Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Q1. ok so have new 4.3 stroker (megasquirt computer) in my 90, running a recently rebuilt 3 core full width radiator (from my isuzu).

i'm getting overheating issues when there is not enough airflow. running twin 12" spal thermos behind radiator. on freeway/round town/on low tide beach work, etc temp is ok - around 90deg. when towing in slow stuff, climbing hills low range, etc temp jump almost instaneously to overheating.

the 12" themos pretty much take up all the width of the radiator (i know some people run AU falcon thermos?) so haven't got much room for bigger thermos, running a 160 f thermostat.

whos running a similar motor set up and whats your cooling configuration?

i know of a fella off aulro running a chev diesel with a second radiator under the car, but i'm sure there has to be better alternatives.

Q2. haven't got a temp gauge on my auto yet but from the hest penetrating the tunnel/floor i'm sure she is cooking.

at the moment i've just got the standard toilet cleaner cylinder type cooler - pretty much useless yes. apart from you hally, whos running after market coolers in their fenders? i haven't heaps of room as my winch is slightly recessed into my grille.

there's a county v8 radiator on ebay with no bids yet

Hey def90 I think My radiator was custom made I will do alittle searching to find out who made it as british off road got someone to make it for them as for temps slow speeds high revs on the beach all day long and the gauge just sits below half and does not move at all the only time i had an issue was at ormeau when I blew a fuse and my thermo fans stopped working then the temp did creep up which made me pull over and found the fault replaced the fuse and continued on.

as a side note, defender engine bays are good at keeping the heat IN!

one thing i want to do is open up, on both sides the port where the snorkel or air intake is. first thing to do is a wipple(sp) test.

remember there cant be an IN without an OUT...

what theremostat ar you running?

Serg

Hally wrote:Hey def90 I think My radiator was custom made I will do alittle searching to find out who made it as british off road got someone to make it for them as for temps slow speeds high revs on the beach all day long and the gauge just sits below half and does not move at all the only time i had an issue was at ormeau when I blew a fuse and my thermo fans stopped working then the temp did creep up which made me pull over and found the fault replaced the fuse and continued on.

if you are still using the stock LR gauge, piss it off and get one that actually gives you a real reading... the LR gauges have a very large buffer in them

serg

Have you considered an oil cooler. The standard rover v8 radiators have lines built in for engine oil and auto tranny oil (I was told this when I pad for my last one anyway).

A lot easier to fit an oil cooler and matching thermo somewhere than an extra radiator.

Also if there isnt any cooling on your auto already I would suggest that too. Heat can be a big killer of transmissions. I think it was discokid who races his gen 3 powered defender had all sorts of dramas with his autos untill he got some serious cooling added.

I use a custom aluminium radiator, works really well and not had any probs with overheating. Did have a problem with overcooling on our way into Broken Hill though when i was struggling to get the engine up over 75C



It was built with a separate full width oil cooler that bolts to the front of it for the gearbox cooling.

becareful running alloy rads in LR's. they can be known to have low voltage flowing around in the coolant... ally, water and electricity dont mix.

Serg

The engine is ally....

That's why you have to run anti-freeze all year round to stop the engine galleries corroding away

Land Rovers don't have electrics, they have smoke circulation systems when you can see the smoke it means one of the "wires" has cracked.

I hope your setup is not like the one above.
To get full use of fans they must have a cowling that covers the whole radiator so that the whole of the radiator has air drawn through it not just the fans area.

I had a Porsche 924Turbo that overheated at low speed with 2 fans on it.
I bought an Porsche cowling (used for aircon with 2 fan holes) and fitted the same fans , and never had a problem again.
Regar s Philip A

davew wrote:The engine is ally....

That's why you have to run anti-freeze all year round to stop the engine galleries corroding away

Land Rovers don't have electrics, they have smoke circulation systems when you can see the smoke it means one of the "wires" has cracked.

yeah no shit the engine is alloy... but hey did LR get anything right... just putting out a word of warning as there can be hinden gremlins with LR's that dont come with Jap/Euro vehicles

Serg

In my 130 I used a standard disco fan & had a custom radiator
made useing the disco tanks with oil & trans links hooked up.
The radiator was a grand, but works real well, even towing my buggy
on a hot day. I have after market gauges on motor & trans [auto].
Motor sits on 90c as does the trans, some hills push it to 100c towing.
I'm in W.A. so no good telling you who made the radiator.
Good luck over heating suks...

