Evans is still a liquid. Laws of thermal expansion says liquids (and most things) expand with heat so you will need a reservoir aka overflow bottle. Liquids also contract and as temps decrease so the reservoir bottle is used to draw liquid back into the system.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/su...s-and-liquids/

I ran evans in my FD 15ish years ago. It smelled funny when hot. Coolant temps were a bit hotter as I remember it. Mail order only so keep extra around and carry it with you to track days just in case needed. Eventually got rid of it when the coolant hose between the rear iron and throttle body split while away from home. Managed to do a field fix on the hose and topped off with water and wound up switching back to water and green coolant. I can't say I actually saw an improvement in cooling performance from it but YMMV. I know Rich swears by it. I don't track my FD anymore so my coolant system is a bit under stressed on the street with the v-mount.

Sakebomb has / had a cool EWP setup that looked like a great option for track cars.

Enjoying the build and the cameos

 

SBG and Turblown's Davies Craig EWP-based kits both look good


Solid points on thermal expansion and thank you for the feedback on your Evans results, Alberto - glad you're enjoying the build!


Seems we have been talking waterless on the forum since at least 2002 - should have found this when I was running an FMIC back in 2005, could have helped with that failed setup.

Some great contributors popping up as I bench race and research some more of this new to me anhydrous system in theory - keeping the cameos going:

I am finding a lot of great feedback for and against this system, I will keep familiarizing myself with it, but can't wait to put it to the test

 

I've been running Evans on multiple vehicles for 20+ years. Great stuff for sure and has saved me on multiple occasions and I always recommend this to people/customers. Couple key points.

Yes you can run pressureless because it doesn't boil at a low temperature. I usually do run pressureless because I won't have to worry about some 30 year old plastic coolant part randomly rupturing under pressure and leaving me on the side of the road (BMW guys love this stuff because of this.) Pressureless has saved me personally because I cracked a radiator during a rally event and did not leak all my coolant out of the crack which would have drained my coolant quickly if it were under pressure. I pressure tested the system to find the leak when I noticed residue under the radiator after an event and it shot a steady stream while pressurized but without pressure it was a seep not even a drip. I had a slight seep for the next 4 rally events while I waited for the new radiator to come in and didn't have to worry about losing that much coolant, just topped it off here and there, didn't even go through a 1/4 gallon in 4 months of daily driving and rally events because there was no pressure causing it to spew out. It does tend to expand more if you run pressureless so you will need an overflow.

The higher boiling point saved a couple engines that ran into cooling fan issues and it wasn't noticed until gauge was pegged and coolant expanded past the overflow limit. Since it does not boil at low points, no hot spots occurred inside these engines and no damage was done which I would have typically seen with pure water or water/coolant mixes. Vapor can't build unless something is boiling so you have a more consistent temperature throughout the engine even during overheating. The vapor pockets where spikes are located are usually the killers in engines. This goes for detonation as well. Spots around the combustion areas of engines (rotaries and piston) are usually the hot spots which see vapor pockets under heavy loads, because you boil the water that is in there even under pressure creating hot spots which can't transfer heat (vapor doesn't transfer heat well at all) which can cause detonation. This just will not happen with Evans unless you have air in the system to begin with which is a killer no matter what coolant you use.

Evans does not cool any better than water so don't expect your temps to drop with it. The main benefit is the boiling point for reasons above as well as the lifetime use of it (this is huge with rotaries where acidic coolant likes to eat out the irons and create internal coolant seal leakage.)

It can be a task to convert depending on when you do it because you want all the water out of the system. I usually do it when I rebuild engines or perform engine swaps because the system is dry other than the heater core which is quick to clean out and dry while you are doing the other work. If you are converting a running car like I will be with the FD, the cost goes up a bit more because you have to run the conversion fluid which helps absorb the water int he system and then convert so you are basically draining and filling the entire system twice, 3 times if you aren't very thorough.

Only reason I see not to use Evans is if you race at tracks which have restrictions on only allowing water for cooling (i've heard this is the case at very few locations)

I have this in my daily drivers, been in my wife's built S14 for at least 18 years (yes it is truly lifetime coolant and can confirm its still working great, I have logs from a 92 degree day last week and car still stays cool with a Front mount and proper ducting) and plan to convert my FD to Evans as soon as I order my stuff to restore my cooling system.


Cooling Fan Relay went out

 

The thorough feedback on a waterless coolant system is greatly appreciated boostin13b - thank you

You and your wife have quite a beautiful, cool duo with the S14 and FD

 

.......you should run Evans NPG+, ****

 

You should pair that with this image for a proper meme

 

I'll see your meme and raise you a few quality screenprinted, low production t-shirts after a successful track season without coolant issues

Oh there will be 99 problems no doubt, but if the waterless coolant system ain't one -> to the (proper) graphic designing

 

 

Token non-build updates before getting to the nitty gritty anyone really cares about


Still taking up with the hiking and backpacking bad habit - RX-7 back in the home garage should take care of these idle hands...

