LET Temperature Issues

[Paul]

Ok, so had the Nova out recently and it runs hot. I know what a LET should run at, as it was fine last year, but this time around its been much hotter.

I know a lot of this is down to the fact that my Evo intercooler covers half the radiator, and oil cooler sits behind the grill, covering up half the surface area behind the grill.

So i plan to move this down so its behind the intercooler. Therefore giving the rad a bigger surface area to get cold air onto.

I have the fan on a switch aturn it on after about 5 mins of running and run it nearly all the time.

My car is stripped so runs no heater matrix.

The coolant has all been replaced yestday, so i thought id see how much coolant it actually holds, approx 3.5-4 litres, what should a cally hold? 5litres+?

Im thinking of running a small raditor in one of my wheel arches. The more coolant it holds the better, surely? I was going to basically replace the heater matrix with a rad but move it to the wheel arch.

Would this be a wise idea, and would a bike rad be any good?

Paul :thumb:

[Adam]

A heater matrix as a secondary radiator would help i'd say yeah.

[R1CH]

How hot does it run ? My intercooler & oil cooler sit in front of my rad & doesn't seem to cause any probs.

Rich

[Paul]

100-110degrees

[burgo]

get a turbo rad. in other words a small rad for the water coming out of the turbo to cool it before it goes back into the rest of the system. a more efficient custom alloy rad might be a good idea

[Rick Draper]

Do you have a proper Valo rad in your nova? I ran my LET with a valo rad, large FMIC and no fan for a while and a know this is how rob smith used to run his pahes 4 nova spider without any problems at all..

[Paul]

it was a brand new valeo one. ran ok last year, 90ish degrees, its just since the intercooler was replaced its now running hot.

As I say i have no heater matrix to cool it that way either.

[Lee H]

Mine used to run at 3 bars (half way) on the digi dash, about 98 degrees, XE used to run at 2 bars so I put it down to the intercooler.

[Paul]

i have a splitfire electrical gauage and it runs @ 110deg, im guessing bars on digidash represt 4-5 degrees, so theorically running @ 3 bars on digidash could be 100deg, not quite enought o push it up to 4 bars?

[burgo]

have you done any other mods to th engine?

[Paul]

nope, the only thing I've done is changed position and size of intercooler, ill take a few pics now quickly:

[Paul]

Here, lighters to show gap:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/lashednova/DSC04720.jpg

Front view:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/lashednova/DSC04721.jpg

Heater matrix feed and return, joined like this, they were last year too:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/lashednova/DSC04723.jpg

Thanks for all your help by the way,

Paul

[Rick Draper]

Thats not a valo rad. This is a valo rad:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v444/RickDraper/Novaturboprogress30164.jpg

[Paul]

fair do's so the problem could lie with my rad then?

[R1CH]

Mine very rairly gets to 90 degrees, my intercooler sits alot closer to the rad than yours to, is the thermostat ok ? system bled ok ? I wouldn't of thought that fitting a non Valo rad could give you probs ? Not sure whats on mine tbh.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/ricmetcalf/Nova%20build%20pics/DSC00507.jpg

Rich

[Rick Draper]

That one looks like a valo one. Trust me throw a Valo rad in and go from there.

[Philsutton]

I have a 1.2 corsa rad that ive stood on about 5 times stuck at the back of my intercooler an mine very rarely goes over 90. I do however run my fan on al the time, also my manifold an turbo are about 1mm away from my rad. My fan is inbetween my rad an intercooler which sucks through the intercooler an then blows through the rad, dont know if that makes any difference.

[Paul]

try thermostat next then, if not then valo rad. (Thermostats are cheaper than rads and easier to do!) Are XE thermostat's the same as LET ones?