924Board.org

kevrl · Guest

Hi,

Maybe one of you guys will be able to help.
Well i've had my 931 for a couple of years and flushed out the radiator twice and i've even put in a 80degrees thermostat, but still it runs very hot in London Traffic. No, it doesn't overheat (Never has), but the radiator fan doesn't go off either, and the guage stays just below 3/4. As soon as i'm back on the open road it cools right down to 1/4, but not until I go over 40mph. I guess this car isn't built for sprinting 200metres between London Traffic lights !!

Anyway, to cut a long story short i'm going to get a new radiator (old one is now leaking just to make things worse), but its only an extra £20 to get a 951 radiator, will it fit ?, will all the pipes go on ?, and will it fit in the same space. Has anyone done this ?, did it make a differance ?

I hope someone out there can help,

Kevin

wdb · Guest

here in the states there are alot of places that will make you a costom heavy duty radiator. you should call around,I would not be surprised if it was less expensive than a 944 radiator.it is also possible to have yours repaired,they take it apart clean it well and resolder it.

Rick MacLaren · Guest

To save yourself the work and money, I have only two words for you:

Water Wetter.

Ciao,

Rick

Dave · Guest

How the Hell does that stuff work??
Also how Hot is to hot. My 924S goes righ up to about the red zone then the fans kick in and bring it down to the 1/4 mark is this ok or is it running to hot??

kevrl · Guest

Hmmmmmm,

Rick, Yes its a possibility, i've seen this water wetter in a few Porsche places over here, but heard lots of differant stories about it. Some say it works, some say its impossible. Have you used it yourself ?? , what differances have you noticed ?

Rad's leaking anyway though so i've still got to replace it, but if you say that this stuff works, then i'll give it a go when I refill.

Thanks

Kevin

larso · Guest

also if u guys still use coolant, change over to 100 percent water...i know it never snows down there in the states so why do they sell coolant, jackasses.

Rick MacLaren · Guest

My 931 ran HOT before I was using alcohol, and I watched the gauge go from 3/4 to 1/2 using Water Wetter.

I am not a chemist or an expert in regards to HOW it works, but I can say on my car it works and for EVERY dragger I speak with Water Wetter works just fine. I fail to see how it could fail for a daily driver.

You might also consider a lower temperature thermostat.

cs · Guest

it is true that water transfers heat faster that coolant, but coolant raises the boiling point and lowers the freezing point. so if you're driving in heavy traffic in the middle of a florida summer, you're going to over preasurize the system and if you leave you're car parked overnight in the middle of a michigan winter then, well, you know. but it is a good idea to use only as much coolant as you need, i've got a little gauge to test it with to tell me what the boiling/freezing point of the particular mix is. i usually only run about 20% coolant and it works fine.

924RACR · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2001 8:37 am Post subject:

I spent a good portion of Friday and Saturday evening cruisin' Woodward Ave. in the Woodward Dream Cruise... 10 or more mile long parking lot, the home of US street drag racing... This in my '82 931... OK, so I looked a little out of place in with all the musclecars, but they were the ones overheating, not me!

My turbo ran fine all the time, never overheating, in spite of sitting for long stretches of time, then getting on it hard, then sitting again... imagine LA Freeway driving for fun, just to show off the car!

Anyway... the cars can take it, just have to fix all the less-than-perfect stuff...

_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

Rick MacLaren · Guest

You know, one thing I failed to mention before...

I have a 924 and it used to overheat something awful. Then, a couple of head gaskets later, I found a flange at the firewall was blocked at the heater core - my guess is that the system didn't flow correctly and that caused some stress on the system too. So my 2 cents worth would be that it's a good idea to ensure the heater area and all the pipes have good flow. So now I flush the system each spring. YMMV.

-nick · Guest

hi guys-
having your temp guage glide up to the 3/4 mark is actually normal for 924's and early 944's. i've heard that the VDO senders operate in a smaller temp range than most cars, so they will show more of a fluctuation. ie- 3/4's at a stoplight and then the fans lower down to 1/4 in about a minute. seems to make sense.

for peace of mind get a lower temp fan switch. i picked up one from paragon products a while ago and my fan kicks on at just above the 1/4 mark in traffic and brings the temp down to just below the 1/4 mark. they're not expensive and install in about a minute. everybody i've talked to has the 3/4 mark stoplight problem with these cars.

water wetter will drop the temp down a couple degrees, but it's real attribute is it's anti-corrosive properties in your coolant system. that's not their selling point, but that's what it really works for.

and of course, use the phosphate-free (orange) coolant and make sure it's clean. i've never had an overheating problem, even when we had a 100+ new england heat wave the other week. it would still sit right around the 1/4 mark.

hope this helps,
-nick

Rick MacLaren · Guest

Nick is right...having the lower temperature fan switch in conjunction with a lower temperature thermostat works well. If you're really concerned, put some Mobil1 synthetic oil in the car. All these changes should make a significant difference. But again, if there's something clogged or a pump that is broken or any problem in the cooling system, the hot temperature summers will make the overheating problem worse.

924RACR · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2001 10:58 pm Post subject:

Yeah, good points, in the above-referenced stop-and-stop traffic in the Dream Cruise, I had a new low-temp thermostat and low-temp fanswitch from Paragon...

_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

AppleBit · Joined: 16 Nov 2002 Posts: 1516 Location: Minneapolis, MN

I used to have the same problem.

I bought an aftermarket radiator from http://www.performanceproducts.com for my 924

I also bought a cooling fan for the car as well... just one but it's light weight and does about 600-800% better flowing than the two Porsche fans put together!

On the hottest days this summer (near 100 degrees) my temp jumped up to the middle mark while sitting in traffic not moving for 30 minutes... anyways.. it jumped up there and went down about 5 seconds later...

See my website.. I think I have a photo somewhere in 'Project Porsche'.. I'll get my coolant page updated soon! I promise!

_________________
Classic British Sports Car Restoration v6 + v8 Engine Conversion Swaps

Porsche 924 Wide Body LS1 Corvette 500 Horsepower Engine

Rick MacLaren · Guest

Yeah the aftermarket fans are good. Mine is lightweight and really sucks good.