Ion FMIC is in, some concerns

[turboge]

Well after putting up an epidemic battle against sheet metal and plastic, the Ion FMIC finally went in. The piping is still rubbing against the holes that were cut, i'm hoping some weather stripping will alleviate the ping-like noises...

I am still working on finding a 14x1.5 tap so I can put my air temp sensor in to monitor the new cooler charge. So far it feels a little better but I haven't been able to take full advantage of it yet because my fuel maps are slightly off and I haven't added any timing.

Where my concern comes into play is on the cooling system. I had to drain a little coolant out to tap in my Coolant sensor for the haltech and I was out of the green stuff so I put in maybe 12oz of orange stuff and a bottle of drinking water (half liter).

On the way to work this morning in traffic and while cruising the temps were hovering at 210-220F, with the cooling fan on. Is this normal? I have my temp sensor in the upper radiator hose, I was hoping to keep temps at a max of 190F, anyone know the stock thermostat opening temperature?

If I can I'll be swapping the thermostat out to 180F and filling back up with green goo and water wetter.. theres no reason this car should even think about going above 200F, especially with the heat under the hood and the turbo.

edit..

Initial-opening temperature {176-183}
Full-open temperature {203}

Something isn't right.

 

[505zoom]

where did you find a version of word that would open the file for the instructions? 5.1 does not work for me, and I can't find any updates available.

 

[soundbombing]

well I guess I'm not the only one with the problem. i don't have much time but here were my issues. with my fmic being so big and flushed mounted my main air source for the rad and condensor were blocked. with my setup i had to eliminate one fan for a short while. thus i had to keep my a/c on for the single fan to pull air to cool the car or I would over heat. so i get a bigger rad and two new fans. all is fine now but kinda the opposite. i can't use my a/c b/c the i/c blocks the air, along with the piping, along with the condensor, along with the two 1" core rad. and the fans aren't as good as stock (soon to be changed). so the pressure in the a/c lines were too high causing overheating with the a/c on. so as it stands I can't use the a/c.

i know now how much air flow matters in cooling. my temp. sensor was put into the water neck going to the block but i haven't hooked it up yet. if you use 15% coolant, water wetter, and distilled water from the store you temp should drop around 30 degrees. but i have to go. good look. later.

sorry for any errors i didn't get to re read.

 

[boostisgood]

Who needs A/C ? Sheeesh, thats what open windows and 110 MPH is for.

 

[turboge]

505zoom I used the office XP version of word, if you want I can fax you a copy of the install diagrams, but they really are far off from what you REALLY have to do... I may start a small addendum for them.

soundbombing Thanks for the tip, I'll flush my cooling system out tomorrow night and try to pickup a bottle of water wetter. I had to turn the A/C fan on just to try and keep temps down... I am going to have the haltech wired to turn both fans on at 190F for now.

 

[LinuxRacr]

Braden,

NO THIS IS NOT NORMAL WHEN CRUISING...maybe with the car off, but the highest you should see it get is about 210-212 (sometimes when you are sitting at a light in 100 degree F). The stock cooling fan comes on at 207 F. It cuts off as soon as the temp drops below 200 F. You may have a air pocket, and need to add some more coolant. I have the Mazdaspeed thermostat, and it is great! The benifits are there. Now if I could ever scrounge up some more money for a new AWR Radiator...

BTW...this was all monitored with my PDA Dyno.

 

[turboge]

d'oh, doesn't sound good to me, i'm going to go pull the radiator cap right now and run it for a little while to see if any air comes out.

I'm doing a full flush tomorrow night so that will take it out of the picture... how much was the MS thermostat and what temp does it open?

 

[turboge]

Alright I went out to the car and popped the radiator cap, as suspected it was full. I fired the car up and let it run to 207F and let the factory fan kick in. During this time at about 204F a few bubbles started to surface. Then the coolant started to go over the top so I put the cap back on and enabled my fan to come on with the haltech at 195F and shut off at 190F.

Sitting at idle the car went from 207F down to 193F without any problems, it was also about 90F outside and my car had been sitting in the heat all morning, so needless to say I think the problem may be solved now, but I still plan on flushing everything out.

I'll know for sure on the drive to school through traffic after work.

 

[turboge]

On the drive home I was still reaching upwards of 220F shown on my haltech, the fan never shut off, and the factory temp gauge just stayed in the middle the whole time.....

Flushing it tonight.

 

[Kooldino]

What does your stock "temp" needle sit at?

 

[LinuxRacr]

Back-track to the previous post dino-san!