90TGP Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 Ok, I have the TopGun 180 chip and thermo. Had them professionally installed last year with a radiator flush. Had the radiator flushed again earlier this spring after removing the a/c condensor. Sometimes after a long drive, or idling in traffic for a long period of time, my autometer temp gauge [signal taken from the factory temp gauge] will show my temp going upto 210 at time. After driving for a minute or so, it'll go back down to 180. Could my water pump be going bad? Fan relay need to be replaced? I'll be having a manual fan switch installed soon for racing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 210 is normal sitting in traffic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGPilot Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 Yeah but with a 180* chip & thermostat he should be lower than 210*. You may want to look at your primary and secondary fans to make sure they are kicking on at the proper temp. I am sure Jeff can PM you the "Fan on" temps he has set on his chips... 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
god910 Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 I know the TG160 I have has the primary on point at 191 and off at 185 (w/ disabling speed @ 60) Secondary on at 201 and off at 190. Seems a little high for a 160 stat. But I guess it's all about what keeps the car running at 160. 8) FWIW, my car never sways more than 3-4 deg. from 160. I still wouldn't think that it should be hitting 210, since my 160 stays at 160, your 180 should stay at 180. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff M Posted May 28, 2004 Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 Ok, I have the TopGun 180 chip and thermo. Had them professionally installed last year with a radiator flush. Had the radiator flushed again earlier this spring after removing the a/c condensor. Sometimes after a long drive, or idling in traffic for a long period of time, my autometer temp gauge [signal taken from the factory temp gauge] will show my temp going upto 210 at time. After driving for a minute or so, it'll go back down to 180. Could my water pump be going bad? Fan relay need to be replaced? I'll be having a manual fan switch installed soon for racing. If when you are sitting and the temp is going up and the main/big Fan 1 comes on (normal part), but your temps keep climbing, then it’s the radiator not keeping up dumping the heat load. If the temp continues to climb, then the secondary/smaller front Fan 2 will come on to help out (is this happening???). Flushes are good at cleaning out the gunk from years of build-up but will NOT remove the hard scaling that coats the insides of the radiator tubes and coats partially or fully the ends of these tubes, this coating greatly impedes heat transfer of your radiator, obviously if it blocks the tubes off!! Seen quite a radiators (non TGPs as well) with many tubes partially and some fully blocked (no flush will remove this!) and those cars as well as the radiators like this on a few TGPs I have seen, will make it so that even with the thermostat wide open and main Fan 1 on the temp climbs and will not keep up, even with both fans running, at idling or even light cruising. Another area is (even if this is not the case for you, there are others who read this post as info for them!) those not having a Front Air Dam/air splitter will run hotter. This Air Dam is more than aesthetical, it also functions in directing the air, part in keeping reversion of hot engine air back out and around to the front, but to also develop a contained pressure zone in front of the radiator to ensure full cooling potential. As for checking your radiator, its easy to look into the end tanks to see the condition of your tube ends to confirm your problem, look in either through the Level Sensor hole or (better>) in the Upper Coolant Hose location. The 3 TGP radiators that I have here, having between 62k and 98k miles all show tubes plugged and partially plugged, common issue with any radiator, especially one that was neglected or filled with tap water in the past (did your shop use distilled was to refill your radiator after those flushed? not many do, nor owners, so we final/current owners are paying the price for this!!). As for your water pump, nothing to fail other than the bearings locking up but your serpentine belt will squeal and let you know that (pump will growl when the bearings are going bad), and the cast aluminum pump/impeller is not something that can fail/fall apart. ps: I am heading out of town so will not be on-line for a while, also the cable (internet cable modem as well) to our area is scheduled for replacement (temporary one hanging from the trees for now) and might happened soon or in the next week or two, so there will be some down time there as well, which will allow me to nail out a lot of other TGP projects I got going on (replace ABS unit and paint engine bay while there is no engine, tranny, suspension, subframe in the way, then rebuild the tranny and install everything else back in, more). So just an fyi. Jeff M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
90TGP Posted May 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2004 If I sit in traffic for more then a minute or so, it'll slowly climb to 210 and then the primary fan will kick on and it'll go back down. Then say after a hard run, I'll let the car idle to cool the turbo and shut it off. Then a few minutes later or so when I go to restart it, the temp gauge will be pinged at 210 [i'm guessing it's just reading the water that has been sitting] and it'll go back down when the fans click on. I've never had the car actually over heat, it just goes up to 210 at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
no1kicker Posted May 29, 2004 Report Share Posted May 29, 2004 I had a similar problem and it was a small coolant leak. The level would get low so coolant wouldn't move unless the rpm's were high enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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