So i recently turbod my car and the first few drives i had no problems with cooling. Now all of a sudden it overheats very fast

motor is a junk yard 5.3, with a 5k mile ls1 water pump, and a 185* thermostat

I had stock radiator/fans and then i noticed the wires were melting it shorted out my stock fans and thats when i started having the over heating problem. So i got some new 12" dual pusher fans and hard wired them to a switch. they were on a buddies car with a similar turbo build before and he didnt have any problems with them

No luck, still over heating. I have only put green coolant in the car and it keep boiling brownish/rusty looking color out of the radiator cap

I pulled the thermostat and put it in boiling water and it is opening/closing like it should

i am pretty sure there is nothing wrong with the water pump, so here are my next ideas

1.Flush radiator/block and replace with fresh coolant and see how that goes
2. try a 160* thermostat
3. my hotside piping runs really close to the radiator hose coming off of the thermostat housing so maybe this is making the coolant get really hot? it hasnt melted the hose at all so i am not sure if that is my issue since it never affected it before i had my initial fan problems

Any ideas?

 

Are you sure the fans are blowing in the right direction?

Does it overheat while driving, or just at idle / traffic?

If it is fine while driving and overheats at idle most likely a fan issue...


Sounds like it might be a ground / relay problem with your original fans smoking up the wiring...

 

ya i didnt want to invest any more time in the stock fans because they were a hassle in my setup anyways being so big

the fans are pushers and are mounted in front of the radiator. which is how they should be mounted right? the temp just climbs and climbs no matter what i do, driving or idling, but it actually seems to do a little better when idling and maybe even cool down a little

 

If it used to work fine with the old fan setup, just replace that since it worked. If not, verify that your pushers are pushing. Swapped wires make them spin the wrong way most likely. I just installed some Derale fans and black was +12v.

Also, a 160F thermostat won't fix an overheating issue, it just masks it.

 

alright i will check if the fans are blowing the correct way and report back

 

Does it get hot with the hood open at idle?

 

If (after all your cooling fans woes) you continue to "use coolant" then you may have lifted a head.

 

What is a normalish range that a turbo ls1 should run? I'm getting between 190-200 sustained. That us with a 160 therm and dual shrouded pullers

 

mine cruises at 180-185, itll get to 205-210 in traffic and drop to 200 when the fans come on

OP, i agree with checking the fan wiring. if it overheats when you are cruising speeds then you may have an air pocket in the system or a headgasket issue. also get rid of the coolant and use straight water and water wetter.

 

if your using coolant your head gasket is toast sorry. open the rad cap and rev the engine just a bit if you get a geyser, sorry time for a head job, hey on the bright side you can get them ported, maybe open up the chambers lower compression with a thicker gasket...

 

ok here is an update

got a new universal radiator 31x19, and some dual pushers 12" fans that flow 2500 cfm, using water/coolant/and water wetter and its still getting hot like 240+

i dont know what to do, i feel like i have tried everything

 

Have you bled it properly? How is your crossover lines routed?

 

i am pretty sure it has been bled properly, the back crossover is capped off, which is how it was before it was boosted, the fronts are still connected and are routed to a fitting in the upper radiator hose

 

Head gaskets

 

Does the car overheat with the hood open? Does it have an air deflector under the core support?

 

i did a compression test

1-180
2-180
3-180
4-180
5-190
6-170
7-190
8-170


dont think a blown head gasket is my problem

air deflector is still in place. car will run fine for like 10minutes or longer depending on the weather (******* texas heat) and then start slowly creeping in temperature

 

PoP the cap and start it up and make sure that the system is properly bled.

 

X2....Also pull the steam vent hose and make sure no air is in there.

 

How can it is bled properly by having the cap popped? What am I looking for?

 

Looking for air coming out.