Jeff

uninformed wrote:yeah no shit the engine is alloy... but hey did LR get anything right... just putting out a word of warning as there can be hinden gremlins with LR's that dont come with Jap/Euro vehicles

This is just so... well... random.

I'm fascinated to know what a "Euro" vehicle is, I'm guessing it's not as simple as a vehicle originating/manufactured in Europe.

armbrup wrote:I hope your setup is not like the one above.
To get full use of fans they must have a cowling that covers the whole radiator so that the whole of the radiator has air drawn through it not just the fans area.

I had a Porsche 924Turbo that overheated at low speed with 2 fans on it.
I bought an Porsche cowling (used for aircon with 2 fan holes) and fitted the same fans , and never had a problem again.
Regar s Philip A

That is exactly my setup, fortunately I've not needed a cowl as I couldn't fit one in, it's incredibly tight in there

I had the same setup with a traditional brass/copper rad and it took 210 seconds to cool from the fan switch on point at 90 degrees to the switch off point at 78 degrees. Changing over to the ally rad with the same setup, same ambient temp, reduced the cooling time to 45 seconds.

I suspect the extra efficiency of the ally rad more than makes up for the lack of a cowl, with a cowl I could get that time down even further.

The only downside I can see with a tight fitting cowl is it might encourage mud buildup and make it more difficult to keep the rad clear ?

ok... so because the engine is alloy, how does that have anything to do with the fact that LR ballsed up the elecs and had low current flowing in the cooling system

when i spoke with PWR about getting custom rad and intercoolers made, i was advised to get the coolant measured for current, as this was a common problem on LR's and a couple of Ford Falcons built here in OZ... but not many other vehicles. This was coming from there Tech dept. Now you may have to run antifreeze all year round because the rover V8 is alloy... and i agree you should. but that has nothing to do with the fact that LR got just another thing wrong and it will lead to electronic crorrison in a alloy rad.....

and no its not a common problem across vehicle manufatures.

Serg

Electrolytic corrosion is something that can happen on any car. You can check your own system pretty easily, if you put a voltmeter +ve probe into the top of the radiator without touching metal and connect the -ve probe to the battery negative you should get a maximum of 0.1V, anything above that indicates you have a problem. You need to check it with the engine running at around 2000RPM.

The problem is caused by bad earths and the solution is to fix the bad earth, normally by identifying the bad circuit and either fixing or adding an earth strap.

Anti-Freeze contains corrosion inhibitors that will prevent electrolytic corrosion but reducing the voltage in the coolant to a minimum is always preferable to relying solely on the antifreeze.

I suspect the extra efficiency of the ally rad more than makes up for the lack of a cowl, with a cowl I could get that time down even further.

The only downside I can see with a tight fitting cowl is it might encourage mud buildup and make it more difficult to keep the rad clear ?

Yes you probablyt get away with it with the alloy radiator.
You could of course try one fan in a cowling which would probably work and use half the power.
A standard RR cowling wouldn't fit with the electric fan attached to the cowling?
Regards Philip A

No, because the LS1 has a forward pointing throttle body and the transmission is so much longer than the standard one there's hardly any room in there at all. I was so worried about the proximity of the rad to the front of the engine that I used a set of captive engine mounts that even in the event of the rubber failing won't let the engine move more than a 1/4 inch forward.

I have a radiator from a 3.9 V8 good condition with oil galleries either side (was from an auto)

Ford Au Twin thermos work really well on v8 and 300 tdis they are a perfect fit and only come out 90mm from the rad

Mick

cheers fellas, think i'll be looking at a custom ally job.

My 90 Hybrid ran an MQ Patrol Petrol Radiator. Fitted well and could get a core anywhere.

Serg, As Dave said stray current can be an issue in anything that has bad earths.
Remember the TD5 Defender rad is aluminium too.

A mate went through three radiators in his VR Commodore before the rad shop decided to check for stray current

It doesn't matter how good the inhibitors are in your coolant, nothing will stop stray current eating holes through everything.

Yeah I had this problem with a old 2 door i have, its because the earth was running only to the engine and not earthing to the body, 2 meters of 4 gauge wiring n earth to the body and to the motor solved this. also fixed the problem of the ignition melting the accelerator cable tryign to find a earth

alloy radiator is what Im thinking of using in my 4door. the heatwave we had was pushing the temp up to 110 C

Usually sits on 75 to 80. Id definetly suggest to stick with a clutch fan over thermo's though, soon as my thermo's touched water they stuffed up.