Thermostat change

[chuckerants]

After driving around in stop & go traffic with a working coolant temp gauge it scared me enough to change out my thermostat. I realized that I had no idea when the last time the thermostat was changed.

When I removed the T housing, the gasket was glued on bother sides. This was the most time consuming as I had to use a knife to scrape all that crap off.

Also, you might want to take an empty plastic 2 liter soda bottle, cut the bottom off and stick it right underneath the T housing to catch most of the coolant.

The rest of the R & R was a piece of cake. Just remember that the little nipple thing goes on TOP of the T housing and that the gasket goes on TOP of the thermostat and the goo on the gasket goes on TOP of the thermostat.

The OEM specs for a thermostat calls for a 180F or 195F. I used a 180F this time and it looks like I had a 85C~88C which is 185F ~ 190F.

[chuckerants]

After a short 10~15 minute drive to make sure nothing was leaking, it seems my car is running cooler.

Where I was running at 210F before, it seems I am at 195F now. Now I'm wondering if the thermostat was just too old. I'll know as soon as I drive in traffic again.

[socal pat]

Chuck, it's always great when someone posts something to save us from ourselves. More than once I have gone to the garage to do something piddly like a T-stat change, and in my haste forgot to note the orientation of the T-stat and housing as well as the re-assembly order. :oops:
Thanks

[chuckerants]

Aw shucks, twernt nothin.

But the 2 liter bottle trick, now THAT'S helpful. Saved me from hosing down the garage afterward. And if I didn't have all the bits of gasket material in the coolant, it could have been reused. :D

[Serpico]

Still running cooler Chuck????

I just bought a 180 and a new radiator cap to see if it will buy me some time before I figure out how I'm going to fit a larger radiator in.

I'm beginning to believe that most of my pinging problem is coming from an inadequate cooling system. I only hear pinging once my oil temps get above 220 degrees.

My fuel system is fine now, thanks to Tom's E-Cool. I installed a wideband setup ( Innovate LC-1/ XD 16 ) and my A/F is now 12:1 at WOT and my Elf is set on 6-7.

[chuckerants]

Still running cooler Chuck????

I just bought a 180 and a new radiator cap to see if it will buy me some time before I figure out how I'm going to fit a larger radiator in.

I'm beginning to believe that most of my pinging problem is coming from an inadequate cooling system. I only hear pinging once my oil temps get above 220 degrees.

My fuel system is fine now, thanks to Tom's E-Cool. I installed a wideband setup ( Innovate LC-1/ XD 16 ) and my A/F is now 12:1 at WOT and my Elf is set on 6-7.

I've been out of town for a couple of days and I'll be leaving again this weekend so I haven't had a chance to drive the Miata much. But the real test will be when I get stuck in traffic.

[Kyp J]

Still running cooler Chuck????

I just bought a 180 and a new radiator cap to see if it will buy me some time before I figure out how I'm going to fit a larger radiator in.

I'm beginning to believe that most of my pinging problem is coming from an inadequate cooling system. I only hear pinging once my oil temps get above 220 degrees.

My fuel system is fine now, thanks to Tom's E-Cool. I installed a wideband setup ( Innovate LC-1/ XD 16 ) and my A/F is now 12:1 at WOT and my Elf is set on 6-7.

This may be a hijack, but what do you have P1 and P2 set to and what are your A/Fs in the lower RPMs when you aren't in full steam mode at those settings.

I just got my (2001) car back from being stored awhile, put the belt on first time since my rebuild and am too rich down low and a little lean up top at WOT. I have 1,2 at 10 and 3 about 3 I think. 10.5 or 11 progressing up to 13.5 at redline with 110 pulley. SS not connected yet for the E cool.

To keep the post on track, I put in a 37 Koyo and 180 therm. and except when in stop and go traffic was staying pretty cool until I lost the ground to my gauges. I haven't closed the gaps at the shrouds yet, doing that today but discovered my alternator tension bolt disappeared so it will be a few days before I can test things. Notice my new title?

[chuckerants]

I sold my ELF a couple of weeks ago and I'm using a borrowed (from Tom), a JRPC.

When I had the ELF, the P3 was on 5~6 WITH the SS and the 5th injector.

Are you saying you are running a 110mm pulley WITHOUT the 5th injector?

IMHO, and Tom's, the ELF can't provide enough fueling for a 110mm pulley by itself. If you have YOUR ELF P3 at 3, than you need to increase that to whatever it takes to get it to 12:1 or so. As for the ELF making it too rich at low RPMs, the ELF should not have any control of your A/F unless it's in boost.

Do you have a datalog or a dyno?

Chuck

Still running cooler Chuck????

I just bought a 180 and a new radiator cap to see if it will buy me some time before I figure out how I'm going to fit a larger radiator in.

I'm beginning to believe that most of my pinging problem is coming from an inadequate cooling system. I only hear pinging once my oil temps get above 220 degrees.

My fuel system is fine now, thanks to Tom's E-Cool. I installed a wideband setup ( Innovate LC-1/ XD 16 ) and my A/F is now 12:1 at WOT and my Elf is set on 6-7.

This may be a hijack, but what do you have P1 and P2 set to and what are your A/Fs in the lower RPMs when you aren't in full steam mode at those settings.

I just got my (2001) car back from being stored awhile, put the belt on first time since my rebuild and am too rich down low and a little lean up top at WOT. I have 1,2 at 10 and 3 about 3 I think. 10.5 or 11 progressing up to 13.5 at redline with 110 pulley. SS not connected yet for the E cool.