Did the PemiLoop (Pemigewasset Wilderness.Loop) back in June




and the PresiTraverse (Presidential Range Travers) back in July




Did the PresiTraverse with a high school friend who introduced me to cars and this car culture with a Sports Compact Car magazine back in 1999 - went down memory lane together with some old school print pictures

He had a Plymouth Laser when he was a Junior and I had the 1998 Acura Integra GSR when I was a freshman (thanks Mom for the co-sign and my first job at Dunkin Donuts - add a "wicked pissah" and you might not be able to find a more New England sentence)

15 year old me learned a lot, primarily that an AEM cold air intake and A'PEXi Dunk Megaphone exhaust doesn't mean sh*t, especially compared to his next car...


(cars on a mountainside snowpark? Picture on top of a picture - I'm not Ken Block. Rest in peace legend)



Another trip down memory lane from old hobbies and loves - skateboarding and my 2004 Legacy GT (the car to this day that I would still trade my E92 for)

Manual transmission, plush leather, weather band channel, TSD rally champion, clutch kick snow drifts axis donuts for days

Golden




Back to what my friend replaced his Laser with...

...a 1997 MKIV Supra Twin Turbo Anniversary Edition Targa

From a Supra meet we headed to together back in 2003 down at Englishtown






That MKIV gave me the grounded understanding after I felt the twin turbo kick and that power is power

and that I may need something more than a B18C1 to keep up...

Which is what led me to the RX-7

 

Alright out of 1999 to 2003 nostalgia over the days of having an appreciable value stock RX-7


Back to the present state


Intercooler and GReddy elbow came back from the coater with the Cerakote Glacier Silver 1800* coating

Looks a little primer unfinished, but I do appreciate that it is now all uniform






Intake needed a bump out with the FFE Idler Pulley in the way









Fully finished jumping the shark with the Evans conversion

 

Installed and tapped the new 929 brake master cylinder with an AEM brake pressure sensor to get braking input into the AiM dash to Race Studio for track over lay input analysis with track map turn by turn through GPS

Just need to extend the LMS-EFI harness to plug and play




In the future with RBF660 - back in my day we only had coverage up to 600* with RBF600

 

Haltech accessories are now talking to the Elite




Elite 2500 is now talking to the AiM MXG Dash

Comical seeing the optimistic lap count and lap time provision on my initial dash map

Still crawling but I set it up with the "the car goes where your eyes go" base dash page

 

Looked good for a road test until the car wouldn't go into gear

One night wondering if it was the transmission, brand new clutch, or... ?


Found it was the clutch fork (good new$ vs transmission or clutch new$$ silver lining?)

The new unsprung twin disc found the ghosts my last ACT 6-puck heavy duty couldn't I guess












Didn't have the chance to wrap the transmission tunnel with this unplanned pull, but wrapped up some more of the harness while we were in there




Had my reverse lights staying on in neutral and off in reverse - flipped it and fixed

 

Will still need the one gallon at a time voltage grab, but I believe we have s solution on the fuel level sender between the Radium Surge Tank level sensor and the AiM dash

Thanks for the help Costas

 

Small things here and there


Figuring out a one push button for the HVAC with full fan speed (4 on the dial), defroster, and full heat

Have the defroster wired open as step one




These modules are a lot chunkier than I knew and initially planned

"we can just bring the emergency hazard button right over"




The goal I provisioned for the layout of the HVAC dash - the solution... TBD




Pulling the fire suppression module into the glove box, repurposing a previous clean set up








Some other odds and ends to wrap up - feeling like we're just about there

 

She runs on her own power








Talking with John Renna to make some magic over the coming weeks after we break in the engine


Gettin' there

 

Stinks about the clutch fork. Would think IRP would know enough to swap it when changing the transmission. It's a no brainer if it hasn't been changed before. Hope you don't have to pay for the labor on that.

