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I'm trying to diagnose an issue with the car running cold. It doesn't get up to temp like it should even while driving. I've replaced the thermostat (Stant 180f) and thermoswitch, still running cold. Temp sensor seems to be working as I can see it climbing from dead cold in Tunerstudio, it just never gets to 180f.
The previous owner installed the turbo himself, and I'm trying to figure out if his coolant routing is causing the cold running issue. I've attached pictures labeling the hoses and how they are routed.
looks like it has the BEGi "racer" re-route, which is junk.
search about it here, we've discussed it before.
then yank it off and replace with a proper re-route, or "fix" it by modifying the way it operates.
It looks weird, and unless there is something I can't add up, where does the hose that normally leaves your mixing manifold and goes to the heater core routed? If I read your pics correctly, it looks like the heater core is routed to the back of the head, then post tstat. I guess his idea was to circulate coolant through the back of the engine, then get get it to go through the heater core, then post tstat (effectively bypassing the t-stat, causing a longer warm up) and why the dafuq is the lower radiator hose mounted through the belts up there.
I had one on the turbo 95. Wasn't fun driving around in 50 degree weather and needing to use the heat on the highway. Stupid thing would barely eventually get to ~170F degrees. Then you'd turn the heat on and it would get to 110F in a matter of about 2 minutes. Absolutely horrid piece of "engineering."
It looks weird, and unless there is something I can't add up, where does the hose that normally leaves your mixing manifold and goes to the heater core routed?
There doesn't look to be any such hose. The outlet from the mixing manifold only has a small port with a hose going to the turbo and large hose going down to the bottom of the radiator. I'm worried that even a good coolant reroute won't work due to that missing hose and this other hose that goes around the engine from the heater core to the upper radiator hose splitter.
looks like it has the BEGi "racer" re-route, which is junk.
search about it here, we've discussed it before.
then yank it off and replace with a proper re-route, or "fix" it by modifying the way it operates.
It is not junk. It is a great way to keep temps down if you don't want to do anything else properly. Want to remove the hood and all the ducting. Engine won't over heat. Think your heater is for wimps and not need, excellent, as you will never get hot water temps out of this for your heater. Want to spend hours on the dyno and have amazing coolant temps, yep this will do that.
So it works great in a very limited and stupid situations, for all other it should be fixed.
This all comes from someone who had the racer reroute installed by BRAINEACK. Went and got dyno tuned by DIY in July in Hotlanta, Amazing coolant temps during that. Then that following winter I enjoyed driving in 20 degree weather for several hours with a heater on hot with air slightly warmer then having the windows down.
So it seems like my solution would be to route the heater return to the lower rad hose instead of where it is now in the upper hose bypassing the t-stat. And my issue would then be needing a stock water pump outlet in order to run a proper coolant reroute in the future? Or would I not need a new reroute after that fix?
It is not junk. It is a great way to keep temps down if you don't want to do anything else properly. Want to remove the hood and all the ducting. Engine won't over heat. Think your heater is for wimps and not need, excellent, as you will never get hot water temps out of this for your heater. Want to spend hours on the dyno and have amazing coolant temps, yep this will do that.
So it works great in a very limited and stupid situations, for all other it should be fixed.
This all comes from someone who had the racer reroute installed by BRAINEACK. Went and got dyno tuned by DIY in July in Hotlanta, Amazing coolant temps during that. Then that following winter I enjoyed driving in 20 degree weather for several hours with a heater on hot with air slightly warmer then having the windows down.
It is not junk. It is a great way to keep temps down if you don't want to do anything else properly. Want to remove the hood and all the ducting. Engine won't over heat. Think your heater is for wimps and not need, excellent, as you will never get hot water temps out of this for your heater. Want to spend hours on the dyno and have amazing coolant temps, yep this will do that.
So it works great in a very limited and stupid situations, for all other it should be fixed.
This all comes from someone who had the racer reroute installed by BRAINEACK. Went and got dyno tuned by DIY in July in Hotlanta, Amazing coolant temps during that. Then that following winter I enjoyed driving in 20 degree weather for several hours with a heater on hot with air slightly warmer then having the windows down.
