Bobczar

I'm new to using forums and posted this in the wrong spot before. I have a built turbo LT1 in a 94 Z-28 that I bought off a good friend. My car while just cruising around is getting way too hot.

From what I was told and can see the car has the stock radiator, high flow WP(cam driven), a 60/40 mix of PG/Water with water wetter, and wrap on the turbo and headers. Also has dual spal 10" pusher fans set to come on at 160.
The parts in italics is what I was told is done

Cruising on the highway I am hitting 220-225 and in the city I have hit 245. This is about 20 minutes of driving without even pushing boost.

I need help figuring out what to check/replace to get the temps down that I can easily do in my garage.

DelSoto

Something cheap and preventative anyways would be a flush of the system. If the water jackets in the block are not clean, the heat transfer between the block and the coolant will not happen efficiently. Radiator may have some blockage as well. That is where I would personally start.

Re-read your post to make sure I was not missing anything. You didn't mention the thermostat. As easy as the thermostat is to change on this vehicle, I'd replace it just for good assurance.

DelSoto

One more thought. Crack the 2 bleed screws just to make sure you don't have an air pocket in the cooling system.

Here are the 2 screws courtesy of Shoebox's site: http://shbox.com/1/bleeders.jpg

Injuneer

I've provided some info in this thread.

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/gen...diator-882707/

Detailed info in vehicle build:

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/new...-turbo-882708/

Bobczar

Last night I took of the radiator cap and noticed it was about 1/4 low. Topped it with distilled water and ran the car up to 185 degrees just idling.

Lots of air bubbles came up and I noticed that the thermostat didn't open until 180 degrees.

Afterwards I drove it on the highway for about 10-15 minutes and the temp was at 205-210 compared to 220-225.

When I got back home I checked to see if the fans were running and they were not.

So this weekend I'm going to re-bleed the system using the bleeder valves and check the wiring in the fans.

Bobczar

So after looking at the setup again I noticed my eye sight must be going bad.

The car does not have the 2 fans in front. It has 1 fan on pull(came on at 160-180) and 1 push fan(not sure when it comes on). They both sit on the passenger side of the vehicle.

So seeing that I may not go to a Ron Davis radiator as it may be harder for air to flow through/be pulled. I did some reading on other posts/forums that state the Griffin is a hair too large which requires some modifications as well as the core is installed using epoxy.

I noticed in the other thread I had started you stated that the Griffin is superior to Be Cool and I was wondering if you could elaborate on that?

Also, do you and your friend have your A/C deleted?

Injuneer

The Griffin was dimensionally more accurate. It is a tad on the tall side, but all we had to do was attached the top radiator cover directly to the radiator.

Neither of us had A/C.

Bobczar

When you removed your ac did you move the radiator more towards to front of the car?

Injuneer

No. Just removed the condenser, and made sure the sides of the radiator were sealed. I don't need any more room in front of the engine.

Don't know exactly what my buddy with the S/C did to that level of detail. He had a huge Vortech centrifugal, but I don't know the size. He got his stuff directly from Vortech at no cost, and they were actually prototypes of new designs. He had to provide Vortech with data logs from his MoTeC engine management system, and dyno and track data. As soon as he got one, he removed the part # so no one would know what it was.

Eventually he was running a Dart Iron Eagle Gen 1 SBC, motor plate mounted, along with the S/C, and he had a fairly small simple rectangular radiator, tilted slightly back at the top. Again, don't remember the details. At that point it was making 1,350HP and he was competitive in the PRO/Edelbrock Extreme Street series.

I do have a photo of the radiator, looking up from under the engine.

Bobczar

Before I start replacing parts I am going to throw the car on a dyno this Friday to see if maybe the car is running lean. I need to get a wideband on the car and get rid of this narrowband the previous guy installed.

btw, that is a nice&clean engine you got.

Injuneer

That's not mine.... belonged to George Baxter. Was running low 8's at close to 170 MPH. The one day he calls me, says he needs money for a business investment, and asks me to sell it for him.

Bobczar

So I finally got around to taking the front bumper off to inspect the fans. The puller fan was not mounted on the bottom. Large front fan was too large so it was mounted at an angle. And small front fan was shifted off the ac condenser.

So I remounted the puller fan and small front fan. Removed large front fan as it is pointless. Test drove the car and if anything it got worse.

So tonight I took it apart again and figured out I connected the puller fan to the wrong connection. There are two connections underneath and not sure which is correct.

To top it off I removed the sticker from the puller fan only to find out its actually a push fan. I removed it only because I couldn't see it from where I was

Pullngz

Post a pic of the engine bay, specifically the area behind the radiator. I am just curious, if there is room, for the stock dual fan setup. The stock dual fan setup, does a pretty good job, at keeping things cool.

Mike

Bobczar

Here is what pictures I was able to take this morning before leaving for work.






If I knew how to make small attachments I would.

Pullngz

Looks to be pretty tight, I really can't tell how much room there is to work with. Looks like there might be room on the inlet side, the turbo itself looks to be the closest. Might luck out with it falling in between the fans or close enough to clearance the fan housing.

With my 12 rib setup on my supercharger, I had to clearance the driver side fan housing. I also had to shim the fans to get them closer radiator.

On a side note, did this car ever cool? Something your buddy just put up with, or it just started, not cooling?