HOT water temperature!

[silverstream]

Hi to all,

I've recently plugged an ODBII scanner into my K20A3 and to my surprise, the water temperature shows 101degreeC and air intake temperature at 60degreeC !!!!
(Temperature Guage shows below the 1/2 marking!!!)

Ambient temperature at that moment was probably 26degreeC !!!

Is the iVTEC engine meant to run HOT or something need to be done ?

[BlasTech]

Do you still have the shielding on your radiator hose? If you do, test it out without it.

[silverstream]

Do you mean the criss-cross weaived material shielding ? No, I don't have that insulating the radiator hose.

[BlasTech]

I just meant the foil wrapping. I cant remember if that was something you had on the radiator hose to keep heat from getting to the intake tubes.

[silverstream]

Hi Blastech,

Wow .. U still remembered the aluminium foil !!! Actually I forgotten abt it .. :p

Anyway, I had removed those but replaced with a 9mm thick insulation foam !!!!

[BlasTech]

Well, if its working, it could be the cause of elevated water temperatures.

[silverstream]

Am wondering what is the water temperature for other members here ...

[JSIR]

the coolant temp seems to run around 204 degrees at normal temp, that is Farenheit.

60 degrees celsius is too hot, the ecu will definitely cut back power when it sees that reading.

I am getting my obd-2 scanner this week, I've got Mugen thermostat, spoon rad fan switch, rad cap, and redline water wetter , plus comptech cold air icebox, so it will be interesting to see my readings compared to yours. thanks for the info that is good to see.

Joey

[chunky]

200+ is pretty normal for a car with a compression ratio close to 10:1

Also, hot water can be a good thing, it can mean you're getting better heat exchange, i.e. the coolant is drawing out more heat from the block.

I did notice that when i went to a 75/25 water/coolant mix, my coolant temps went up a notch. I took it to mean that the coolant was taking up more heat from the block. I do notice that my fan doesn't kick on as much when waiting at a stop light, so my theory seems to be sound.

[silverstream]

Hi JSir,

I'll be interested to know your reading with Mugen Thermostat & icebox.

Wanted to install Mugen thermostat & fan switch + Redline Waterwetter w Honda premix coolant probably this weekend.

[Suk02Si]

JSIR, dont forget a step-by-step w/pics of all your goodies and installation;) :p

[silverstream]

I've called up the local Honda agent, and this is their reply:

The K20A overheating temperature is at 120degC/250F

The normal operating temperature is between 85degC/185degC to 100degC/212F.

[JSIR]

got my scanner stuff today, took the car out for a spin right after a 2 hour hwy trip and about 30 mins of city driving.

water temp was at a solid 170 degrees highway cruise , it went up to around 180 max in city driving, but for the most part hovered around 170 degrees.

Intake temps started at 120 degrees idling, and dropped to about 110, they hovered around 115 for a while.

Ambient temp today was around 90 degrees , I imagine road temp was around 110 as that is where my comptech intake sucks from. I was hoping for cooler temps on the intake side but no luck. I may try to isolate it some more. Nice thing was that when the rad fans came on the intake temp did not rise, I was worried about that . I have shrouded the intake tube a bit to resist sucking air from the rad fans while they are blowing.

Joey

[Surprise]

JSIR, are you planning on testing the stock airbox or any other CAI or shortram intake?

[JSIR]

I got a friend with an Injen intake, gonna grab a hold of his car if possible. I'll test anyones car I can get my hands on. Gonna shroud my snorkel tube a bit more though and try to get cooler air to it. I can remove the hood of the box as well and see what underhood temps are like with this intake.

Joey

[TomR123]

Hey chunky, just a lil warning running too little coolant and more water can cause your water pump to rust, and the seals to wear a little prematurely, I doubt a 75/25 is too bad just make sure it doesnt drop too low

[chunky]

Originally posted by TomR123
Hey chunky, just a lil warning running too little coolant and more water can cause your water pump to rust, and the seals to wear a little prematurely, I doubt a 75/25 is too bad just make sure it doesnt drop too low


yeah. It's a tradeoff like almost any "performance" oriented philosophy applied to your car. The coolant lubricates the water pump and inhibits rust. so reducing the amount of coolant reduces those properties.

75/25 is okay, but you do have to change the coolant more often. Since I drain the radiator twice a year, I should be okay. :D

[JSIR]

I did a bit more testing tonight of intake and water temps. Firstly, my car is running 170 degrees at highway speeds give or take a few degrees. In city stop and go driving it rises to 180 degrees, and gets up to 190 degrees when Idling for a short while in city driving. The rad fans switch on at 190 degrees and the coolant begins dropping down to 175 after that. Seems pretty consistent.

