Ellies cooling saga .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 11:39 am

This is a spin off from my A/C removed thread because it would be OT there .

As mentioned all AC equipment removed to unshroud the radiator and clear a post fan air path where the compressor used to be . I've fitted the alternator on 92' non AC carby cars mounts and am currently using a Dayco 13A1005 belt so that it hinges up fairly high and away from behind the belt driven fan .

Thermostats . When I bought this car (in Melb) it had an 82 deg one and on the way back to Sinn City it ran mostly cold with the odd rise driving up the various ranges . I suspected it had the thermostat siezed open or missing and the story was it had one - siezed open . I replaced it with a 77 deg Triden one and that gave much more consistent temperatures in the winter time .
In the past month or so Sydney has had a few hot days like 30 odd deg and Ellie doesn't cope real well standing around in traffic for extended periods of time . The engine bay gets really hot to the point where fuel boils in the lines and you can hear the EFI pump cavitating at times . After the AC/alt mods I tried a 160 deg F (71C) thermostat because I knew for sure that this would prove once and for all if the rad or fans weren't coping . Same again , got a bit hot and just took a little longer to get there . The next step is to try the turbo Vortex viscous hub fan to see if it works any better than Ellies viscous hub . When these are stuffed they don't allow the fan to pull as much air when things get hot particularly at low speeds or idle . At the same time I'll probably remove the radiator and reverse flush it to see if any garbage comes out .

Radiators . One of the Imprezas has a radiator core thats the same length and height as the L series one but its significantly thicker and so should have more cooling capacity . The trouble is that Subaru fitted a narrow composite tank on the L's inlet side tank so it won't fit . I've looked at an MY radiator and its inlet tank is brass and wider and the fittings in the right place . Since the Impreza core is brass it may be possible to solder the MY inlet tank on it and fit the outlet side tank as per normal .

I aim to beat the heat one way or another .
Lastly this car shows no signs of blown headgaskets ie water in oil and uses no water , no gas bubbling up through the rad when warm .

To be continued , cheers A .

timmo · Post by **timmo** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:33 pm

others might disagree but i reckon the only proper solution is to go for a bigger capacity radiator. Depending on how it fits you might have to ditch the clutch fan in favour of a slim thermo. The standard radiators are at their limit for these cars, but then again without A/C, one in A1 condition in combination with an I/C is probably good enough.

timmo

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:12 pm

reckon with your experience over the years your instinct tells you to bite another bullet and get the radiator serviced by the pro's - that's what I do. Cheap Grief came with a newly serviced radiator as they had tried to fixed the overheating problem which was INLET manifold gaskets in the end !!

Post by **Captain Obvious** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:54 pm

i would be locking up the clutch fan so it is spinning all the time, i believe in the Aussie heat clutch fans and thermostats in old turbo cars are a waste of time!!!!

they need the constant air flow of a electric fan or the engine fan locked up to say cool especially while sitting in traffic and the like

Matatak · Post by **Matatak** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:57 pm

change clutch fan over to a decent quality Electric fan. (running all the time)
get rad service by the pros liek Steptoe says.

thats what id do.
i like a cool engine

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 7:24 pm

I have an Impreza twin core in my RX with the original LH tank and another tank made by the radiator place. It keeps the car cool even in 40degree heat but every few years it does fill up with crap and i have one tank removed and the cores poked out. I do everything to keep the cooling system clean but it still gets crap in it so i learnt to live with it.

I also dont run any engine driven fan only twin thermo fans

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:03 pm

Hi all , this should have been post 4 in this thread but I hit the control key by mistake and lost it , Grrrrrrrrrr ....

Take 2 . I spent a few hours on the spaniards this afternoon and found a few things good and bad .

I decided to remove the engine driven fan/hub and shroud (can't get one out without the other) . Then the elec fan which wouldn't come out whilst bolted to the radiator . Finally the radiatore itself .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:41 pm

This should have been post 4 in this string but hit some obscure key by mistake and lost it . Grrrrr ...........

Take 2 . I spent a couple of hours on the spaniards ths afternoon and found a few things good and bad .

I removed the main fan/hub and shroud (can't get one out without the other) and elec fan which won't clear everything whilst still bolted to the radiator .
I wanted to remove the radiator to reverse flush it and find out why it sat so far back at the top . The top bolt rubber insulators are thicker on the inside of the support panel than outside so I pulled them out and turned them around . I needed to do some careful cold forging at the sides of the support panel so all the air coming in goes through the core and not partially around it . The L radiator is in very good nick so no dramas there . I also wanted to trial fit an MY radiator which would bolt in if it had the L type straps fitted .
I also reckon the whichever Impreza core thats the same height and width as the L core fitted with an alternative inlet tank is going to be the go . I even think the MY left hand tank could be soldered on - its fittings are same as the L inlet tank .

Things went bad when I put all the std things back and discovered that the cooling system wouldn't pressurise and when the thermostat opened there is a very slight bubbling . I think Ellie may have spat a head gasket .

I went looking for ways to make the elec fan run all the time which is very easy - simply make a bridge wire with two crimp on male spades and plug them into the radiators switch wire plug . It would also be easy to run a switched earth from the dash as well , either way will switch the fan control relay on or off .

Ok so now I can stop this thing killing itself for long enough to build a fresh engine - I hope . I'd rather not spend money on a 251K old donk if I can help it .

I think I've lost my normal faith in engine fans and possibly another A/C fan to go with the std one and the Impreza radiator core will prevent later cooling issues .

