Hackster's LSA / T56 2 door

[hackster]

Originally Posted by St3v3

Have you tried to add some timing and give it some fuel below idle rpm to give it a stronger cushion to land on when coming to a stop?

I am not tuning it.....I have a guy from Michigan that is doing the tuning for me. Its something to do with the stupid Nick Williams Tb that is the cause of the frustrations. I hope that he can get some time with it this week. He has taken a few stabs at it without success.

Originally Posted by cosbySweater

Get a oem application fan. Most aftermarket fans I've used have all sucked ass regardless of what they are rated at. My 2 row c4 rad has been good ever since I got the shroud situated on it, just a hacked up 940 fan. The Fairmont had a dual pass northern radiator and 91 for taurus fan and it never got over 180-190 no matter how hard I beat on it

Interesting, I had a northern 2 row in it before and the car got hot then as well when on track. Now I have a Northern 3 row (supposedly 33% more cooling).

I think the one thing that is different from a normal street car drag car is that when you say beat on it, you do a pull for what 10 to 30 seconds? Then you get a break from the load. I am out there for 20 minutes with no real downtime.

I do agree with the OEM Fans being superior to aftermarket. Without cutting out the core support and revising everything I dont see a way to do that as my radiator is fairly short compared to most stock radiators. I am also out of room between the radiator and front of the engine.

Originally Posted by Harlard

+1

Good ducting and shrouding makes a huge difference.

I have the radiator completely shrouded on the back, 2 fans nice shroud. On the front I eliminated the factory air diffuser and built one out of 1/2" UHMW that spans the front air dam and is bolted to the tube that holds the lower radiator mount. It guides all of the air from the air damn up into the radiator.

Aside from the flap that they run on the third gen camaros and foxbody mustangs I dont really have any brilliant ideas to get the air jammed into the radiator.

I need to get some more seat time in the car once its tuned better and see how it does on warm days.

But for now, its much better than before with the 650 CFM Fans. I would say its temps are pretty safe for 90% of the time it will be driven.

Always appreciate the info.

Sean

[culberro]

The 940 fan and Taurus fans flow a metric f-tonne of air, and if you can make them work.... that would be the ticket. You're going to need 3k-4k CFM or more to keep things under control, all with a good shroud (in my experience).

I had 2x 12" "1600cfm" fans on the v8 drift car and it overheated constantly. Swapped to a Flex-a-lite shrouded 15" fan that a friend had from an old project, and no more issues. I can run at full tilt until the tires let go, and the car sits at ~210F the entire time. So that's at least 20min or so. The biggest issue I have now is that the alternator and PS pump get really hot and start to fade.

On the drift car, the radiator is also pushed forward on the bottom, like a V-mount setup, to gain extra space for the fan. The bottom of the rad is at the front edge of the lower core support, and the top is near the stock 240 location.

This is the fan: https://www.flex-a-lite.com/electric...oller-663.html

[hackster]

Originally Posted by culberro

The 940 fan and Taurus fans flow a metric f-tonne of air, and if you can make them work.... that would be the ticket. You're going to need 3k-4k CFM or more to keep things under control, all with a good shroud (in my experience).

I had 2x 12" "1600cfm" fans on the v8 drift car and it overheated constantly. Swapped to a Flex-a-lite shrouded 15" fan that a friend had from an old project, and no more issues. I can run at full tilt until the tires let go, and the car sits at ~210F the entire time. So that's at least 20min or so. The biggest issue I have now is that the alternator and PS pump get really hot and start to fade.

On the drift car, the radiator is also pushed forward on the bottom, like a V-mount setup, to gain extra space for the fan. The bottom of the rad is at the front edge of the lower core support, and the top is near the stock 240 location.

This is the fan: https://www.flex-a-lite.com/electric...oller-663.html

Funny thing is that is the fan I have on the Foxbody. Once I ditched the failing plug on it, it works wonderful.

I agree that the fan is likely my problem here. I found a flex a lite fan and shroud that I am going to give a shot at and see if I can make it fit. Its taller than my radiator core but figure I can fabricate a little flange to seal off the bottom of it and hang it off the top.

Thanks for the input man.

Sean

[cosbySweater]

Yea the turbo setup probably doesn't generate as much heat as the blower does as well. I will say the only time I ever had a over heating issue with the crappy c4 rad I have was on the way to davis. Sitting in dead stop traffic on the 680, 100+ ambient temps and nothing but water in the cooling system, lol. I hope you are able to figure it out! Maybe a trunk mount rad with some extra ducting to get the heat out of the engine bay! ;)

[hackster]

Originally Posted by cosbySweater

Yea the turbo setup probably doesn't generate as much heat as the blower does as well. I will say the only time I ever had a over heating issue with the crappy c4 rad I have was on the way to davis. Sitting in dead stop traffic on the 680, 100+ ambient temps and nothing but water in the cooling system, lol. I hope you are able to figure it out! Maybe a trunk mount rad with some extra ducting to get the heat out of the engine bay! ;)

Now you see that is the wheeling side of me that doesnt think you are too far off. If we were talking about the foxbody I would be in but I just cannot bring myself to cut up this car for some reason.

