Cooling issues
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi, having some trouble with my cooling system, car is fine when driving along temp gauge stays at bangon normal, but in traffic it creeps up to halfway between hot and normal, and the other day went right up to hot.

Im currently running with the water cooled turbo plumbed in, goes from the heater tap on the head thought the turbo, into the heater then back into bottom hose. Wondered if i disconnected the turbo would it help matters?,

Or my other plan was to mod my brace bar and intercooler routing, then fit a metro electric fan on the back of the rad on a switch, as ive got one knocking about

Heres my setup at min, 2 core side rad, 74 deg stat


Any thought apreciated,
Ta

first thing i would do is get a proper gauge that will tell you the temp in numbers,

the std ones can lie like a polititan,

but i always think its worth having a leccy fan too, especially with an overide switch,

Edited by Joe C on 11th Sep, 2009.

Worth a try, but forgot to put when you turn engine off, i can hear the water bubbling and the overflow on the rad pisses water out for a few seconds

Would it be better to cool the turbo off the output of the rad?

bah!

i missed that it has a water cooled turbo,

when i had mine linked in it did this.

So do you just run with no water cooling on the turbo, that was my plan today, to disconnect it and see what difference it makes.

I feed the hot water out of the turbo back into the top hose. As it is after the thermostat, the pressure is lower and you get a good feed.

All the water then goes through the rad. The way that you have it means that all the turbo water does not get cooled.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Do you still take the feed from the heater tap?

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

I think the problem with the water cooling on mine was because my turbo was up high it could not thermo syphon after shut off, so it just boiled the water in the turbo and chucked it out.

on a normal intall with the turbo down the back of the block you should be able to make it work.

the trouble with the mini is because the header tank is so low if you loose just a little water the level can go below the top hose and it will not syphon after shut down.

If you can fit it in an expansion tank is a good move,

Ok for pauls idea,
Just been having a look at it then, my thoughts on the easiest way to re route it are:

Feed out of heater tap,
Through turbo core,
through heater,
but then instead of going into bottom hose as it is at min....... modify the thermostat housing by welding extra pipe onto return into there.

I could use a metro spacer block but this will be the wrong side of the thermostat?

Mini13, so the expansion tank would cure the bubbling over after shutdown, where would i take the feed though, would this be thermostat housing too?

Metro spacer would be the wrong side of the thermostat - needs to feed back in after the thermostat.

I just cut up a bottom hose to make a top hose with a branch.

I've not got my heater in circuit at the moment, but have the sandwich plate.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

iirc you can put the thermostat above or below the metro spacer block.

there are a lot of cars that use an expansion/ header tank like this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cooling-expansion-ta...id=p3286.c0.m14

if you put a rad cap with out the pressure foot on it on the rad, yo can run the overflow into the above tank, the rad should then stay full at all times.

Great stuff, i will have a play and see what happens,
Cheers all

Where do people connect the expnsion tank, highest point? Sounds like a good idea.

Dont feed any water back into the bottom hose.

I have done the same as Paul S, v.good modification.