 

This is my third clutch swap in 21 years, and I had never changed out my fork - I am assuming this was the same fork that rolled off the assembly line in 1992

It was inspected before dropping in and looked fine

I am a proponent of preemptive "while we're in there" changes as well, but replacing an apparent good part if not seeming necessary - a little column A, a little column B


The rigid Exedy Compe-R (ZM022SBL) was / is always going to be a new piece to contend with (how many clutch systems out there have their own recommended warm up cycle?!), and I thought the Fujita Engineering slave cylinder would be all I'd need


Hindsight is 20/20



Finalized the driver side Lifeline fire suppression nozzle mounts



Three in the engine bay (9:00 12:00 3:00 in the last picture posted here), and one to my feet and one to my torso

Have but hope to never use





Talking through traction control set up through the Haltech Elite with Renna, and I am at least partially provisioned for this set up (to be confirmed)

Too soon to tell where we land on my setup, but too much risk to rush - do it once, do it right, and be damn sure that we're well in the safety margin to dial in

Not a necessity at this stage - we'll see



I have some much needed fuse and relay box sticker replacements from Benny / Bubble Tech

Continue chirping at him with me for a remake of his carbon fiber door cards - should have grabbed them when I had him lined up to match the weave angles (Pagani level OCD) on my dash pieces





Fulfilling the dream

 

What ever coolant you use I personally think you should run it pressurized.

With no pressure cap it will also leak straight into the reservoir unless you delete the reservoir nipple. Maybe a deleted reservoir will allow thermal expansion to create a little pressure.

I know your going single (or have gone it already..lol), but flow and pressure are 2 completely different things.

With flow imagine a fast paced river, but you see big rocks at the rivers edge, what does it do... it swirls around the back face of the rock and doesn't really go anywhere. It's not like a voyager situation where its going to sling shot around the curve of the rock and shoot onto the shore.

The flow is great for simple systems without small off shoots, but without pressure the water will take the least path of resistance and the smaller off shoots will not have good flow due to lack of pressure.

General comment - Coolant system for the twins, all those dang little hoses for the TB and warm up system, temperature sensors, it will affect the flow through the heater core - all because lack of pressure.

Depending on engine RPM maybe it will flow enough, but it will not flow evenly throughout the system without pressure.

Im also with arghx on Evans VS 100% concentrate coolant being about the same thing. If you spring a leak with Evans you can still add water and make it home. The system just has to be drained to get 100% Evans back in. Has anyone ever ran 50/50 Evans and water?

Here are some observations on running no pressure vs pressure from my build thread. (with a bad coolant o-ring)


Part 9 - Crazy EVANS Drive At 0psi, 7psi, and 13psi

I filled the car with EVANS following the same procedure as always except this time I plugged the hole in the fill bucket when the car was fully warmed up and hopefully the fluid fully expanded. I did notice that the air bubbles were smaller than before but none the less I have same serious coolant oring issues. I also notice that the 100% sierra like to float to the top of the EVANS. I let the car cool down and removed the fill bucket and put the extra coolant back into the container. I packed the car with towels, the extra AST caps and almost a full gallon of EVANS coolant if I need to add more. I went for the test drive with the 7psi cap first, I drove about 2 miles and the car stayed between 86C to 88C and then I got on the freeway. This time it fluctuated between 91C then it would drop to 85C. It was almost like it was burping itself. The oil coolers were working, temps at 180F. After about 5 miles the low-level coolant buzzer came on – uh oh. I exited the freeway and pulled into a parking lot where old people were playing bingo. The car did not go past 91C, so it was better than the 100% sierra run. I lift the lever on the 7psi cap to relieve any pressure and when I took it off it looked like someone just blew out a ginormous thick cloud of a vape hit. I shut off the car and added like 1qt of coolant.



This time I put the 0psi cap on to see what would happen. I rolled out the parking lot and up a hill, sat at a light and then proceeded onto the freeway. Within 5 minutes and less than a mile of driving the low coolant buzzer came on again – OMG WTF. I pulled over right away and thought did I just completely loose an oring, did I forget to tighten the drain plugs, did a hose pop off… NOPE. I was able to drive 0psi in the past with the clogged radiator, but did the blockage prevent good flow and thus the coolant kind of hung out??? Anyways I’m sure combustion pushed the coolant into the overflow tank.

I filled the car up again with another 1qt of coolant and this time I put the 13psi cap on it. I was kind of shitting bricks because I was almost out of EVANS and I did not have enough for a 3rd fill up. I went on my merry way and the car was solid at 86C for the next couple of miles, this is off airflow only as my fans do not come on until 88C.

I got home and my coolant overflow tank was dripping and I used my drain to empty it and approximately 2qts came out – go figure.

So the question is, do I still need EVANS if I need to run a 13psi cap due to the oring issue. The main advantage right now for me is only waterless since 0psi or even 7psi is out of the question. The car ran decent on the 13psi cap. I’m really tempted to put regular old 50/50 with the original coolant since it seems like the pet friendly sierra was only used to be compatible with the EVANS.

Flame suit on ... lol

What ever you chose bro - good luck!

