan will actually just impede airflow through the rad and make the primary fan's job more difficult.

There are all sorts of threads about efans here, have you checked them?

Wow I didn't know about the huge cfm difference. I really didn't want to run the stock clutch fan (which I don't have) cause of the drag on the engine. Is there any electric fans that pull a good amount of cfm? Are the Taurus fans electric and a higher cfm? And no I didn't think to look and the post for this fan issue. I do this all on my phone and it's a real pain in the neck to read huge postings... Thanks for the help! O and also what year taurus fan will work?

You can also check the pump by placing a pressure gauge between the pump and the T/Stat . Then as you rev her up the block pressure should show around 30lbs. If the pressure is higher the T/Stat wont open.

"Drag on the engine" is not a valid reason for going electric.
The efan will load the alternator which in turn will cause "load on the engine", so it's kind of a wash.

Here's one way to install a Taurus fan.

Thank you for the link! I'm gonna look into gettin this setup in my car. I'm thinking that the only thing I did before I drove the car after the FMIC install was mess with the TB and adjusted my idle and timing. I'm thinking that if I screwed with the wrong adjustment it may be runnin lean cause the heat? I posted another thread looking for the exact way to adjust the s5 jdm t2 TB hoping someone knows best or has a link to learn from. This is my first fc so I'm not sure how to adjust it properly.

Go google "rx7 fsm"

It's the first link. Grab a beer and start reading!

Nice! I forgot about the link to rotaryheads.com for the FSM. Thanx

Ok throttle body was removed, cleaned, and adjusted. Runs about 15* cooler. Weird. So I'm guessing:
A: I need more air flow to the rad do to the none existing undertray, and huge FMIC blocking air.
B: air pockets in the rad coolant maybe still? But I'm pretty sure that's ruled out by now.
So tomorrows mission:
1- put under tray back on
2- make some sheet metal ducting
3- cut holes in my crappy front bumper that's zip tied together anyway
4- put the car on car ramps to hopefully burp the coolant system better. I figure if the rad is higher than the engine this could relieve some air pockets if any

Then look into the gettin the Taurus fan or stock fan w/shroud
And get my friggin koyo rad fixed or replaced even though some people swear by the stock rad I like the koyo better.
So much to do so little time!

Remember, the radiator on our cars are big for a reason. They need LOTS of air and unlike a honda civic radiator, it requires minimal blockage like anything else. Try putting a fan in front of the car and attach string to your radiator. You should see how much of the air flows through if any.

Meh, I like the aluminum radiators as well. They're larger, feel sturdy (although shouldn't move around anyway), get better results, and aren't made of multiple materials.

Yea I'm gonna try and make the ducting as efficient as possible. If all else fails I'll be relocating the FMIC to another place. I'd like to v mount it maybe if this ducting doesn't work. I thought of just mounting the FMIC where the vmount IC would be just so I can get the temps down but then the IC won't get much air. It'll only be picking up the temps from the rad fan... Then I thought of maybe top mounting this beastly IC with a sheet meatl heat sheild under it... Idk what do you guys think? I'm thinking vmount is best but I need a temporary solution for this weekend...

Whats this weekend? If it isn't a track day, just do what you can to v-mount it, and dont boost.

V-mount is the way to go, but it can get expensive to do it the way you want it done.

Nah this weekend is rotorfest at Atco raceway in nj. Drag/car show rotary only. I've been waitin a while for it... Beings that I live in pa these not to many rotary enthusiast shows around so this one is much anticipated. I think I'm gonna try to get my koyo fixed and vmount it before the weekend

lol.