I remember that day you showed up at Davis, it was Hot as F&*^ but still good times.

Sean

[cosbySweater]

Originally Posted by hackster

Now you see that is the wheeling side of me that doesnt think you are too far off. If we were talking about the foxbody I would be in but I just cannot bring myself to cut up this car for some reason.

I remember that day you showed up at Davis, it was Hot as F&*^ but still good times.

Sean

I mean knowing how you operate I'm sure if you were to do it, it would be a amazingly clean install.

[hackster]

well....I took the car out on a 90 degree day and tested out the new fan. I added in 1000 CFM more airflow than I had before so it should have made a significant difference in temps.

First 15 or so minutes it was just fine, cruising around and on the surface streets and on the highway on flat ground. Temps around 185 to 190 or so.

As soon as you put any load on it, and any load, I mean we are talking a 3 percent grade able to easily pull in 6th at 70 you can just watch the temps go up, got up around 210 or so. Before I was seeing 215 but it was hotter that day.

For normal cruising I believe its fine, but for Track days and beating on it Its no better than before after adding in 33% more radiator capacity and an additional 1000 CFM of airflow.

So with that said. I agree more air would be good but it has me seriously questioning water flow or air trapped somewhere in the cooling system.

I am running a 2010 L99 Water pump and the steam port is tapped into the top of the water pump. It has a Lingenfelter 160 degree thermostat that has been in for at least a year.

I have verified that the L99 pump is the same direction of rotation as the factory truck water pump.

Im stumped. All of the other swapped cars I have built have been easy to keep cool......The one thing that I have not had before is CAN bus Digital temp sensors that read out exact coolant temps.

I burped the system when I got it up and running really well but reading horror stories about people having air trapped in there has me wondering if I need to try again.

Thoughts??

Thanks

Sean

[GTJordan]

Originally Posted by hackster

I burped the system when I got it up and running really well but reading horror stories about people having air trapped in there has me wondering if I need to try again.

Thoughts??

Thanks

Sean

Have you tried vacuuming the system then letting the vacuum pull the coolant into the system? This is how we have to fill modern Volvo engines as there are so many places for an air pocket to form (they usually then find themselves at the water pump, where it cavitates and causes no flow of coolant through the system). I would expect you could find someone with the tools. It would be a quick way to knock out an air pocket as the fault.

Jordan

[hackster]

Originally Posted by GTJordan

Have you tried vacuuming the system then letting the vacuum pull the coolant into the system? This is how we have to fill modern Volvo engines as there are so many places for an air pocket to form (they usually then find themselves at the water pump, where it cavitates and causes no flow of coolant through the system). I would expect you could find someone with the tools. It would be a quick way to knock out an air pocket as the fault.

Jordan

I havent but wondering if I should give it a shot, at this point its just a drain and refill that route. Not having much motivation though as well =)

That means tearing everything back apart and getting the car up in the air and all the belly pans off. Probably work on it on a weekend.

Sean

[cosbySweater]

Did you pop the head gaskets or crack the heads?

[cosbySweater]

Also drill some holes in the tstat!

[rallydallas]

If it were me I would check the absolute highest point in the coolant tract, in a cold state, for air. If there's no air at that point, then I'd feel safe that I don't have any major pockets. Perhaps replace the Tstat with a colder opening version or just replace it altogether, perhaps it has failed.

I mean you obviously engineered the system to be a monster. Something to keep in mind, and it can be completely backwards, there is always a possibility that the flow is too high, in that the coolant may not be spending enough time in the radiator to get cooled adequately. The cooling system has to be *just right*. Not too fast and not too slow. Like a goldilocks zone of cooling. That doesn't really help much, I know. A simple fact is the radiator does the cooling, and the coolant has to be in the radiator long enough to get the heat into the air. You might just try fiddling with all your variables to see if you can get it to be "just so".

I'm confident you will figure it out regardless. Project cars!

Actually, the reason I mention the coolant *speed* is I have a friend who was living in Arlington back in like 2000 with a 71 Chevelle that had a big block. He was amazed that if he maxx'ed out the water pump by completely removing the tstat (more flow is better, right?) it would slowly over heat. He said he had to put in a washer, basically some restriction, to keep it from over heating.

[77volvo245]

I overheated my wagon 3 times before the head gasket went. Didn't really run warm, started loosing coolant.

[122power]

I had a 1996 C4 corvette. Those have the LT4 LT1 platform. Anyway they have the dreaded reverse flow coolant system. They have issues with air pockets also. Had to replace the water pump on it but to bleed the system I would just run it bring it up to temp then shut if off and come back the next day and refill the overflow tank. Did that like 3 times. Didnt have any issues after doing that. Not sure if that will help your situation or not.

[Grendel]

Hey man, I swear I am not following you from PBB, or Lat-G...