The intake temps are driving me crazy. Tonight my temps started out at 80 degrees as soon as I started the car. It was a mild evening somewhere around 80 degrees tonight. As soon as I left my driveway the intake temps began rising slowly up to 90 degrees, then up to 100 degrees slowly working their way up to a high of 118 degrees and then they began dropping down again and hovered around 110 degrees. They rose as I did some city driving and idling. On a good highway blast I expected the intake temp to drop like a stone with all that cool air, well it took a good 5 miles of highway driving in relatively cool weather to get the temp down to 105 degrees from 110 degrees (only a 5 degree drop at a very slow rate of decline). Thus something else is influencing the intake temp reading. Something in the engine bay is heating up slowly and causing the temp sensor to read higher than the air that is being introduced. There is definitely cool air coming into my Comptech intake, that cooler air is probably keeping the intake temp sensor from shooting up to 140 or more degrees. If the intake temp sensor was reading solely the incoming air the readings would have been much lower and they would have dropped quickly on the highway.

After pulling back into my driveway I opened the hood and felt around a bit. Turns out the stock rubber intake tube was very hot. The area directly around and below the intake temperature sensor was very hot, at least 100 degrees I would estimate. The heat from the coolant hose was directly heating the rubber intake tube and the intake temperature sensor. With coolant temps of 170 plus degrees in that hose its no wonder the intake temp readings are so high. Ive got to look at isolating the intake temp sensor and surrounding rubber intake hose from the coolant hose below. Its definitely affecting the readings, making them inaccurate. I might insulate the icebox snorkel tube as well as its located right below the coolant hose.

well that's all the info. for now.

Joey

[JSIR]

Originally posted by chunky


yeah. It's a tradeoff like almost any "performance" oriented philosophy applied to your car. The coolant lubricates the water pump and inhibits rust. so reducing the amount of coolant reduces those properties.

75/25 is okay, but you do have to change the coolant more often. Since I drain the radiator twice a year, I should be okay. :D

just add 5 ounces of Redline Water Wetter and you will be fine, that's what its designed to do, lubricate the water pump and provide corrosion protection. It is often used with 100% water in racing applications and the water wetter keeps things lubricated and provides corrosion protection to straight water.

Joey

[chunky]

Originally posted by JSIR


just add 5 ounces of Redline Water Wetter and you will be fine, that's what its designed to do, lubricate the water pump and provide corrosion protection. It is often used with 100% water in racing applications and the water wetter keeps things lubricated and provides corrosion protection to straight water.

Joey

for longterm use, water wetter requires frequent changes. it does not retain it's lubrication & corrosion protection properties for very long.

[silverstream]

Insulating the rubber joint is a good idea ...

I originally used 9mm foam sheet to wrap the radiator hose. Decided it's a bad idea ... will probably wrap around the rubber joint instead.

But then again ... 9mm foam sheet will only keep heat for say 5min ...

Just like throttlebody coolant bypass ... the ambient heat will eventually heat up the throttlebody right ? (Say 30min driving)

[JSIR]

I've got a roll of that thin bubble wrap foil backed material used to insulate heating ducts, Im gonna throw some on this morning and see if it helps isolate the temp sensor and surrounding air hose.

Joey

[silverstream]

I've just got the following installed:
1) Mugen low temp Thermostat
2) Mugen fan thermoswitch
3) Pivot 1.3bar radiator cap (Surprisingly, my friend told me the Mugen radiator cap is of lower quality rubber!)
4) 1/2 bottle of Redline WaterWetter with water ONLY (I assume the engine block contain another 20% Honda premix-coolant)

Engine water temperature had dropped to 175F-190F (as compared previous 220F) !!!

[JSIR]

Originally posted by silverstream
I've just got the following installed:
1) Mugen low temp Thermostat
2) Mugen fan thermoswitch
3) Pivot 1.3bar radiator cap (Surprisingly, my friend told me the Mugen radiator cap is of lower quality rubber!)
4) 1/2 bottle of Redline WaterWetter with water ONLY (I assume the engine block contain another 20% Honda premix-coolant)

Engine water temperature had dropped to 175F-190F (as compared previous 220F) !!!

thats the range my water temps run at now exactly. Personally I would drain out some more coolant and top off with extra Honda coolant, that mix you have is a bit thin on coolant, your temps are the same as mine with 60% water and 40% coolant and 5 ounces water wetter. So it wont hurt to run more coolant than you are. Your probably up to 90% water to 10% coolant because the coolant that was in your engine was 50-50.


Joey

[silverstream]

My ambient temperature never fall below 25degC and hitting high of 35degC. Thus, I would think running low on Honda coolant is alright ?

What's your view ?

[JSIR]

Originally posted by silverstream
My ambient temperature never fall below 25degC and hitting high of 35degC. Thus, I would think running low on Honda coolant is alright ?

What's your view ?

I was concerned with corrosion protection running water levels that high , even though you have w.w. . I was just suggesting that your temps are the same as mine and I am running a higher % of coolant to water than you. Thus the higer water content isn't helping you all that much and running more coolant is better protection against corrosion while running the same temps.


Joey