I shall be honest. My RST is fine on the move but it is reluctant to cool down upon hitting traffic for a length of time. It will not get hotter but it will not cool down either. The fans come in with the gauge a little beyond 3/4 (it is still within the white but not far away from the black line near the read). I shall do a thread about this, but I do know a few things of the car

It's running a genuine Ford Puma thermostat (82 degrees) with a jiggle pin at the top - It did not run a stat prior to me owning it
Genuine Ford 10 year coolant mixed to a 50:50 ratio
Samco hoses throughout
Direnza radiator
New heater matrix
Stage 2 T3 turbo (stock turbine but .55a/r compressor with ball bearings)
Two bleed off pipes to the header tank
ZVH 1.8 on MFI with a 5th Injector running on the rich side (11-10:1 AFR).
Fans on the front of the radiator radiator with a Pace chargecooler radiator in front of the rad (it is around 3/4 the size of the radiator).
225BHP

At the moment the only thing I can think causing it to be slow to cool down (i.e ages unless you turn the car off (fans still run) then it does cool down quite quickly!) are

Iffy radiator but the car is fine at speed
High RPM ; it idles at 1400rpm even when warm ; I need to check the aux valve is not leaking or the hose going to it ; are the latter available from anywhere?
Lack of sealing around the radiator ; it has loads of gaps around the front of the car!
Crap fans ; they are of the SPAL variety (twin fans).

I was considering sealing the radiator off with flashing tape or something more decent looking (ideas?) but I would rather not risk it with an exposed cambelt ; I really need to work on getting the cover made up for the lower half of the engine.

 

Are the fans turning in the correct direction, have they got their own wiring loom/relay set up to get maximum power to them?

 

In short, mostly yes. They have a dedicated loom running to a relay, with an override switch.

However, I really should check things first before starting a thread rather than assuming [/facepalm]. These are the fans I am running:


http://www.spalautomotive.co.uk/product/va11-ap8-c-29a/

This time I did a more through check. Only one of the fans is working, the fan on the O/S. Hopefully with the other fan fixed it should cool down alot better. I am surprised it was staying put at the temperature! However I have to ask, what are you guys doing for fan setups? Are your fans bigger etc. than mine or do you have one big fan to do the job as per stock? I would be interested to know what the stock fan's CFM is as a comparison.

 

I run 2 9' Kenlowe fans on my Rad. Airtec radiator and Airtec FMIC, but didn't buy their own fans as they are slightly thicker. I also have the turbo cooler.

One fan is wired to the thermostat as per standard, Which is overridden on a switch should I need to use it. The other fan I ran directly from the battery and earthed at the the stereo.

I have a new water pump and run 50/50 pink coolant it can run hot but I drops quickly once on the move.

 

your fans havent got very good airflow
fans blocking most of the rad
i run a single 13" fan,the airflow is over 1.5 times both your fans
do you get heating problems when you put your foot down?if not then your rad will be fine

 

Honestly? No. The one time I thought I did have an issue the car had been stuck in traffic for quite some time on a Sunday with me then hitting the motorway promptly. It has never overheated. On the motorway it will sit around 1/4 mark and maybe rise to a 3rd if booting it on a hot day.

If my 10" SPAL fan is shot it is avenue I am strongly considering. The issues I have however are:

1) It's running a larger than normal Pace chargecooler radiator, albeit it is not IC thick ; think AC codensor thick
2) It's a relatively uncut S1 front, it would be nice to keep it that way.

How thick is your 13" fan? Mine are around 53cm thick.

 

my fan just fits,had to modify the grille a bit but you dont really notice
i have an airtec rad(horrible heavy thin)and a grs cooler behind it
never get heat problems in traffic

 

Is your temp gauge / sender accurate? You could be worrying about nothing!
One of my old turbo's always read fine on the gauge on the movement but in traffic seemed really high, when I installed an engine monitor, all was fine!!! Just the original gauge poop!

 

It will never cool down idling at 1400rpm, sort that before doing anything else mate.

 

I had a feeling this would not help matters. I guess I need to see if the hose is leaking and whether the Aux air valve is working OK with the wiring going to it.

This will sound quite stupid now! I planned to reduce the RPM at hot idle but I could have sworn I read somewhere that I would have to readjust all sorts of things to keep everything in kilter, and was worried about altering the fuel mixture. At 11-10:1 it is quite safe however! It shall be something I sort the next time I pull it out of the garage (I'd work in the garage if there was space!).

 

hope its not 10 or 11:1 on idle
thats rich

 

It's on full throttle. Flat out before the boost kicks in it fuels at around 12-13:1 from memory.

 

Well, the wiring has been rectified. It had those terrible crimp type wire joiners and the wire had broken on one of them! It now has just a tad more airflow through the rad! We shall see if it will keep its cool. I am surprised that during the summer it managed on just one (and I mean barely!).

However, the wiring going to the fans could be better, but then it could be for the 5th Injector,chargecooler pump etc. I plan to make an accessory fuse box/relay board with one dedicated wire going towards it as opposed to the mess that is there at the moment. Once that is done I plan to rewire the lot to the fuse box. Besides looking alot tidier the wiring should also be spot on with the connections being a step up from what they are ; I have solder half of the connections for the timebeing, mainly the 5th Injector wiring.

I did try to screw out the idle speed adjustment but it seemed to have no effect. The next thing to check for is power at the AAV and to see whether the AAV is working or not.

 

Where's good to get some new ones people's

 

Just to confirm, with both fans it does cool down within a minute I would say .