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Im trying to get the engine temps down a little. I currently have a single turbo with C6 manifolds flipped upside down. I have a 160* thermostat with dual fans and a universal aluminum radiator from summit racing. While driving around at night with both fans on the temp never gets below 200 ish but never goes above 210. I think the fans are rated at 950 cfm each from Mr. GASKET. I thought about trying some water wetter or something like that. Anyone have any good expieriances with that? This is all with normal street driving. I'm worried when I start hammering it, it will only get hotter. Any thoughts are appreciated
Factory LT and LS fans are rated at like 4000 cfm's each or something ridiculous like that so you are running much less cfm's than a factory setup. Other options would be to wrap the entire hot side or figure out a way to vent the engine bay to get the heat out so its not trapped. Things like spark and AFR can also have an effect on coolant temps. I typically run water wetter or HEET or Purple Ice in my stuff with water only, no antifreeze, but I'm in the south and it doesnt freeze here.
Any tension modifier for the cooling system is good. Blue Ice, Water wetter they all work pretty much the same way.. They keep bubbles from forming on the interior surfaces and help keep air pockets down.
I'd look at a recycled Ford Taurus/Lincoln cooling fan. They are way more CFM than almost any other and are 2 speed so you can use 2 sensors and have a normal and hot mode..
Factory LT and LS fans are rated at like 4000 cfm's each or something ridiculous like that so you are running much less cfm's than a factory setup. Other options would be to wrap the entire hot side or figure out a way to vent the engine bay to get the heat out so its not trapped. Things like spark and AFR can also have an effect on coolant temps. I typically run water wetter or HEET or Purple Ice in my stuff with water only, no antifreeze, but I'm in the south and it doesnt freeze here.
I actually just wrapped the hot side. And according to my heat temp gun it didn't really make a difference.
Any tension modifier for the cooling system is good. Blue Ice, Water wetter they all work pretty much the same way.. They keep bubbles from forming on the interior surfaces and help keep air pockets down.
I'd look at a recycled Ford Taurus/Lincoln cooling fan. They are way more CFM than almost any other and are 2 speed so you can use 2 sensors and have a normal and hot mode..
can I just mix that with my coolant, or do I need to drain the system?
I'm running a 160* thermostat with a derale 4000cfm dual fan set up. My temps run 175* -180*. Hottest I've been is 200 in traffic on a 100* day with Ac on. Get the derale s. $300 but comes with shroud, dual spal fans, wiring , relay etc. I'm also running a painless PWM fan controller , so they soft start and ramp up and down according to the temp you program in.
On my turbo nova i run a entropy radiator and there twin fans/shroud. I have a oem temp(194° tsat) , i have my fans come o. At 197 off at 195. It never goes over 197....even 100° days in Traffic, once moving my fans dont even come on.
Ls motors like it a bit hotter than sbc/bbc's, which are happier around 180
LS motors run hot for emissions purposes. Once you start adding turbos to the mix you really don’t want the coolant temps much above 180 if you are leaning on the engine IMO. Doesn’t hurt anything cruising or sitting in traffic around 200…
You basically have a poor radiator and a poor fan setup. You can try to crutch the poor radiator with better fans or crutch the crap fans with a better radiator. Or replace both with decent performance parts and never worry about it again. I usually crutch a crap radiator with the Taurus fan and it works ok. But it’s not ideal. Dorman 620101 is the reman. About $85.
Most companies inflate their fans rating with “open flow” numbers. Which means without a radiator in front of them restricting flow. I’m told Spal and a few other performance fan companies do not do this… But I have no idea. I don’t know how you’d rate them otherwise since ever shroud and radiator will put a different load on the fans.
Either way cheap fans flow poorly. MUCH better off with a known decent OEM fan setup if you can fit it. The open flow on a Taurus fan on high is about 6000CFM. So basically it’s badass. The factory dual LS fan combo is also great and may flow even more? I always use the Taurus model. Also you need to run a shroud if you want the fan(s) to work well.
Also depending on which summit radiator you have, I’m guessing it is crapola as well. You get what you pay for with radiators. Howe’s brand radiators are great. Call them up and tell them what you are doing and they will get you a great radiator. They can even custom make them to fit your setup perfectly.
LS motors run hot for emissions purposes. Once you start adding turbos to the mix you really don’t want the coolant temps much above 180 if you are leaning on the engine IMO. Doesn’t hurt anything cruising or sitting in traffic around 200…
You basically have a poor radiator and a poor fan setup. You can try to crutch the poor radiator with better fans or crutch the crap fans with a better radiator. Or replace both with decent performance parts and never worry about it again. I usually crutch a crap radiator with the Taurus fan and it works ok. But it’s not ideal. Dorman 620101 is the reman. About $85.
