Drilling thermostat

[2003eclipse]

What kind of shape is your radiator in? did someone before you put 14 bottles of stop leak in it and its keaping it from flowing properly? You try and just run it with no thermostat and see what temps you run?
I had a similar problem with my old grandam and the overflow radiator cap was bad and not venting and building pressure so it would constantly overheat.

[Halon]

OK I suppose I should have put more info on my car, so here it is:

New coolant in the car. Approximately a 85/15 water/coolant mixture, with a whole bottle of Water Wetter.

Brand new all aluminum mishimoto radiator.
http://www.carbon-fiber-products.com/MMRAD-ECL-90_2.jpg

Brand new cap.
http://www.dsmlink.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5625&d=1149023676

Brand new 160* thermostat, with two holes drilled in it now.

I don't seem to be losing any coolant, the overflow, and engine coolant levels don't seem to be budging really.

I have a 14" puller on the passenger side, and a 10" puller on the drivers side. The only thing that I don't like about the pass side one, is that the top sits flush on the fins, but the bottom is maybe 1/2" off the fins. But I've read about plenty of other people not having the fans 100% flush, and being fine. But maybe that is something I could look into. Also, both fans are wired ALWAYS ON. I used to have the 10" always on, and the 14 come on when it's needed. But ever since this issue, I've had it always on now too.

I'll also add that it did pretty well on a compression test, 165-170 across the board, and passed a leak down test at around like 120psi or so I believe.

Now, I just drove from Blaine, to Minnetonka, to Plymouth, and back to Blaine. The car is still running hot. If I have the heater on, it runs good though. But I did notice something that I guess I hadn't before, and it kind of makes sense of things a little more now. I like to explain everything so this might be a long paragraph, and full of obvious stuff, but just putting it out there.

As my EGT's go up, my coolant temp goes up. Before I was having a hard time wondering why on 45mph roads and at idle, my car would stay a good temp, but when either getting on the gas a little, or when on the highway, it would climb quite a bit. Typically in the past, if I had cooling issues, getting on the highway helped because of more airflow. Well I have a slightly thicker fmic then i used to, and the external fins are more dense as well. So what I'm getting at mainly is, it seams that the heat from my manifold, turbo, O2 housing, may be affecting my temps quite a bit. While cruising on the freeway, my EGT's are up in the 600's usually. When at a stop light they are drastically lower obviouslly. When cruising around on a 45-55 mph road, the egt's are also lower then on the freeway. I think I'm just not getting the airflow to the radiator that I used to, and that I need to. And the heat is just building up in the engine bay, and the radiator is catching a lot of that heat since all I have for heat shields is a JMF Stainless Steel one over the manifold. I think I need to find a way to get more flow to the radiator, or possibly put some vent holes in the hood to allow that heat to escape. I think that'll really help my situation.

I have DSMLink setup to turn on the CEL when the coolant temp reaches a certain level. When the CEL comes on, all I have to do is turn on the heater and it goes away in a minute or 2. If just driving around like 45-55 mph roads, and my egt's are quite lower, I can usually leave the heat off. But soon as those egt's get higher when I get onto a freeway, the temps rise, and I turn the heater on, and the temp stays pretty steady.

OK sorry for the long explanation, but if this works, and helps someone in the future, then yeehaw!

[Halon]

Question:

I want to go in and re-torque my head studs as well. When I go to retorque them, am I supposed to go to one nut, loosen it completely, then retorque it, and just do that one at a time? Starting from the middle and work my way out? I just ran across someone saying that about retorquing head studs, and wanted to see the general consensus here.

[Swifty1638]

I re-torque them without loosening them.

as for the t-stat. remove it. All it does is keep your heater working.

-A. Swift

[b00stcreep21]

Swifty, you fail......

[joem]

I re-torque them without loosening them.

as for the t-stat. remove it. All it does is keep your heater working.

-A. Swift

Your kidding right?
Joe

[Swifty1638]

yes, I am kidding. I'd pressure check the system and figure out where all the coolant is going. Does your water pump work well? To check, pull off a heater hose of some sort, and start the car. If the coolant is GUSHING out, the pump is good. If it dribbles out, then try a new water pump.

-A. Swift

[b00stcreep21]

Once again, you fail..... :(

[Swifty1638]

Try again LB. You stalking me now? How else would you check the water pump's pumping abilities, mr. smartass? I'm pretty sure that would give you an answer.

-A. Swift

[b00stcreep21]

I'll show you pumping abilities ;) On an on-topic note.... I dk, I don't hve one. time to get more crunky :)