got sent this as a part of MRT mail outs. very interesting reading. makes sense in lots of ways. have a read and tell me what you think.

http://mrtperformance.com.au/resources/technical-documents/984-keeping-your-e...

An easier way to avoid a boiling radiator is to keep your engine aircooled.

Saves a lot of fuss and bother

Quote:

Originally posted by Craig S An easier way to avoid a boiling radiator is to keep your engine aircooled. Saves a lot of fuss and bother

Quote:

Originally posted by Adsman pssh purist

I'm looking forward to going air cooled...

On the old yota even something simple as a radiator cap would leave me on the side of the road about once every 9 months...

Then you get into a groove that on the M1, you would leave the heater on full bore to bring the over heating temp guage down, and turning off the engine on the highway for 10 seconds, then turning it back on... and leaving it off while the engine was still in gear (so it still turned around and turned the water pump) whilst on down hills... Certainly was character building Got me all the way back home when i was two hours away, on the north side. Embarassing with all the 70's yotas just flying right past in the cruise.

Automotive companies would go broke though if any of their cars were bullet proof and maintenance free....

did you read it craig?

I did start, but then got a case of the TLDR, probably not helped by my dinner being served at the same time.

I promise I'll read it just for you. Or I could just whip around the corner from work and visit them.

On the way home last night I was driving beside a souped up Forester GT that had the nicest Subi rumble going on. It sounded super sweet. On the side of the car underneath the indicator it had "DUB" badges.

I figured they probably meant something I was totally unfamiliar with, but I did hope it meant the owner understood the provenance of his engine.

the dawg must have had some pimpin' rims.......yo

TLDR?

too long, didn't read

Thats actually worth the read

clever guy.

which is why I posted it in the first place.


p.s. craig you can't throw stones at us for having radiators, you own two of them yourself.

I've read it now, and yes it is interesting. The take home message is that you can only push so much fluid through a small inlet. Seems pretty reasonable to me.

And yes, I do have a 2:1 ratio of water cooled to air cooled at the moment, but give me time and I'll invert the ratio.

And Joel, you're right, the dawg did have some pimpin' rims

Google is always there to help the ignorant (i.e. me):

http://www.dubmag.net/ 
http://www.dubpages.com/ 

Pete it does seem to have some merit. I can say that the PWR radiators will certainely make a difference and their quality is awesome. A freind has one and I'm green with envy. Back on the topic, I had the idea for some time that I'm trying on my buggy, so still yet to test it.. To help prevent air locks I'm using a sealed radiator and putting a surge tank in the suction side of the cooling circuit above the motor. The surge pot is about 1.5 litre and has a radiator cap with a burper. Overflow tank to be mounted directly beside the surge pot. The lflexible cooling lines I was looking at are reinforced hose, industrial transfer hose. I'm even more interested to see how it goes after reading this article. I also have a back up idea for diverting the bypass line back to the surge tank top (aid purge and bleeding of system and may help break the flow enough to change the pressure drop vapourisation), also would be easy to add a small radiator and flow controller at the same time.

What have other people done? Have you come across this problem as in the article or different problems? Ideas?

THats exactly how I have mine setup but my header tank is on the outlet side of the engine

I didnt worry about a bleed line, the stock subi bypass works well, Ive never had an issue with airlocks

Ive tried running along in 3rd gear at 130 for a while with revs up around 5k, the temp didnt get any higher than 90 which is only 8 or so more degrees than what it runs normally, but then it doesnt have the heatload of a turbo either

I've found some interesting things with mine in the last few months. Engine speed makes a big difference So if I am running 31" offroad tyres, the temp tends to climb a few degrees. With 225/65R15s on the car, sure it revs more, but it also is a little cooler. That is the difference of about 800rpm in top gear at 100km/h. So I reckon the issues a lot of us have with cooling in bajas and buggies is more related to big tyres and not enough revs rather than too many revs and a pump that won't flow.

Joel; re no turbo so less load, you want to include the less car weight so less load into the equation. The car my EJ25 came out in weighed at least 500kg more than my buggy. I'd suggest it would be a similar setup for your beetle. Subarus are known for being heavy.

Your not wrong, a gen 1 Liberty is just over 400kg heavier than my bug, not surprising my bug does 0-100 over 3 secs faster with the same engine

re. the turbo, I was thinking more the way subarus use watercooled turbos, and turbos are known for getting a tad toasty under hard boost, all that heat absorbed into the coolant is then introduced into the cooling system which the rad now has to shed

how much different is the stock WRX rad to the stock RX rad. Are they basically the same?

BTW, I did a khanacross yesterday in like, 33deg heat. So really ultimate conditions for a car getting real hot. You do a drive through of the course at low speed then sit, wait and do a time trial that lasted about a 1min:30sec. During the run the car was bouncing off the rev limiter in first and getting lots of throttle in second through short tracks with lots of tight turns. The car sat round the 90deg mark while waiting and the fans cycled on 92degs and off at 90. By the end of 1:30sec the car peaked at 95deg. I was more than a little concerned by 95deg temps (although I shouldn't coz it used to get to 100deg on the freeway) so by the end of the day, I was turning the motor off during the wait between the drive through and time trial which allowed it to cool a lot more.

Funny thing being, the drive down there and back on the freeway, the car sat on 3500rpm at 110kmh and just 88deg. Didn't seem to matter that the air temp differed by about 10deg (23deg in morning, 33deg in arvo).

Hi

I wonder if slowing down the water pump so that it didn't need so much coolant would help with this issue. Seems to me that the pump is captivating

Wes might be able to help on this, he has chimed in on fluid dynamic issues before.

BTW has anybody heard from Wes lately?

Steve

He bought a trail bike. I haven't seen any baja trips since then. I think it's parked up in his garage on jackstands or something.