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cooling alternatives

let me rephrase it as it seems my question isnt understood. the telling signs i posted above show that my car is indeed running cooler. 1) temp needle drifted slightly toward the cooler side 2) the high fans dont come on as much anymore 3) the low fans do come on regularly in the summer heat. i'd like to know if its actually possible for a thicker oil weight to make that happen. this is an old thread as u've probably noticed. all i've changed in the last few days is oil. nuthn else. and if these are telling signs of sumthn disastrous, i wanna know as well so i can go back to the lighter oil weight. thx guyz.
 
its closed in under the bumper in front of the radiator to the subframe. it helps the fans pull air through the radiator.
 
The lower splash shield does 2 things: 1) seals off the area in front of the radiator to create a high pressure area and the only exit for air is through the radiator; 2) has a slight air dam (curve down) under the radiator. This creates a low pressure area behind the radiator which helps pull the air through the radiator.

Get that on and see if you're happy with the results. If you still need to manage the coolant temps more, then drain your coolant and add 10% antifreeze, 90% water, and Water wetter. RedLine recommends 10% antifreeze (as opposed to none) in street driven cars with a heater core as they said ice can form there.

If that still doesn't work, then you might want to consider replacing the coolant/oil cooler with an air/oil cooler... so the oil isn't heating up your coolant.
 
BrApple said:
its closed in under the bumper in front of the radiator to the subframe. it helps the fans pull air through the radiator.
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morbid said:
The lower splash shield does 2 things: 1) seals off the area in front of the radiator to create a high pressure area and the only exit for air is through the radiator; 2) has a slight air dam (curve down) under the radiator. This creates a low pressure area behind the radiator which helps pull the air through the radiator.

Get that on and see if you're happy with the results. If you still need to manage the coolant temps more, then drain your coolant and add 10% antifreeze, 90% water, and Water wetter. RedLine recommends 10% antifreeze (as opposed to none) in street driven cars with a heater core as they said ice can form there.

If that still doesn't work, then you might want to consider replacing the coolant/oil cooler with an air/oil cooler... so the oil isn't heating up your coolant.
Click to expand...

thx for the info guys. i appreciate it. but no one has ventured anywhere near my question yet. if u dont know, its fine. i just wanna make sure no one is missing it. until last sunday i was running 10w40. Temp needle is right smack dab in the middle, & high fans come on all the time. still with me? i went up in weight to 5w50. the results are as i listed above. higher fans dont kick on nearly as often and temp needle drifted a tad toward the colder side. my question is this: is 5w50 too thick for a 3L turbo in summertime texas or is the oil weight perhaps just right that it dropped the operating temps? i'm not gonna drive the car till i know for sure. i'll pop a vein if i pop this motor this quickly again. thx.
 
BAD SVT said:
and the splash shield isnt svt bumper specific is it?
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yeah, it is, sort of. the SVTs got a different one thats a little lower to mate with the lower lip of the bumper. a lot of the non-SVT 98+ cars didnt even get one, though all the pre98s did.

the thicker oil is likely not getting squeezed as much between the bearings and as such not heating up as much. because of that there is less heat to transfer to the cooling system, which results in slightly lower coolant temps. just my thoughts.
 
It forces air to flow through the engine bay and through the radiator rather than past it downwards where that shield is.
 
striker2 said:
the thicker oil is likely not getting squeezed as much between the bearings and as such not heating up as much. because of that there is less heat to transfer to the cooling system, which results in slightly lower coolant temps. just my thoughts.
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thx. and thats exactly what i'm worried about. the delicate bearings on the duratec. u cant as much as sneeze around them. even with the right oil specs, ppl still spin 'em.
 
BAD SVT said:
thx. and thats exactly what i'm worried about. the delicate bearings on the duratec. u cant as much as sneeze around them. even with the right oil specs, ppl still spin 'em.
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I wouldn't worry about that, I would run a 40-50w for sure in a turbo car in Vegas heat personally.
The only caution I would have is not hammer on it when the car is cold and not warmed up, as the thicker oil will take longer to get to temp.
-J
 
biminiLX said:
I wouldn't worry about that, I would run a 40-50w for sure in a turbo car in Vegas heat personally.
The only caution I would have is not hammer on it when the car is cold and not warmed up, as the thicker oil will take longer to get to temp.
-J
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definitely always give it time to warm up before getting on it and then time to cool down afterwards (a turbo timer is easy to wire in and works well).

also, FWIW, i run a 15W-40 in my VR4 and a lot of the guys run a 20W-50.
 
