FlyRyde

For the last few years, my black tiburon (some of you are familiar with it), warms up insane fast. Like I start the car, drive a 1/4 mile and the engine is pretty much at full warm. I know on my other Beta powered cars including other Tiburons, it took about twice as long to warm up. That sound like a water pump?

I have a Koyo Aluminum Radiator that gets hot as hell, but supposedly its a big help on the cooling side of things. I want to swap out the thermostat from another head I have sitting in my garage and see if that helps at all. Recently, I got home from my 30 minute drive, and I heard the coolant bubbling inside the radiator. It was blowing steam out the over flow tube. I know it was kinda low on water/coolant, but certainly not empty or so low it should have been bubbling.

I have aftermarket fans that are pretty strong, and I hear them coming on no probs when the engines hot. I noticed a tiny bit of coolant on my splash guards when I was taking off my Vertical Doors Inc. hinges today at the shop and working in the engine bay. So my guess is its something at the bottom of the radiator, or the lower hose connection being a little too loose or something, but not enough to overheat like I did today.

Anyone else think my engine heating up so fast and having overheating problems when its hot outside and I'm not moving faster than 20-30 mph while in traffic has something to do with my water pump? Suggestions?

Thanks all!

UrS0NvS

replace thermostat with a new one chris, don't be a cheap azz.

more than likely your problem. i replaced mine the day i bought my car (old family trait) and it was only 25 bucks IIRC.

majik

Fans are pulling air not pushing, right? Blowing towards engine not into radiator?

throw the t-stat into some water and see if it opens when it comes to a boil

187sks

Replace the thermostat. That is by far the most likely culprit.

Also, look for coolant on the lower side of the water pump right after shutting the car off. if the pump is going out it will have at least a small leak that will drip out of the hole in the housing.

StrikeEagle

I had similar problems and it was the water pump. Thermostat is a cheap check though, I'd do that first.

FlyRyde

Not Thermostat. I changed that this morning, and the car heated up super fast again, in about a 1/4 the time it was supposed to. I can understand a thermostat messing with heating after the car is warm but when its dead cold to jump to above middle line on the temp gauge in 60 seconds is kinda insane. That just tells me the coolant isn't moving around in the engine.

On top of all that, I picked up a Check Engine Light on the way up the street to get gas this morning. I got home to read the code, and its a P0563 - System Voltage High.

From what I remember, this sounds like it has something to do with the ECU pins that you bridge when you do the auto to manual swap? This blows. Water pump huh?

majik

This won't fix the problem, but may help identify if coolant is moving within the engine:
Drain the radiator. Fill with water, run the car, and drain again - see if there is any coolant mixed in that would have circulated through the engine. Fill it back up with coolant.

When it warms up, grab the top radiator hose - can you feel coolant moving? Maybe there's something in the radiator preventing movement.

FlyRyde

At this point I just need to get the car ready for the next owner. Nobody bought it yet, but I figure fresh black paint on the front end, normal working doors, a great running engine with a new water pump and timing belt, along with the kick ass new suspension should get me around 6500 from Los Angeles buyers. Sounds high, but its true.

Anyone have a Timing Belt for sale? Wasn't there some kit with all that stuff?

FlyRyde

Wow, I just checked my voltage and I'm at 18+ ??? and its steady? You think water may have shorted something on the alternator and killed its voltage regulator? Probably nothing I can do to fix that? I was just filling up the Rad with water yesterday, nothing crazy with water everywhere, but I did notice my belts squeaked when I took it for a drive. I can't imagine after all the times I've done this exact same thing, that the alternator decides to go nuts on me now?

Aside from Bad Luck, what do you think? I have an old almost dead alternator I can swap in to see if that solves the problem. I'm just curious if I can swap voltage regulators on the alt? Any ideas?

faithofadragon

voltage regulation is done by the ecu