 

Nice job on the AEM brake pressure sensor. Did you install an AIM TPS sensor / string pot as well. I'm using both on my Spec Miata. I've learned a lot from both data points. I also have steering angle via the string pot. Not as useful as I would have thought...

 

saw the car at IRP this weekend. Was wondering what the coating was!

 

Thanks for the insight Ben I am too green with waterless to give you an experience-based opinion one way or the other

I am for damn sure going to plan ahead with back up Evans on hand versus SoL adding water to my system. The good news (on paper) is that if I am noticing my temps/longevity/performance going t*ts up, I can add water and regain the same old school water cooling efficiencies/properties/simplicity cavemen used on the original ICE's

...BUT that would undo the pain (i.e. $) I have gone through to get to this point after committing to waterless

I do appreciate your trial and error approach there, and will follow suit starting with a higher 1.1kg/cm² cap that I will most likely swap right out for a 0.9



Thanks Alberto

I do have TPS coming through an LMS-EFI AVI that will go to the AiM, and there are several other systems for tightening that nut behind the steering wheel that I can integrate down the road

Analysis (or analysis paralysis chasing tenths?) will be key, and is exactly why I went with that dash

Unfortunately my first-gen MXG is outdated

There are better systems out there these days using Smarty Cams and integrated video output where you can do this analysis right from your driver seat

I run with a lot of fellow AiM users, but may pick your brain directly on best use cases once the time comes if you don't mind




Very cool Jehan I hope you had some fun at the shop, and thank you for some of the other parts of yours you may have seen in my engine bay

I considered an all black intercooler (would have been Cerakote Glacier Black) finish similar to what you have on your own intercooler, but I think it would have been a blackhole void with Brilliant Black



Topical progress on the build fresh out the oven - harness has been extended and plugged into the new brake pressure sensor






and a random/kind of funny "FRIENDS - how many of us have them?! Ones we can depend on!" picture that popped up in the rotary track rat braintrust conversation this morning

 

I also have the SmartyCam. The data turned out to be more useful for analysis and getting faster - when coupled with someone who knows how to interpret the data and explain what I should improve.

The dash has not been as helpful beyond displaying best lap time, predictive lap time and digital speed so I can glance at the speed during a corner in my peripheral vision to try and make sure I don't overslow (classic, common mistake). It gives me a little bit of immediate insight into whether what I'm trying on track is helping or not. Even an AIM SOLO is incredibly helpful for this.

I actually hired a coach where we reviewed both data and video. Brake sensor can inform whether you are braking too early, releasing too late, erratic pressure while trying to heel-toe etc. TPS informs if you are really full throttle, if you went to throttle too quickly, too hard, not hard enough. Good stuff.

The video has been good to visualize what is in the data. Also good for critiquing race craft. It is a good tool by itself especially if you are feeding brake and TPS into it. Lower learning curve in looking at the video to try and glean insights. Data analysis has a much larger learning curve. I still struggle with it.

Good luck with your program.

 

Thanks again I am going to hop into Race Studio this week (I can dial in dash pages remotely) and will come back with some armchair quarterback insights, with a more thorough write up down the road

I used to "just" use gear/rpm by noise & pull (easy to gauge on my mountainous Whiskey Hill Raceway home track, where the course will penalize you if you're a fraction off uphill or pushing too hard downhill), a quick glance at entry/exit speed but mostly going off feel, and flow/smoothness into and out of turns as a simple indicator on improvement.

I am going to aim for as simple as possible on the driver insights while I ensure my mechanical safety parameters and alarms are well sorted


My friend's Pete and Paddy ended up dumbing down their dash for me when I took their endurance champ AP1 out for a weekend






Of all the data points, mostly focused on bringing it back in one piece





A few more afternoon updates came in on the build


Steering wheel column cover trimmed and mounted (note to self - Lifeline Group N FIA quick release)

You can also see a bit of the Bubble Tech dimpled floor mat installed (note to self - Black Magic grip tape)




HVAC Switch and USB charger in




ECU as Elite 2500 remote USB connector in




The devil is now in the details as we get it wrapped up

 

Rick, run the Evans NPG+ with a zero pressure flat cap, that's the whole point. We're not reinventing the wheel here guys-- turbo rotary owners have been running Evans NPG+ for decades. On the street, on the road course, even on the Tail of the Dragon. Zero pressure cap, OEM overflow and all functions as you'd expect. Guys with stock twin turbo systems too believe it or not (to include "all the little hoses and warm up system and sensors") and again all functions properly. Theory is great but without real world experience I'd say it's best not to make recommendations to other people on their setups.

For those reading and may have missed it--- appears Ben/Rotary Extreme went with different pressure caps as a bandaid for an engine with a failed coolant seal. Not something that any of us should hopefully have to deal with