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View Full Version : Any Calgary Civic guys have a busted rad? 92-00



whatthe
09-27-2003, 09:55 AM
I'm running into a cooling capacity problem on a small displacement turbo project. Basically, my rad is no good and even before the end of a dyno run (not a great simulation of real road) coolant temps start to go too high making quicky back to back dyno runs pretty much impossible.

I just need the rad to size and see if I have the room to re-route some hoses. If I do have room to re-route the hoses, then I have lots of options with the great aftermarket support for Civics. If it has holes, great... My best offer for busted rad is $20 or beer. Free even better.

It should be around these dimensions
http://www.moradco.com/HondaCivic.htm

Email me at [email protected] or post a way to contact you on here. Trying to get this resolved quickly... took a trip to pick-ur-junk already and couldn't find a Civic new enough there.

rage2
09-27-2003, 10:48 AM
You might have other problems... I've seen tons of turbo hondas, and all of them work fine with the stock rad. Some of the guys even use a smaller half rad for more engine bay room without any cooling problems.

whatthe
09-27-2003, 11:15 AM
There is no room for expansion... Old used up rad that is in the car doesn't help much either. I suppose I could run more water and water wetter to help transfer but it's already pretty cool here. Don't forget that the dyno is in some ways actually worse than on the road as you simply don't have the air-flow over the rad/intercooler/crank-case etc. that you would have on the road. Higher aero-dynamic loads on the road are in some ways, a good thing. Spraying down intercoolers on the dyno does more aptly reflect real-world high-speed conditions... however, lots of water needed if I want to spray everything down. The car in question has already effectively doubled it's wheel horsepower and on quick back to back runs, there just isn't enough room for the coolant to expand.

As for the motor itself... leak-downs at the start of the summer were 4-7%, leak-downs from a couple of days ago were 4-7%. We find pressurizing the cylinder and doing the leak-downs are more accurate than a compression test (which is also fine on this car) so I would assume I would have some indication of a bad head gasket if that was the case. Car has a bit of smoke after idle, but that is either the crappy small bearings on the TE04H Mitsu turbo I use (shaft bearings 1/3 size of a similar sized Garrett turb) or a bit of crap in my valve guides (old dirty motor). Not too worried about the motor, and one of the problems could certainly be my old skunky rad, but I already know it's under-sized, so I might as well replace it with a much better upgrade if I can. There are some cheap dual capacity upgrades (not even aluminum) available for Honda stuff that would be right on par with a new OEM rad for me.