With these nice, long nights I get chance to hang with great minds. We were sitting down on my garage floors with a couple of beers and having a smoke..

We were wondering if you upgraded the Water-pump to a larger or more efficient water-pump such as one from an EK9 or something like that and replaced the radiator with a smaller one whether you'd have overheating issues?

We were debating whether to try it, but my friends who run a small local race team for a garage were saying "Dont risk a $XXXX worth of engine" and us DIY'ers were saying "You can always rebuild the engine".

Just wondering if anyone has any more input?

This seems to have some good input: How to Design And Build A High-Performance Cooling System - How To - Car Craft Magazine

 

if you want a half rad, grab a full aluminum made for an older honda and use that.

I used the FACTORY plastic and aluminum radiator from a del sol in my old turbo crx and it stayed plenty cool.

a thicker radiator is just as useful as a wide one

EDIT who the hell said an EK9 water pump would fit?

Different motor entirely. the waterpump bolts to the block. it is NOT external

your friends are not very honda smart at all if they suggested that

 

Not very good idea. The radiator is the major heat removing device and is designed to "Loose" heat at a certain rate. If you move to a smaller surface area less coolant size radiator with a faster rate of exchange from a bigger/faster water pump the coolant will not spend enough time in the radiator to loose heat resulting in a hotter running engine.

What were you trying to accomplish?

If you want a cooler running GD you can use a 160 thermostat and fan switch, cowl vent/scoop, and remove the rubber seals on the front and rear of the hood. I have done that to mine and it will run 160 all day while moving but go up to 180 while stuck in traffic for any length of time. But still way better than the stock 190 going up to 200+ in traffic.

 

We hadn't looked under the hood at the water pump or where it bolts too.. What we were thinking of was running a smaller rad to allow the rest of the space being used for say an intercooler, however my one friend said the best idea would be to run a larger rad and a Davies Craig electric pump as a booster, run the intercooler in another place.

Was just a thought..
I'm looking to potentially do a wire tuck at a later date once I pull the block out for a rebuild.. Maybe if I find another l13/15 for sale somewhere..??

 

So you read right over where i said to make it a THICKER aftermarket radiator for the older civic? No factory honda civic came full aluminum

People have made over 700hp on K series turbos using aftermarket half rads for civics in their swaps, especially for 92-00 civics

 

Could also run 2 small radiators instead of one big one.

Some sport bikes do this, many exotic supersport cars have multiple small radiators, etc....

 

I understand this was a late-night garage spitball session but why are you thinking about doing this? What problems are you having?

Is this just for shits and giggles?

 

Yeah it was just a question we were throwing around, however.. I came across high-flow electric pumps by "Davies Craig".
Originally we were actually thinking of building a rally or Auto-cross car.. but then we were thinking of a show-car or a cruise car for use on Run-What-You-Brung weekends..

Now we have an idea to run a smaller, thicker rad; Cooler bar (Like intercooler type) and an Electric pump. Thanks Anyway!

 

Why the electric pump? That is not improving anything. Like loudbang said moving fluid through the radiator too fast won't let it cool down enough before passing back into the block.

What is a cooler bar?

Just put in an aluminum rad and some silicon hoses if you just want to look cool, because it doesn't seem like you have a real reason for doing this other than that?

 

Well this is going to be a Road-Rally car build, We finally decided this evening. We're going to be entering a few different classes which mean we need to run an interchangeable system. The Rad is going to be relocated to the rear and mounted in its own cradle in the roll-cage with vents being directed into the rear via cut-outs in the rear doors (Weld-shut?)

The cooler-bar is like the CO2, N2O or O2 Sprays that cool down the air passing through an intercooler. Although the air being cooled is actually sprayed with the N2O or CO2 which is then combusted we have seen an example of a racer (Street) who comes into my friends Shop/Garage and uses a modified rad with a Closed Gas system that basically circulates the gas from the cylinder through the rad and around the internal water lines.
Although the system we have in-mind will have to adhere to rules there is nothing that states that the Radiator inlet line can't be cooled prior to the water entering the Radiator.



Another goof-ball, crazy idea from us

EDIT:: By the way, this is going to be a fully built engine, including internals, Turbo and a full re-wire and tuck. We'll be running an OMEX system with ALS and a new sequential gearbox. We're going big.

 

Interesting.

Why are you tucking wires and rewiring? Why are you cutting up the body to remount the radiator?

This sounds like serious business.

 

Put some pics of this project...thats if its not top secret

 

Yes, well its going to be a race/road-rally car rather than a daily-driver. We already have another 1.3 which will be rebuilt and possibly bored and honed so we are going to be doing a full race-build as part of our portfolio, We are going to reduce as-much weight, remount various parts such as the Rad in the rear in a cradle built specifically to fit in the X bar of the roll-cage. Then we can run a bigger intercooler up-front as well as moving various items around to maximize the little space we have as-is.

This will be NO ordinary Fit..

 

Wow must be planning on big power to need that much bay space, what internals do you plan to use to handle this monster turbo and IC?

What is the portfolio you're starting?

 

What bit your ass??? I was replying to the OP

Did you skip over that part where I referred to a SMALLER surface area radiator which could include a thicker or thinner larger radiator the important part you glossed over is SMALLER SURFACE AREA not physical size.

 

After a bit of digging we have located a JDM 1.5 VTEC block + crank, no pistons/rods.

Were hoping to run a fully forged internal setup, a local engine company is going to balance and lighten the crank then they are going to forge a new one based on that new lightened crank. We have a 1.5 crank for this..

We have spoken to Piper cams and are to get a custom can setup at a similar setup to the 310 Crower cams..

From there we are running Crower rods and forged JE pistons.. Valves and other internals are to be determined as of yet..

The portfolio is going to be to show what we can build as a race team.. And what the garage/shop can supply!

EDIT:: We will be running full Titanium exhaust/Manifold system, lightened Flywheel, a T3/T4 Turbo