To keep the post on track, I put in a 37 Koyo and 180 therm. and except when in stop and go traffic was staying pretty cool until I lost the ground to my gauges. I haven't closed the gaps at the shrouds yet, doing that today but discovered my alternator tension bolt disappeared so it will be a few days before I can test things. Notice my new title?

[Kyp J]

I might only have 100 now that I think about it. I am using 93 octane too. I'm not really driving it that much since I've had other problems requiring ordering of parts. Driving it home from where I had it stored I was pulling my little tire trailer at 70 mph and had a hard time staying out of boost just maintaining highway speed. Anytime I went into boost just a little it would go super rich till I stopped and turned P3 down some more and then it would be around 11.5. If I jumped on it periodically it would go to about 12.5 around half boost (maybe 4500-5000 RPM) then I would back off under 0 boost for awhile until I had to accelerate again. I should have stopped and wired the bypass open but I just wanted to get it over with (getting home) as I had things to do.

When I tried a loaner JRPC from BRP it was super rich too but I have since heard there are other chips for them that change the range for different models of Miata.

No data logger, just an AEM A/F meter.

Is there a market for ELFs? I would like to get rid of mine when the PC Pro is ready. I was just planning on taking it out and shooting it to put it out of my misery. If I had a video camera and knew how to put it into these forums I would post that event in another forum or 2. Maybe they will get the ELFs working before then.

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

Kyp, let me know if you want to borrow my SAA Colt .45. Nothing beats a good cowboy sidearm for that kind of video. ;)

[Serpico]

I'm going to go ahead a try to fab up a scoop for the radiator. I have an extra belly pan, so I might as well try it.

I really want to put a 37mm radiator in , but this might be an easier solution. I have very little room due to relocating the OEM radiator with the BRP intercooler.

Kyp, I have an 01' and my Elf settings are
P1-10
P2-0
P3-6 ( Tom's E-Cool is providing the rest of the fuel)

I'm still pig rich below 2500rpms though. But let's face it,,, I rarely below 2500rpms..... :wink: http://upload4.postimage.org/1193238/scoooper.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1193238/photo_hosting.html)

[Kyp J]

Kyp, let me know if you want to borrow my SAA Colt .45. Nothing beats a good cowboy sidearm for that kind of video. ;)

I gave some .45 autos to my son and and he is closer to borrow something from. I also gave him my 12 gauge and a 12g slug might look more impressive on a "now you see it - now you don't" kind of plot.

Deleted paragraph of me figuring out how to get video into the computer. I may have figured it out while typing.

There are probably details I'm not aware of that I need to know as well. The links of other's videos come from some service it looks like.

[Kyp J]

I forgot to answer one of chukerants questions

quote: "Do you have a datalog or a dyno?"

I can barely get my car in my garage, I don't know where I would put a dyno. (If I could afford one) And the closets are all full too.

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

LOL. Well, I like my .40 Glock as well but .45 SSA Colts are the most fun. I am working on setting up a new forum (new software) that will allow uploading pictures and videos here. Of course that is down the list after CARB and Hotside. Been awhile since I did software stuff.

[chuckerants]

I had a chance to drive my car a little more and it seems that the 180F T-Stat doesn't help as much as I hoped. It takes longer now to get to about 195F, but it does get there. I'm sure once I start driving in stop and go traffic, the temp gauge is going to hit 210F and maybe to 230F like before.

I may try trimming the sides off the belly pan as Gary@TDR suggested. It may allow more air to vacate the engine compartment.

[Serpico]

Can you tell me a little more of what Gary suggested in regards to trimming the belly pan?

I thought you got a bigger radiator. Did you get a 37mm or a 55mm?

[chuckerants]

We cut the side panels off the belly pan on all FI cars, big improvement for getting the hot air out and circulates the air more efficiently around the header taking away heat. I am sure you have wired the fans in parallel, standard procedure for all Miatas FI or not.

Your setup has poor efficiency of capturing the airflow in the mouth of the radiator, even more with the FM intercooler, add additional panels if necessary and consider using high temperature-moisture resistent aluminum foil tape to seal off air leaks. You can get some at the hardware store in the A/C insulation department. Some of their tape is not high temperature (250F or higher) so read the label. If you can not find it we stock it.

The stock fans are powerful enough to pull a lot of heat out of your radiator, you just need to improve the airflow.

Gary

http://forums.dfwmiata.com/showthread.php?t=6691

I have the PWR rad which is 37mm at the recommendation from Gary.

[chuckerants]

I also did some research into wiring the fans in parellel and there are two methods. One involves tapping into the fan relay in the engine compartment near the drivers side headlight. This is documented in the Garage section of Miata.Net. There is a caveat however that this method could over-tax the relay and short out the fans altogether.

The second method is to connect the ground wires for the fans at the ECU. Has anyone heard of or tried this?

http://forum.miata.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=016611#000000

For the '99/'00 it's Red with Green in pin 1R and Blue with White in pin 1I.

[Serpico]

Thanks for the info. I may try what Gary suggested.

I wired my fans together by installing a jumper wire at the ECU. I did it back in June and have had zero CELs .

http://www.fastforwardsuperchargers.com/miata-forum/run-both-fansproblems-vt173.html

[socal pat]

There is another mod that a friend of mine did which he swears by. He got a couple of approx. 1" spacers which he placed on the brackets where the hood atatches. The result is the hood at the windshield area is open a bit. Since installing a header and removing the heatshield I am very tempted to try this.