Had a stock radiator in the car up until now. Put in this half-radiator and also deleted the thermostat by using one of Buscher's trick, billet pieces. I drilled it out to accept a -16 line.

So, I freed up space in front of the turbo, maybe dropped a couple of pounds, and car seems to run cooler, too. Not a bad little mod.

 

Looks nice and sounds like it functions well too.

 

what radiator is that?

 

http://www.extremepsi.com/store/prod...roductid=23851

 

The writing I underlined and put in bold is why your running cooler. The title of the thread misleads a little. I am running a half radiator as well (ebay civic) and with oem thermostat I am running exactly as I did OEM.

But glad to hear everything is working out to your advantage.

 

your engine bay is spotless. you're not driving enough

 

Very clean looking engine bay for sure

 

Is the radiator a complete bolt-on? all hoses fit? nothing extra is needed? I'm thinking of picking one up.

 

How cold is cooler?
Will you be running in the "cold start" part of the ECU Map, causing an increase of fuel consumption?

 

would it stand the heat in summer ?? if could stand up the heat, its on my shopping list
also love the engine bay super clean, has much much more room to work....

 

I hear what you are saying, but here's something to keep in mind... Most people are afraid that a half-radiator will not cool their car. By removing the thermostat I have shown that the radiator itself has enough cooling capacity on its own to cool the engine. The thermostat is designed to keep the water in the radiator longer enough to cool, and then once it opens it allows the cooled water to enter the block.

Its just a weekend toy.

Thanks!

Top hose will be different, but bottom stock hose works. As you can see, I chose to weld AN fitting on the radiator to run -16 line in the top hose. If you choose, as I did, to use the passenger side radiator hold-down, you will have to drill a hole in the cross-section of the unibody in order to secure it.

Mine may be running cooler as well because I'm running two fans on it. I used one of the factory fans on the back of it, and I put a new fan on the front of it as a pusher.

However, to answer your question, yes, the car was running in the "cold start" area of the map, even when driving it. But, I quickly changed that once I realized how cool the car was going to run. I simply lowered the temp number that the fuel enrichment will shut off. Temp enrichment is down to 100 degrees now, whereas before I had it set at 130 in the AEM. I was actually seeing highway cruising temps the other day in the mid-130s - 140s.

Thanks for the compliment on the engine bay. Regarding summer heat, well, all I can say is that the car is running cooler than it did before. I guess I will see once the heat really gets here in Michigan. I don't anticipate having a problem, though, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Just as a reminder, I have TWO FANS on this radiator - a puller on the back and a pusher on the front. I did this so that I could be sure to avoid overheating in the summer.

 

Sort of correct. The thermostat is designed to begin to open once the engine has warmed up. For emissions purposes, the thermostat is shut when the engine is cold so that the engine can warm up quickly, then at a set temp, ~ 80 deg C, the thermostat will open to stabilize the temp to a determined level and keep it around that by opening or closing more.

 

Sort of correct? We're basically saying the same thing from a different perspective.

 

Wouldn't this make the car stuck in closed loop? Making all fuel trim adjustments, and o2 readings pointless to adjust, since the ecu isn't going to read the car is warmed up.

 

Do you have a problem with the car getting too cold when cruising down the hwy? When I purchased my car the previous owner had removed the thermostat and it would not get to operating temp at idle and as soon as I got driving the guage would bottom out on the cold mark. The rad would get down to 78 degrees after a short run on hwy. The thermostat is mostly there to keep the engine in a set operating temp. Without it what keeps the engine warm enough?