Unsolved cooling problem.
The quick summary is that my engine in my '91 ix is getting too hot, or at least the sensor in the thermostat housing says my coolant is getting too hot. However my radiator core is not. Less than 10k on water pump, no leaks, 72 degree thermostat, and the coolant in the expansion tank is over 40degrees warmer than my radiator core. New thermostat housing and sensors also.
What I have tried so far. My car first started to overheat when idling when we got a heat wave in May. I went after the usual suspects. I did the newspaper fan clutch test and it failed, so I decided to do the auxilliary fan switch switch mod from an e36 to take care of my cooling problem. I had a cooler switch from my e36 when I did the fan delete mod on that. I hooked everything up, nothing, still overheating and the fan never came on. No big deal, the wiring that goes to the switch looked frayed, or maybe my aux fan was toast, no biggie.
I then got the 72 degree thermostat installed it, and I cracked the thermostat housing when I used the wrong o-ring to seal it. PITA. I ordered a new one from bavarian auto recycling and it came with sensors and everything. Installed it, and also installed a 1300cfm spal slimline fan and an adjustable fan relay, 160 degrees and up.
Installed everything, burped ALL (took a while) the air from the cooling system, and same thing, almost overheating when idling, the coolant temp goes up past 3/4ths. I am very frustrated at this point, I turn off the engine and 2 minutes later, the fan comes on. Weird. I thought it might be a bad temp sensor in the relay unit, so I got a trusty digital thermometer, tested it in boiling water and it was 211.5 which was close enough. Brought down the boiling water, it was only 193 when I got it to the car, immersed the sensor and the fan turned right on stayed on untill 159, then it shut off. I did it again, played with the adjustments, everything worked great. Finally i just stuck the meat thermometer into the radiator, turned on the engine and let the thing almost overheat, the fan turned on at 160 radiator core temp, the temp guage in the dash was almost in the red, and that fan sucked the whole thing back down to 3/4th, then shut off, and it would just cycle that way. I took the thermometer off and stuck it in the expansion tank after relieving the presure, and the coolant was still at 195 degrees. Why is my radiator so darned cool even with no airflow?
The quick summary is that my engine in my '91 ix is getting too hot, or at least the sensor in the thermostat housing says my coolant is getting too hot. However my radiator core is not. Less than 10k on water pump, no leaks, 72 degree thermostat, and the coolant in the expansion tank is over 40degrees warmer than my radiator core. New thermostat housing and sensors also.
What I have tried so far. My car first started to overheat when idling when we got a heat wave in May. I went after the usual suspects. I did the newspaper fan clutch test and it failed, so I decided to do the auxilliary fan switch switch mod from an e36 to take care of my cooling problem. I had a cooler switch from my e36 when I did the fan delete mod on that. I hooked everything up, nothing, still overheating and the fan never came on. No big deal, the wiring that goes to the switch looked frayed, or maybe my aux fan was toast, no biggie.
I then got the 72 degree thermostat installed it, and I cracked the thermostat housing when I used the wrong o-ring to seal it. PITA. I ordered a new one from bavarian auto recycling and it came with sensors and everything. Installed it, and also installed a 1300cfm spal slimline fan and an adjustable fan relay, 160 degrees and up.
Installed everything, burped ALL (took a while) the air from the cooling system, and same thing, almost overheating when idling, the coolant temp goes up past 3/4ths. I am very frustrated at this point, I turn off the engine and 2 minutes later, the fan comes on. Weird. I thought it might be a bad temp sensor in the relay unit, so I got a trusty digital thermometer, tested it in boiling water and it was 211.5 which was close enough. Brought down the boiling water, it was only 193 when I got it to the car, immersed the sensor and the fan turned right on stayed on untill 159, then it shut off. I did it again, played with the adjustments, everything worked great. Finally i just stuck the meat thermometer into the radiator, turned on the engine and let the thing almost overheat, the fan turned on at 160 radiator core temp, the temp guage in the dash was almost in the red, and that fan sucked the whole thing back down to 3/4th, then shut off, and it would just cycle that way. I took the thermometer off and stuck it in the expansion tank after relieving the presure, and the coolant was still at 195 degrees. Why is my radiator so darned cool even with no airflow?
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