So wait... this would be a dorifto solution for the folks that constantly overheat even with the coolant reroute because they're just not moving enough air through the radiator? I think there's one build thread on here where the guy (robert?) was having trouble with overheating and he had a larger radiator, coolant reroute, and an oil cooler.
So wait... this would be a dorifto solution for the folks that constantly overheat even with the coolant reroute because they're just not moving enough air through the radiator? I think there's one build thread on here where the guy (robert?) was having trouble with overheating and he had a larger radiator, coolant reroute, and an oil cooler.
It would be great if he's ok with being in WUE the other 99% of the time he drives it.
Lars was being tongue in cheek. This isn't a solution for anything.
It is in essence a bandaid solution. Bypassing the thermostat and halfway solving the coolant routing problem. Running without a thermostat, or bypassing it can have serious ramifications. Very slow to heat up is one symptoms, the other one is terminal overheating. With coolant always moving, it is also spending less time in the radiator, with less time for the ambient air to absorb the energy from the coolant. Slow to heat up in this case equals slow to cool off. Once you have notice you have started to over heat, youre screwed.
The best part is: the longer you warm up, the more stress/wear on the bearings. and If you dip below operating temps, you put insane stress/wear on the bearings.
So when you spin a bearing on a cold morning, you can call Corky and thank him
So it seems like my solution would be to route the heater return to the lower rad hose instead of where it is now in the upper hose bypassing the t-stat. And my issue would then be needing a stock water pump outlet in order to run a proper coolant reroute in the future? Or would I not need a new reroute after that fix?
It looks like moving that heater return back to the lower radiator hose would essentially put you back to a stock configuration.
A proper reroute would then plug the front water outlet and move the water outlet and thermostat to the rear of the motor (where the heatercore comes out). BEGI makes a nice spacer that can be used with a kia waterneck and an Escalade hose makes a nice fit to connect the kia neck to the upper radiator hose. I know that's throwing a lot of parts at you, but it's makes for a solid, cheapish reroute compared to just buying one outright.
It looks like moving that heater return back to the lower radiator hose would essentially put you back to a stock configuration.
A proper reroute would then plug the front water outlet and move the water outlet and thermostat to the rear of the motor (where the heatercore comes out). BEGI makes a nice spacer that can be used with a kia waterneck and an Escalade hose makes a nice fit to connect the kia neck to the upper radiator hose. I know that's throwing a lot of parts at you, but it's makes for a solid, cheapish reroute compared to just buying one outright.
Can I just block off the top of the front thermostat housing to retain my water line for the turbo, add the new thermostat to the rear and send the upper radiator hose back around to it?
Can I just block off the top of the front thermostat housing to retain my water line for the turbo, add the new thermostat to the rear and send the upper radiator hose back around to it?
It has been a long time since I ran the racer reroute, what I think is the quick and easy fix, is moving the that hose and fitting from the top hose, to the lower hose. Their should be a fitting in the lower hose already that joins 2 hoses together. You should be able to just swap them.
Can I just block off the top of the front thermostat housing to retain my water line for the turbo, add the new thermostat to the rear and send the upper radiator hose back around to it?
Yes, thats the idea. The parts I mentioned just allow everything to connect together.
The spacer is needed to get around the back of the motor (on 1.8 at least), and to allow a port for the heatercore and aftermarket temp gauge if you run one. The kia water neck is needed to allow a normal radiator sized hose to exit the back of the motot and return to the radiator.
It has been a long time since I ran the racer reroute, what I think is the quick and easy fix, is moving the that hose and fitting from the top hose, to the lower hose. Their should be a fitting in the lower hose already that joins 2 hoses together. You should be able to just swap them.
This is what I did, except I left the fitting where it was and put the T closer to the radiator in the lower hose to keep clear of my AC compressor. Just waiting on a new radiator to come in to put it all back together.
08-08-2017, 03:08 PM
Need help with previous owner's coolant routing
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well played