I run 15w50... but I think I'll switch to a 40 weight for the winter times, instead of running 15w50 all the time. The 50 does take a very long time to heat up... and I never get on it until the oil is at least 160*. I also try not to have the oil pressure more than 100psi, which means I couldn't get passed 2k rpm with cold 15w50 in the winter.
 
biminiLX said:
I wouldn't worry about that, I would run a 40-50w for sure in a turbo car in Vegas heat personally.
The only caution I would have is not hammer on it when the car is cold and not warmed up, as the thicker oil will take longer to get to temp.
-J
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striker2 said:
definitely always give it time to warm up before getting on it and then time to cool down afterwards (a turbo timer is easy to wire in and works well).

also, FWIW, i run a 15W-40 in my VR4 and a lot of the guys run a 20W-50.
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morbid said:
I run 15w50... but I think I'll switch to a 40 weight for the winter times, instead of running 15w50 all the time. The 50 does take a very long time to heat up... and I never get on it until the oil is at least 160*. I also try not to have the oil pressure more than 100psi, which means I couldn't get passed 2k rpm with cold 15w50 in the winter.
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thx guyz:). good to hear others run that weight as well. i feel much better. i in fact am always careful about keeping it under 2500rpms at the start of the drive.
 
change your tune to get the fans to kick on earlier. remove the air dam under the car if you have a mirko and run some DEI radiator relief additive with your normal antifreeze mix. run a 180 degree thermostat. it is common for people to run a cooler thermostat but that doesnt help because it doesnt slow down coolant flow enough. its a battle between moving the fluid and cooling it. if you move the coolant too fast, it doesnt get a chance to cool much in the radiator and will cause you to run higher temps.

i fought overheating issues like crazy when i did my first 3L swap. when i got tuned, it all went away with just the cooling fan tweaks. i added the DEI stuff for good measure and it sits at 202 degrees in traffic, ive never seen it go over 205. it runs about 190 when moving on the freeway in the 90 degree heat.
 
TRicker said:
change your tune to get the fans to kick on earlier. remove the air dam under the car if you have a mirko and run some DEI radiator relief additive with your normal antifreeze mix. run a 180 degree thermostat. it is common for people to run a cooler thermostat but that doesnt help because it doesnt slow down coolant flow enough. its a battle between moving the fluid and cooling it. if you move the coolant too fast, it doesnt get a chance to cool much in the radiator and will cause you to run higher temps.

i fought overheating issues like crazy when i did my first 3L swap. when i got tuned, it all went away with just the cooling fan tweaks. i added the DEI stuff for good measure and it sits at 202 degrees in traffic, ive never seen it go over 205. it runs about 190 when moving on the freeway in the 90 degree heat.
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thx tricker. whats the air dam under the car?
 
heh... yeah, I'm confused too. It's not possible for the car to run cooler w/o that. Then again, if 90* is considered hot there, he's not really pushing his cooling system anyways.

And a 160* or 180* thermostat... they're both going to flow the same rate when open, assuming they're the same design.
 
morbid said:
heh... yeah, I'm confused too. It's not possible for the car to run cooler w/o that. Then again, if 90* is considered hot there, he's not really pushing his cooling system anyways.
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yeah, too much air will be bypassing the radiator to actually run cooler without it.


And a 160* or 180* thermostat... they're both going to flow the same rate when open, assuming they're the same design.
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yeah, the only difference is that the 160* is going to open sooner which just means it takes longer for the car to get to operating temp (about 190-210) which it will still do. as such the car may not go to closed loop as soon as well as the oil may not get up to temp as soon (which means less protection for bearings). obviously that means you cant have real fun with the car as soon either. :laugh:
 
It's there mainly to protect from water splashing over electrical components. My friend that worked at Honda as an electrical engineer for 8yrs was telling me about how they actually installed small cameras in various areas of the engine bay to see how water came in and that is what dictated the design of the plastic shield. I suppose it does provide a pressure difference to drive air from the engine bay to flow down underneath the car as well, but that is more or less a secondary purpose rather then a primary one. However that's just my two cents.
 
thx y'all. its probably a good idea to have the splash shield anyway. i've always worried about water getting to my air filter ever since i put it in the bumper. especially when i go through the carwash and the water sprays underneath it. i do know its bad news to get the air filter wet.
 
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