Most companies inflate their fans rating with “open flow” numbers. Which means without a radiator in front of them restricting flow. I’m told Spal and a few other performance fan companies do not do this… But I have no idea. I don’t know how you’d rate them otherwise since ever shroud and radiator will put a different load on the fans.
Either way cheap fans flow poorly. MUCH better off with a known decent OEM fan setup if you can fit it. The open flow on a Taurus fan on high is about 6000CFM. So basically it’s badass. The factory dual LS fan combo is also great and may flow even more? I always use the Taurus model. Also you need to run a shroud if you want the fan(s) to work well.
Also depending on which summit radiator you have, I’m guessing it is crapola as well. You get what you pay for with radiators. Howe’s brand radiators are great. Call them up and tell them what you are doing and they will get you a great radiator. They can even custom make them to fit your setup perfectly.
Good luck!
Thank you for the input. I'm not sure what to try first. The fans I have weren't cheap, a little over a $100 each. I made the shroud at work out of Stainless Steel. The radiator is a 2 row with 1" tubes. When I originally bought it,I looked at some more expensive units with the same specs. Could my intercooler be obstructing the airflow to much? I wouldn't think so.
First thing I see is the you are drawing air from inside the engine compartment. Looks to me like you have plenty of room to run a pipe out to your grill and start pulling ambient air inset of air inside the engine compartment. No use to draw air from inside the engine compartment that might be at least 20 degrees higher than ambient, even if it's 100 degrees outside. If it is 100 outside and if air inside the engine compartment is 120 then your IAT's are going to be at least 120 if drawn from inside the engine compartment. And then the turbo compresses the air and make it even hotter and now the IAT's are off the charts. Engines run hot dependent upon the temp of the air drawn into the engine.
Fresh cooler air is alway a friend to your engine. If you have access to a data logger, you can easily log inlet air temps and compare the difference when and if you change where you place the filter.
No offense, but that air filter IMO is way too small and also a restriction.
For example, measure the surface area on your filter. I have a hunch it is even less than the surface area on the stock filter on an LS1. The larger the surface area of the filter the less restriction and more air will be drawn thru the filter all other things being equal.
Bob at Brute speed recommends at least this size filter. It's 9 inches long.
As for coolant. Pure water transfers heat better than a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water. The downside is that pure water boils quicker than a 50/50 mix with a 18 lb radiator cap.
But you can mix 75/25 with water wetter and it will be more even more efficient. But if you live in a climate where it can freeze, you have to change it out twice a year - spring and fall. My experience with water wetter is that it might reduce the coolant between 5 and ten degrees.
If your engine consistently runs at 195 degrees, then why a 160 thermostat? A 160 thermostat will flow consistently at about 185. I would try a 185 meaning it will flow constantly at about 205. Give your radiator a chance to cool down the coolant. IMO a 160 isn't giving your radiator a chance to cool the coolant down. Slow it down with a higher temp thermostat. You are essentially recycling hot coolant too fast.
The flow isn't stellar fan wise is what I meant. Looks like you spent a lot of time with that setup making it look nice. Those fans would probably work out with a great radiator. Might be easiest calling up Howe and seeing if they have a radiator the exact same dimensions with one of their better/thicker high flow cores.
Or look for replacement fans of the same diameter that are rated much higher. Try calling SPAL maybe? They have some 1800 cfm fans... but again I don't know how they rate them.
If rad has 2 1inch rows it's basically the same as a 4 core. It's the fans. They look exactly like the fans that came with my rad. Cheap Chinese ****. This is what I have, works mint.
You just measure your core and buy the ones that fit your application.
A couple things-the IC'er can block air, more noticeable at idle, once you are moving it should drop down where you don't need fans, depending on when they come on. I always try and set them low as I can.
That fan setup is blocking air when you are moving, I prefer the dual fan setups like OE setups, where air can pass thru.
Is all the air out of the system, sometimes its hard to bleed the system, I let a little water run out the lines to the head.
Is it the correct thermostat for that pump. There is a Ford thermostat floating around some have used, A guy up the street that runs a repair shop installed it on his Camaro, ran cooler-App the aussies use them, in the land down under, lol. Also, where are you taking temp readings.
Beautiful truck, wish I had finished my 70 step side, love to see how it sits with a side view.
Fyi, I've tested a few popular oem fans under load and the best one I've found is the 05-09 Ford Escape dual 12.5". It pulls 40 amps at 13.5v, but flows 2780cfm through a 1cu/ft opening. The 05 towncar (very similar to the mark 8) only flowed 2400 and the dodge intrepid was just under that.
08-03-2017, 05:59 PM
Turbo Ls1 Engine Temp 