But I am building a 240 wagon that should be able to take down any of my other builds, except the all aluminum CJ2 on Corvette C7 suspension with an LT4/8L809E and paddles.

Thanks for some of the inspiration. I did think about getting rid of the Volvo rear arms. I am probably going triangulated rear 4 link on an 8.8.

Interesting to see the front stuff. Probably doing the same as you did.

[Grendel]

Originally Posted by 122power

I had a 1996 C4 corvette. Those have the LT4 LT1 platform. Anyway they have the dreaded reverse flow coolant system. They have issues with air pockets also. Had to replace the water pump on it but to bleed the system I would just run it bring it up to temp then shut if off and come back the next day and refill the overflow tank. Did that like 3 times. Didnt have any issues after doing that. Not sure if that will help your situation or not.

There's a new LT1/LT4...

Sean,

As for your steam port... move it to the highest point of your cooling system.

Yes, many people get by with running to to the water pump.... and other people generate steam in the heads and vapor lock their cooling system and have exactly the same issues.

Are you running all four ports, in front and back of the heads?

[Grendel]

This guy has all four ports running to a surge tank on top of his engine:

https://youtu.be/m47meZqDtlo



It's amazing the amount of flow that comes out of those steam ports.

I had the steam ports running to my LS7's water pump with a Whipple 3.4L on it. Could never cool it. It was causing air pockets in the back of the head.

Moved them to the radiator fill neck and whoila, 210 all day long.

https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.n...16&oe=5F4D5161

I use the billet adapters now.

Also can't post pics yet.

[LC4CARL]

The 6/20 Hot Rod magazine has a tech article on cooling. Among other things, they suggest checking for voltage drop to the fans.

[hackster]

Well its been damn near a year since this thing has been really driven. I may have put 150 miles on it since all the upgrades last year. Between fighting belt and cooling issues that I believe are mostly sorted out now I just have no motivation for cars and not just this car, but all cars. Covids been interesting for everyone.

The good news is that the break from cars has allowed me to get back to my old passion of cycling, a big change to plant based eating 5 months ago and some serious cycling is a good recipe for getting back in shape and losing weight.

I am not sure what the future holds for this thing to be honest. I can see myself selling it in the near future though.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy and sane during these unprecedented times.

Sean

[LC4CARL]

My Rx: Climb into that beast, pick a dot on the map, and do a road trip. With the bike rack...

[Stiggy Pop]

Originally Posted by hackster

Well its been damn near a year since this thing has been really driven. I may have put 150 miles on it since all the upgrades last year. Between fighting belt and cooling issues that I believe are mostly sorted out now I just have no motivation for cars and not just this car, but all cars. Covids been interesting for everyone.

The good news is that the break from cars has allowed me to get back to my old passion of cycling, a big change to plant based eating 5 months ago and some serious cycling is a good recipe for getting back in shape and losing weight.

I am not sure what the future holds for this thing to be honest. I can see myself selling it in the near future though.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy and sane during these unprecedented times.

Sean

It's important to take breaks and shift the focus and energy to other things periodically.

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by hackster

Well its been damn near a year since this thing has been really driven. I may have put 150 miles on it since all the upgrades last year. Between fighting belt and cooling issues that I believe are mostly sorted out now I just have no motivation for cars and not just this car, but all cars. Covids been interesting for everyone.

The good news is that the break from cars has allowed me to get back to my old passion of cycling, a big change to plant based eating 5 months ago and some serious cycling is a good recipe for getting back in shape and losing weight.

I am not sure what the future holds for this thing to be honest. I can see myself selling it in the near future though.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy and sane during these unprecedented times.

Sean

I hear AZ is a nice place to ride!

[hackster]

Originally Posted by LC4CARL

My Rx: Climb into that beast, pick a dot on the map, and do a road trip. With the bike rack...

I am going to sound super old here......Its the last car I would pick to go on a long roadtrip with that I own. =)

Originally Posted by Stiggy Pop

It's important to take breaks and shift the focus and energy to other things periodically.

That's exactly what I am doing, just struggling with keeping a car that just sits there.

Originally Posted by NONHOG

I hear AZ is a nice place to ride!

We are taking 10 days off the week of Thanksgiving and driving/ camping to my mother in laws in Goodyear. Be there for a few days then heading back. I am trying to decide on Mountain bike or Road bike is the biggest decision. Hopefully clear roads so we can go through Idaho, Utah and not boring ass California.

Maybe we can grab a beer when I am in town?

Sean

[brendon_ak]

What riding have you been doing, MTB or road?

[hackster]

Originally Posted by brendon_ak

What riding have you been doing, MTB or road?

All of the above. Been commuting on a 1x11 and single speed cross bike. Lots of miles of double track and some single track on the mountain bike. Currently riding a hardtail 29er.

Hit me up if you ever want to ride. I am too old and beat up for Downhill stuff but I am good for 25 miles on the mountain bike and 50 or so on the road or cross bike.

Sean