Bobczar

He just dealt with it saying it was because the turbo sat so close to the radiator with 1100-1400* downpipe temps.

I ordered a cheap puller fan yesterday to see if that helps any. I am going from 10" to 12" and plan to have it come on immediately.

Pullngz

You do still have the plastic air dam on the front of the car, right? How about the black plastic(2 piece) that runs at an angle behind the windshield washer reservoir. They both funnel air over the condenser and through the radiator.

What concerns me, is you have all that heat on the driver side, and no fan to remove it. Both fans are on the passenger side. In an ideal world, I would like to see a fan shroud, allowing air to draw across the whole coil. but not sure that is possible with the routing you have going on.

Is it good at highway speeds, and not good around town?

Bobczar

I know I have an air dam underneath the front of the car. There is also a fan that sits directly under the turbo and hot side.

The car currently stays around 220-230 on the highway but once I hit less than 50mph the temps just rise to 240+

I am contemplating replacing all coolant hoses, thermostat, and flushing the system. But as they say, if it's not broke don't fix it.

I will try to get under the car again to take better pics of the setup either tonight or this weekend

Bobczar

Here is the fan setup for the turbo. It is set to pull towards the ground.

97WS6SCharged

Your build thread says the heat exchanger is mounted under the nose. Where it it exactly and where is the transmission cooler mounted?

Bobczar

I have circled where I have 2 heat exchangers below.

He stated that one is for the intercooler system and one is for the transmission cooler.

The transmission cooler unit is located at the rear of the car just in front of the rear axle.

97WS6SCharged

Hard to see. Are they in any way impeding or dumping heat into the air stream which feeds the condenser and radiator?

mzgp5x

Yes, I too had some temp probs. But not 230*F unless in stop and go traffic before the final config. app..(F1A LT1 MM6 1997 Camaro SS).
I cut the top and lower rad support (gone). Used a Be Cool Rad with after mkt fans on my new fabbed mount. Much more room up front.

Then went to Evans NPG media with no thermostat, and, Mezz 55gpm electric pump. Still have the underside vent for air flow thru the rad assy, w/a front pusher fan on the IC.

Changed to a large (31x24x4) front mount IC, and, cut the front facia. Installed a gril in front, and, some added facia structure support.
Fabricated my own front bumper and mount assembly for easy on/ off action.

This config runs very cool. 160 to 180. Evans NPG is very good @ heat removal with high flow air. The heat can melt wire insulation, so, ducting is critical.

Brad.

Bobczar

Partially related to this topic, I'm thinking of purchasing a new front facia that should/will allow a more direct air flow to the ac condenser & radiator as well as my air intake(directly in front of RF tire). Though I'm not a fan of the company or the fact it's fiberglass what do you guys think?

Correct me if I'm wrong on anything as I'm still new to the f-body.

ZR Edition Front Bumper Cover

Aside from that, which of the Evan's coolant did you use? Just the regular High Performance one?

EDIT:

Here is a pic of the front setup. You can see where my heat exchangers are mounted as well as the air intake. Sorry about the poor quality and no, the heat exchangers are not zip-tied normally. Just keeping them from dragging/hanging on the ground.

mzgp5x

I used the Evans NPG. I use the regular brand (green label). Looks like they changed the marketing name. Also, from past Info from their site (evanscooling.com) they recommend a full flow system with no T_stat. Built my own. They had none for the LT1 pump.


Also, a good book is by Ray Bohacz on cooling systems. Available at summit.


Good fans with high flow are needed to remove the heat. Also, I do recommend moving the stock rad supports, and, forward location for a sufficient air gap. The distance (air gap) in front of the engine is needed in FI applications. The opti has a difficult time of survival due to added heat transfer (heat soak encoder failures). I have had many failures.


FI is not an easy path due to the tight 4th gen engine bay. It can be frustrating with these failures.


I am now in process of Opti elimination. 24x system and Holley HP EFI PCM.

97WS6SCharged

Personally I'm not a big fan of the aftermarket nose. I also don't think it would help your heat problem.

From the looks of those pictures the heat exchangers are in the direct path of the air feeding the radiator. I'd venture to say that you're either dumping super hot air onto the hot radiator or you're just not moving enough air into the radiator. Or both.

You might want to try moving the smaller exchangers to the splash guards in front of the wheels with a set of small fans or scoops (check out Procharger's twin intercooler setup for ideas) to see if that will help the problem. You'll have to get a bit creative with the air filter though or just stick one directly on the turbo. That's where I would start anyways.

Bigtoyz97

And not having a thermostat is kind of known of creating higher temps also cause its not slowing the coolant down enough for the radiator to do its job. I don't know of any street systems that would not have one because of that. I still have factory radiator in mine with a 97 LT1 383 and procharger and I never over heated yet. But need to upgrade here soon just so my temps are little lower.

mzgp5x

OK, Yes. With 55 gpm there is much fluid flow. With Evans NPG here is not much nucleaic (sp?) boil. Very good heat transfer in the high temp head area. Stagnent flow will cause over boil and temperature stratification and insulation of heat transfer in the fluid flow laminar/ turbulent flow. I have had very good success with this media (Evans NPG), and my own invention of the open therm-stat. Evans also recommends an open stat. There is none on the market for a bypass type LT1 water pump. Had to Engineer my own. It was easy. It is always good to have a high fluid velocity for high heat transfer. Check "Kreith" for more info an Nusselt and Prandtle numbers. It's working great for me. But.... I'm out of the Box. B.

Bigtoyz97

I have read that these cars don't like pusher fans cause it impedes cooling. and also not having a shroud over the engine side of the radiator isn't going to help and stop and go traffic cause fan is not moving air over anything except for the part in front of it.


Most people do dual fans on engine side and make a shroud for fit over the whole radiator. Im still running factory radiator with a built 383 supercharged and have no problems with cooling in stop and go. At highway speed the fans do not run anything past 40-45 mph I think they shut off cause you get more flow at highway speeds than fans can supply.


I would look into bleeding the coolant system to start cause air in these things will over heat no matter what. Change out thermostat with a new one and running without one will cause them to over heat cause you have to slow down the coolant so the radiator can do its job. If none of that fixes it flush and look for restrictions or possibly heater core.


And also make sure to have the air catcher under there also.