not getting much love on my build thread so i thought i'd post this here for some feedback.

i've been having cooling issues since i did the motor swap 3 years ago. i've added fans, changed radiators etc and nothing has worked. last week i installed a 3 core all aluminum radiator thinking i'd finally be done with it. not quite. here's the details of the install:

Before: 4 fans, 2 pullers and 2 pushers. stock 3.0 alum/plastic auto zone radiator.






pulled everything out and cleaned up some wiring:





as close to round as i could get with an angle grinder...haha







INSTALLED:



there's about 1/2" clearance with the crank pulley.....doesn't get much closer than that!






got back last night, overall had a great trip. wheeled Poughkeepsie Gulch with my brother. beautiful scenery and was impressed with how challenging the trail was. had to have some good spotting at "the wall".
http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=77 pics pending

still having cooling issues, got about halfway up the first big hill out of Denver and had to pull over and wait for the engine to cool down. got some rain on the passes so it did ok most of the way after that.

i pulled the thermostat before leaving for the trail on friday and it actually stayed cool most of the day. got a little hot near the top of hurricane pass but my inclinomter was pegged at 12000' so i'm not too upset. still gets warm on the highway though, even with the thermostat out. not sure what my next step will be, gonna take a break for a day or two and then dive back in.

*HG was replaced 3 yrs ago and there are no signs that it could be the issue (no water in the oil, no oil in the coolant etc)

 

im sorry to hear that! i hope that you can get it worked out. on mine i have the stock radiator from a supra and then two pusher fans and it seems to do fine. havent had any problems yet.

 

Wow, I too am sorry to hear, man........ You'll get it! Loving the 7MGE RIG! Hoping this title get's some people chiming in

My Cressida with a 7MGTE swap began to overhead due to HG failure BEFORE it began to milkshake(where it obviously began to REALLY overheat, haha... )....... I am definitely prayin it's not that, and I doubt it........ You're not seeing any vapor clouds or such or you'd have mentioned that/noticed it, clearly.... Hmmmmmmmm, could it be a port or something clogged up with RTV that broke free?

Best wishes, man!

 

The pictures say everything here. Its a bunch of little things all adding up.

You know your thermo housing is on backward right? Its supposed to point towards the drivers side. Turning it around where its supposed to be will give you shorter lines, and less pressure drop. Plus those sharp bends in your lines will restrict flow. As silly as it sounds, every little bit helps. I'm assuming it was turned 180 so you can take off the timing cover without removing the housing. Just cut your timing cover in half on one of the lines in it and you can take it out no problem when the housing is pointing the proper direction.

If you turn the housing around, you'll need to get a rad built like the factory one to get the benefits.

Pull fans are far more efficent than a push fan. A push fan is constantly fighting with the moving vehicle to get more air. If you want I can send you some pics of my rad support...or rather where it used to be so you can see my set up. Simply put. A big hole was cut in it and my rad sits 2" farther forwards from the factory location giving me room for a pull fan on a switch in the cab. I only need one fan to hold 190-200f around town. I don't need the fan on the highway.

That plate you've made to mount your fans on is restricting HUGE amounts of air flow. Build a skeleton frame for them and it will help. A fan shroud is much different than just a plate like that. Up here in winter, we put peices of cardboard with holes cut in them that look just like your fan mount thing in front of our rads to keep the coolant temps up so we get cabin heat.

Stay away from aluminum rads. Its takes someone who really knows what they're doing in order to fix them. Where as any rad shop will be able to fix a copper/brass rad.


Thats just the visual stuff from the pics...now to the normal questions.

Whats the opening temp of your thermostat? I have an 82c. Whatever that is in american I dunno.

Are there any air bubbles in the system? When you filled it was the valve to the heater core open, allowing coolant to flow? How did you fill it?

Do you have an after market gauge with actual numbers on it or are you using the factory gauge? If you've added extra wiring to the coolant temp sensor wires you have also changed the resistance of those wires and the gauge will likely read wrong.

Are you running lean? That will cause excess heat.

Is your rad cap good? Mine is rated for 13psi

Whats your coolant mixed like. If you say 50/50, or "I bought premixed" I'm going to tell you to get a coolant tester and find out.

Is it all one kind of coolant or is it a mixture of whatever was on sale? Flush the system anyways and use all the same brand of coolant that you can easilly get more of. If you get premixed, check it anyways and make sure its good.

 

well thanks for the feedback guys, there's some good ideas in there that i'll have to try.
nothingbetter to answer a few of your questions:
the thermo housing is backwards so that i can run this radiator. originally i was running the 3.0 v6 radiator (the first one in the pictures) because it had a lot more capacity than the 22re rad as well as the supra rad. i realize the angle of the upper radiator hose is not ideal but it seemed a small sacrifice to fit a larger radiator. now that i have this aluminum one i'm pretty sure the radiator can't be the culprit. these things are rated for lots of hp.
coolant mixture is good, maybe not exactly 50/50 but not enough to make a difference here.
thermostat is nearly new and straight from toyota
rad cap is good
the thermostat is out right now, so there can't be air in the system.
i think i got most of the questions...

i'm going to look into cramming another fan or two in there as well as the air/fuel ratio. thanks again for the feedback

 

FANS ARE NOT YOUR PROBLEM! If its done properly you should only need one! Too many fans and you'll start restricting air flow even more!

You've been tricked. Hp rating on rads is used to fool people into buying it. Your engine should have a 13 psi system like mine. The amount of hp put out doesn't effect the pressure in the system. And wether it has 100hp or 1100hp it should still run around 1300f egt crusing down the highway. So your cooling system should be able to keep up regardless of its hp.

It doesn't matter if your thermo is new. It matters what the opening temp is. There are usually a few different thermos available for each engine and the difference between them is the opening temp. If its too high of an opening temp your coolant will run too hot. To low of an opening temp and it will never get up to proper temp. Depending on your climate you have to change your thermostat. The air temp here varies between -40f and +95f so I have 2 thermos that I switch out. One for winter, and one for summer.

Someone has also lied to you. If your thermostat is out is out, you'll still have air in the system. Bubbles in your heater core will be there whether your t-stat is in or not. These engines also have a throttle body heater in them. Simply put, a small coolant line runs up through the throttle body. I had a hard time getting the air bubble out of that little bend in the hose.

Go out and buy a coolant tester. Figure out your freezing and boiling point and adjust from there. Thats why I said 50/50 or premixed isn't a good enough answer. You need an exact number.