I finished the car up and started it yesterday.

Brian Green came to the shop to give me a crash course in FAST tuning, and he got a really good base program in the car. Starts up fine and has great driveability. Idles and drives like stock with 83lb injectors. Thanks Green!


The good- So far, there are no exhaust leaks, oil leaks, coolant leaks, rattles, etc. The car is smooth as glass on the highway and is almost as quiet as stock. The exhaust is 3.5 from the turbo all the way back to an SLP two on the left muffler and tailpipes. I modified the muffler to have a 3.5in inlet instead of the stock 3in. Havn't really got a feel for how much power it has because I only saw a few lbs of boost. The boost controller isn't installed yet so I just had a vacuum hose directly from the turbo to the wastegate. I'm pleased that all of that has gone well, considering the engine/trans/ds/rearend/turbo system/engine mangagement are all new.

The bad- She's running pretty hot. I've still got the A/C, and it's got an 8in puller fan on the drivers side, and the stock fan on the passenger side. It takes a while, but it gets up to around 210-220 degrees whether its sitting or driving. I would really love to be able to move enough air through it to keep the A/C, but I don't think it's going to happen. I think at this point I'm going to have to remove the A/C, and get a high CFM aftermarket fan(s), and possibly a better radiator. It's running hotter because the turbo exhaust is very close to the radiator, so I'm forced to run a small fan on the drivers side. Not to mention the turbo is water cooled, and I'm sure the oil temp is up considering the exhaust plumbing.

Once I get the cooling issue solved, it will be up on the dyno and I'll have some #'s.

Any suggestions on the cooling system are welcome

 

The turbo has a oil feed line to it as well right (I haven't seen one with out it) so why run the water thru it as well? Just from being around most of my friends with DSM's (only ones around here with turbos) when they go to the bigger turbo's they do not run any water lines to them so they don't heat up the water as much.

One thing you could do is cut out the front section of the front fascia, block off the bottom and make it a front feeder instead of a bottom feeder so you could have more air flow. Along with that, what about getting a shorter, fatter radiator and moving it down and towards the front of the car so it sitts under the that front crossmember. ala World Challange cars. (also similar to BMR's car)

See if you can't fab up a heat shield for that side of the turbo so it doesn't heat up the radiator as much.

 

need some pic's

 

Here you go. (Thanks Bdubb!)

http://www.chitownsyty.com/gallery/v..._albumName=jim

 

I was just under the assumption that if the turbo had provisions for water cooling than it should be used??

Where could I get one of those shorter/fatter radiators? I'm fairly dissapointed that I have to get rid of the A/C

 

I don't know if it would be a 'stock' size that Griffen or BeCool would carry or not. I was looking into getting a shorter one for mine because the 12 rib ATI setup is really close down there and i was just going to move it farther forward in the cavaity to get it away from there. I don't remember what the measurements were off the top of my head though.

I think if you did that it would probably be a good idea to make it a front breather, then you could also run a pretty good sized fan(s) to pull in a lot more air. But doing this would also require the removal of the front crash support and washer assembly. From how I've looked at it anyway.

As for the coolant lines. Well I just helped my friend put a 'Green' Turbo on his Eclipse (roughly a T66) and it had both water and oil lines running to it, however we only used the oil lines....for 2 reasons: one being the heat transfered to the coolant and seconldy we could not fit the water pipe to it between the compressor housing and the block. I know when he looked how others were doing it they usually don't run a water line to them when they get into the bigger turbos.

Check around to see what some of the other guys are doing with them to see but like I said a lot of the DSM guys don't run the coolant line

 

Never mind...I just looked at your pics and you don't have the crash bar in the front of the car anymore.


I don't know if you could get enough air thru the intercooler, A/C, and radiator to keep it cool enough. If you cut out the center section between the fog lights in the front, made an air box behind the front fascia and made some room for bigger fans then I think it would be ok. Just going to have to watch your air management.


Only other thing is how bad do you really want A/C on the car because this is going to be quite a bit of work...along with some added cost to the project

 

That it an machine you have built!

Looking at your pics perhaps one of the cooling problems is the fact that your intercool blocks most of the airdam to get air up into the radiator. When i had my ground effects kit on it would get warm like yours no matter what i was doing, driving, sitting, etc. Maybe if you extended that plastic piece down some it would help. I also saw a setup somewhere with two spal pusher fans on the bumper side of the radiator, maybe that would help too.

 

yea, I would say its a function of the IC blocking a LOT of air, and the single fan not doing enough. I would put a pusher fan on the drivers side

 

So you would suggest keeping the two fans I allready have, and adding an additional pusher on the drivers side?

Any thoughts on keeping the A/C?

I would put two pusher fans on it if It would work.

 

My guess is you would have to do away with the a/c to use the two pushers. I think that huge a/c cooler infront of the radiator would prohibit this.

 

what kind of Valve covers are those and how well do they fit? Or were there some issues you had to deal with???

Neal

 

They are composite LT4 valvecovers. I'm not sure but maybe all C4's had them? Ironically, my 97 LT4 car came with steel LT1 valvecovers.

They fit very well. I'm using comp pro magnum 1.6 rockers and 7/16 studs and they required no modifications. I got them because my stock valvecovers had sealing problems after I removed part of the supports to clear the valvetrain.

 

what exactly is your fan setup right now? does it get hot idling around, or on the highway, or both?

 

The fan setup is an 8in puller on the drivers side (rated at 800cfm, you can kind of see it in one of the pics).

The passenger side fan is stock. Running the stock radiator, water pump, and 160 t-stat.

When it's just idling, it will reach operating temp like normal, and if I continue to just let it sit and idle, the cooling temps will very slowly climb to 210-220 degrees. It takes about 20-30 minutes to go from 160 to 210 or so. If driven, the temps stay about the same.

I had it on the highway for about 15 minutes between 60-90mph, and it was between 210-220 degrees. I don't think the car would ever really overheat and boil over, but I would really feel more comfortable with 185-195 deg temps.