mmm, 130 is not happy at all. Do you know the factory temps for it yet?
so how is your rear radiator going these days ?
I see you are having a few cooling issues, do you think it could be related to your rad position ?
Brad
Why copy when you can own an original ?
Meyers Manx Australiatalked to a couple of people, tink its the guage playing up, as water temp seems fine, everything seems to be flowing well, so think the guage or the sender is faulty, last time i was at these temps (when i was leaking water) it boiled, yet this time it is no-where near doing so.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
how are you testing the water temp ?
Brad
Why copy when you can own an original ?
Meyers Manx Australiaonly via checking evaporation/leakage dribbles etc compared to previously, have to run a new wire for the water temp guage to the rad shortly.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
YAY! old guage was mismatch with sender, got new matching sender and guage and am now cruising at 80deg :thumb
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
no leaks?
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Good to hear. I hope it's all working ok now.
BTW, do you know what the safe operating temps for your EA81 are yet? Are your fans still running all the time? What speed were you doing when it was registering 80 degrees?
mmm 80 degrees is a little cool for an EA 81 / 82 you will find it uses to much petrol at that temp, try and get around 90
Brad
Why copy when you can own an original ?
Meyers Manx Australiawill see what it is like on the highway, sits close to 90 on the way home form work, no leaks in the water system but one in the oil just near the filter (bodgey gasket, will replace soon), as far as operating temps, i think the thermostat opens around 90?
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
oops, meant to say 90deg, top speed of 80kph, lots of hills on the trip. isnt guzzling too much petrol (has crept up from 10l/100km since i have been driving harder, but still well under 13l)
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
are the fans still running all the time?
coz if they are, I reckon that's the next thing to sort. It will allow the motor to warm up quicker and so it won't wear out as fast. Also will take the drag of the fans off the alternator while the engine is under the temp of the thermoswitch.
yeah, thats next on my list, rad has a thermo switch in it, so will probably run off that.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
BBK,
I would wait till you have experienced a wide range of driving conditions before you are confident it will be OK.
I was running the radiator in the back of my kombi for about 18months and about 50 000km on my ej conversion, and i never cooked it. Driving aroung town wasn't a problem, however driving at 110kph up the freeway on a 35+ degree day was an ask. it was running too hot.
I tried the fans pushing, pulling, bigger radiators, etc . the only thing that i think would have really worked is making some ducts down from the snorkles to the radiator and fully sealing the system as suggested in a post here.
in the end i went for an integrated radiator-bullbar setup kindly made for me by brad and co.
some may consider it a ugly, and i agree it would look out of place on a more original bus, however mine is a bush pig, and i had already put one huge dent in the front after hitting a roo, so i needed a bullbay anyway.
before the radiator fans ran almost all the time, since moving the radiator, it has come on only once- when driving slowly at high revs up a steep sandy track at the beach. never on the road.
that has been my experiences.
admittedly though, the ej probably pump out more heat than the ea engines. keep us posted on how you go.
Col
gee that pic came out all dodgy and pixellated when i compressed it.
Be good if you could get a front off one of the Air conditioned South American busses like this one.
.
They were pretty cool busses, the roof was a bit ugly, but the microbus had sliding windows and flipper quarter vent windows in the front.
maybe that'd be a good place to import cheap front 1/4 flip windows from?
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
went for a long spin today (about 250km), with only a partial shroud in place and still leaking oil (think i have fixed it now, bodgey pan seal), cruised happily at upto 80kph without getting over 90 - 95deg, pushed it upto 100kph and temp slowly crept up, backed off when it hit 110deg held temp (didnt rise, nor fall) at 90kph, warmed up slightly easier on the way back, due to dropping oil. am fitting a scoop down below tomorrow, considering elephant ears as well, water level at least stayed fine, cooled really well at lower speeds, just gotta force some air up into their at speed.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
Do you know where the air is going round the back of the car?
Stick some strips of paper on the get a mate to follow you with a video camera. See where the air is going before you start forcing more air in there willy nilly.
the rad is positioned a little low in the rear, meaning that a large portion of air is capable of escaping over the top and around the sides of the radiator. by putting a shroud across the top of the radiator (blocking the air flowing over the top) i managed to slow the warming proces, but also slightly slow the coling process meaning that the extra resistance is partially blockign the natural flow of air that was coming up from under the car. i am planning on fitting a small shroud down over the lower part of the rad mount down to just below the sump, forcing air up and into the radiator, as at the moment the air is flowing up less and less as i accelerate past 80kph (at 80 the engine will cool a fraction, at 90 it will hold temp, and it creeps up at 100kph, meaning that less and less air is getting to the rad). i am also considering rabbit ears but am uncertain as to whether the air from them will simply flow out past the sides of the radiator.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
I ask again,
pete wood wrote:Do you know where the air is going round the back of the car?
I mean know exactly. You might find the air is going back into the engine bay through the back door. Anyway my point is figure it out first. Stick some piece of paper ribbon in various strategic spots and go for a drive. Let a mate drive and then you follow and see what the strips are doing. Then you can decide what you need to do.
There is also the horsepower v's cooling factor. You use more hp to go 90kph than 80kph, so therefore more cooling is required. It may not be just more airflow required, it may need a bigger radiator? A certain size radiator has only so many fins available to transfer heat from the core to the air, no matter how much air.
I had the same problem with my supercharged EH. It cooled fine up to 90kph, but at highway speeds it was just on the brink of boiling. 110o The airflow was heaps at that speed and the second fan I fitted made no difference.
Once I fitted a bigger radiator it dropped down to approx 85o at highway speed. Cooler and therefore more power when I needed it.
thanks helbus, will play around a bit more first, but the current rad is quite small (stock subaru item) so will keep that in mind.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
well, problem seems to be fixed, i took it to an engineer/VW mechanic, he was really impressed with my scoop etc and said if i simply ran a big sucker fan on the back of the rad all my problems would be solved, so i went out, bought a giant but thin bosch fan, fitted it up, and beside a couple of small hickups (such as a dud alternator - refer to other post) the car is now cruising at under 100deg for extended distances at 100kph.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
Good to hear it is sorted. I hope to cruise next to you one day 🙂
how bout wagga? u and fleur going to that?
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
I run two radiators in my kombi
1. Datsun 120 radiator mounted in the engin bay on the passenger side with thermo fan.
2. Holden 6 radiator mounted between chassie rail with scoup runs of the heater hoses.