Cheers A .

timmo · Post by **timmo** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:03 pm

bubbles could be just trapped air takes bit of time to escape the heater for some reason. But could obviously also be bad - is it pushing the water out the overflow bottle?

timmo

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:39 pm

on MY radiators, I have found the Brumby ones to be a bit taller than L series. I have however got an L to fit a brumby (needs the bottom brackets reversed and placed correctly, and a belt to low near each bottom corner.

If it makes you feel better, I think I may have either broke me drive plate (c'mon 5 speed conversion) or a heatshield bolt is loose - just after unintentionally kickin' down to second - tit revver !!

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:02 am

Hi Timmo , yeah Gee reminded me of that one so heater should be bled now and if I get the chance today I'll whip the cap off when its at running temp .
BTW no bubbles from overflow tank and its using no water so fingers crossed , will buy a new rad cap and see if the pressure comes up .

Steptoe I'm not sure if all MY radiators are the same dimensions but the one I compared to my L one had approximately the same sized core (height/width) but thicker and brass rather than aluminium . I could just squeeze the MY one in for trial but it wont bolt in because the bottom mounts are different .
The go will be to unbolt the top and bottom steel straps from the L rad (they have the captive nuts to bolt the main fan shroud and elec fan to as well as the L rad support panel mounts) and solder or braze these to hopefully an MY inlet tank - soldered to the Impreza brass core - tab folded to the L outlet tank . The nearside tank being L series will bolt back to the straps as per std so all thats really changing is the core and inlet tank , and how the straps attach to the inlet tank .
The top and bottom straps are soldered to the tanks on an MY radiator and are taller and bulkier than the L ones .
If this all works I'll have a radiator that falls into an L series just like the std one , fits the std fan and shroud if necessary and has greater core capacity .

In case anyones ahead on this the people doing the work for me will be Kyle and his dad at Southern Suburbs Radiators on the south bound side of King Georges Rd Blakehurst in Sydney .

Possibly next week , Cheers A .

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:31 am

Hey adrian,

My car came close to cooking on monday, we had a nice hot summer like day. I came to the conclusion that the only thing i havn't touched in the car was the radiator.

It came out yesterday and we pulled an end tank off to find that a little over half of my core is blocked fully. Little wonder it would overheat - only at speed though.

And i was surprised to find that they were single core. I thought the AC equipped cars were dual core (or where they referring to the AC rad?).

Just wondering if there's a particular year MY you need the radiator core from, and exactly what end tanks did you use?

If you're any good at soldering, could you do it yourself at home?

Any info is greatly appreciated, i don't want to be cooking my rebuilt engine...

Cheers

Bennie

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:47 am

Hi Benny , really need a rad specialist to do this and an all soldered MY rad won't go in easily . I've not done the custom rad yet - possibly next week . Also I would not be at all surprised to find my ok looking rad half full of gunge either .

A .

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 11:10 am

discopotato03 wrote: Also I would not be at all surprised to find my ok looking rad half full of gunge either .

This is why i'd rather look at modding a rad than just going out to get another secondhand L radiator...

I'll defenetly be looking around for something bigger (capacity) than the L radiator.

Cheers

Bennie

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:14 am

Adrian, I found the MY auto FWD radiator was about 45mm longer from left to right between tanks than the 4WD Brumby MY radiator. I fitted my gas mixer where it prevents the longer radiator fitment about 5 years ago - had I known then what I know now...

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:14 pm

The MY radiator I used for comparison was an MY wagon one . At the time I was more interested to see if it was a goer vertically because once you start using non std cores you factor in the width to suit your application . The Impreza core I've mentioned is the same height and width as my 85/86 manual RX Turbo L series core . Also the L straps being steel can be altered if necessary .

Seriously the easiest way out is to get your std core replaced , I just want greater than std cooling capacity because I'm going to build a fresh EA82T and don't want to risk the investment on a rad that may not cope with a bit more grunt (heat output) .

I managed to bag cheaply an external oil cooler from a twin cam Corolla so I now need a filter adapter to plumb it in . Does anyone know if EJ20's use the same filter mount as EA82's - there must be adapters for hard used REX engines so fingers crossed ?

Cheers A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:36 pm

there was someone on here a few years back who had no use for air con - like yerself - and plumbed the heater hoses thru the condensor - reported no further overheating !!

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:13 pm

I - suppose thats one way to skin the cat . The issues that would worry me are that the condenser would be considerably heavier with water and the mounts may not like that . Also those cores are designed to cool a gas rather than water so the tube dimensions are larger which is probably not ideal .
Last nail , the heat post condenser goes where ? Yup , straight through the ahh coolant radiator ...

Last thoughts till I talk to Southern Suburbs radiators , it may be possible to fit the L rad straps to an MY style radiator with a more modern core installed .

Can't say/do more till I speak to them , cheers A .

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:14 pm

I got me a parts car yesterday, $90 thanks to a mate, Subidave.

Came with a decent looking radiator that is now in the shop being cleaned up ready for install this arvo. $100. Kinda lucky since i'm going 4wdin for the weekend tomorrow...

Hopefully this will get me through til i get something similar to what adrian is looking for.

Cheers

Bennie

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 6:28 pm

Spoke to the fellas at SSR's and they reckon an RX with a perfect (meaning good as new) std radiator should be fine . They said that it has plenty of frontal area for the std engines heat output . The big if is when you increase the std or alternative engines output the std radiators ability to cope can be questionable . I didn't ask about hard slogging like say in sand so don't know about off road .

Anyhow one afternoon next week we will dig through their catalogs and see what can be put together in the way of tanks and cores .

Cheers A .