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xsspeed's Corollas: EE80->Beams3s & NZGT Liftback


xsspeed

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Possibly a partially blocked radiator or something similar?

Gutted about the overheating part, but glad that you made the effort to get it down there and that it made it back in one piece.

How did you find those tyres? I guess its a bit hard to tell with crappy suspension and nothing else to compare them to.

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Yea If the water is rusty I'd say some dweeb has run it on straight water for ages and possibly the radiator is blocked. Or maybe the system isnt pressurising? who knows, sounds like the cap is doing its job though. You really want to go over the cooling system before the next track day.

Oh and cut springs and some decent shocks will make a big difference suspension wise for a cheap solution until you sort those coilovers or whatever

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Hmm well the car shouldn't boil on straight water, as I dont need antifreeze here all I run in both my cars is water and a corrosion inhibiter. Sure antifreeze will raise the boiling point of the coolant, but the system in your car under pressure should not be getting near the boiling point of water anyway, A series Corollas have pretty decent cooling systems

It was mentioned by Markku and Simon that it doesn't take much of a radiator block to render it near useless. So perhaps this was the case, though the temp guage never read more than half (but no idea on the accuracy).

It's obvious that adding the coolant made the difference on the trip home, but I guess if all it did was raise the BP it was just masking the ineffectiveness of the radiator. I will replace it for piece of mind in any case.

Edit; water was relatively clean when I drained it, and barely anything came out of the radiator when I ran the hose through it, but no idea how much of the radiator is actually clear.

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Oh and cut springs and some decent shocks will make a big difference suspension wise for a cheap solution until you sort those coilovers or whatever

This is the plan, I have some barely 1000km old shocks from an fxgt I pulled apart, so will likely use those with makita one ways provided I still get enough travel - should be ok. (The springs on them are king superlows which I think are horrible).

I will still need to sort my guards a bit I think, starting with tidying the rush job I did at the track.

Like you say the other option is those coilovers, but the plan is to use those for my other car, but I guess in the meantime it couldn't hurt to chuck them in.

Yea adding the coolant was a band aid fix as it was at some point running over 100deg under pressure to boil the water which is not normal. Just go over the basics, use a good clean radiator and make sure the thermostat is working sweet

Concur, I think thats exactly it, I have a new thermostat to chuck in (from repco though - as I was going to replace it down there but decided to see how it went on the way home)

Gutted about the overheating part, but glad that you made the effort to get it down there and that it made it back in one piece.

How did you find those tyres? I guess its a bit hard to tell with crappy suspension and nothing else to compare them to.

Yeah man, was still a mean rush being my first trackday, just a bit gutted that had I crossed crossed my t's and dotted my i's I would have got more time out there, but thems the breaks I guess.

Like you say hard to tell with those tyres with my rolly polly suspension, so will have to get out to Hampton soon with a better setup and see. I felt like I had all the grip I needed, was still obviously getting some lift off oversteer but (bar the time I came off) it was rather predicatable and could brake a bit later and harder, and drive out where needed.

I think Rhys/Reece/tougeae101(sp?) could comment more on them, as his car was set up better than mine (and had loads of -ve camber) and he seemed to be pushing well all day. I noticed when off that track, that they are pretty noisy (squeal a fair bit)

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Had exactly the same problem with my bluetop.

Was a shit radiator running on just water possibly with some air locks too.

I put another rad in, replaced rad cap and checked for leaks.

Filled with good antifreeze and it was fine ever since. No damage done.

I think the not starting thing is a combination of the engine and starter motor (sitting under manifold) being too hot.

Not sure if mine had a partial seize of pistons in bores or something but tried again in half an hour and it fired right up.

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perhaps the radiator cap wasn't holding pressure, therefore not increasing the BP over 100deg and also releasing coolant as you're driving.

Possible - cap would release to overflow I presume. Should it be getting up over 100deg though?

I think the safest option is to get a good new radiator/cap, and put that in.

Also tempted to replace heater core (I assume it's been disconnected due to leak) and plumb that back up, after freezing my arse off on the trip down on friday morning, despite, longjohns/trackies, thermal top, tshirt, two hoodies, beanie and gloves.

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I had a radiator opened and flushed down here and it was only $50 or so. Had put a hose in at high pressure with both forwards and backwards flow until clear water came out and it did virtually nothing. It was 70% blocked, yet the car (Pulsar) wasn't overheating until taken on a long trip at cruising speed - overheating while cruising at a constant raised rpm is a sure sign radiator is blocked, because all other causes will just overheat at all time. The pulsar never overheated in traffic or while idling, only on long trips. The guys said small Japanese engines like this (and possibly the 4age) are particularly good at masking issues like this because they don't require much cooling, where as other engine would just overheat with even a partially bloocked radiator.

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Can't wait to see that!

having the current rad flushed with the tanks off is always the best option - you never know what a second hand one will be like.

Brad - we've done quite i bit of testing with Achilles on different cars and they aren't too bad. Definitely slower than more expensive semis, but will out perform most second handers in the same price range. Also seen to get better as they wear which is nice.

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  • 2 months later...

Pictureless update,

Not too much has changed, currently has a foha lip bolted up, but this will end up on my other liftback - the foam is a bit more forgiving on the track than the NZGT lips.

Scored a GT lip from PAP, its a bit rough (like the whole car) but will reglass part of it and tidy it up, or get one of the lips that are being made out of hamilton.

Replaced the fubar'd fuse box the other week with a spare that came with the car, ensured I had all the right fuses and plugs lined up, so got that in and starte dto tidy engine bay.

Since then when driving around the battery light came on so I hightailed it home, and low and behold the battery was only giving 11.5Vish when the engine was running.

Had a spare alternator, so whacked that in this avo, didn't solve the problem, (no idea if either or neither are shagged now), so will put my old fuse box in and see how that goes, as it's the only other electrical thing I have changed.

Markku, did you still have linkages to go on those throttles?

Been familiarising my self with the beams 3s thanks to it being in the mrs' caldina as well, fuck me it weeps oil.

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I've just started running Motul MoCool in my 205 and noticed a difference. Cruising temp is down, it doesn't heat up as fast when pushed and cools much quicker than before.

I would recommend it to others for trackdays and such. Basically the same as Redline Water Wetter.

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  • 1 month later...

It's not (the rain just makes it sparkle), that top edge of the guard you can see where someone has tried to colour match the faded paint to non faded paint - its basically like that all the way around. Dents in bonnet, a couple of rust spots, and all the painted strips on the bumpers is flaking off.

But thats about it cosmetically, not too bad for $600 (though if you add up what I have spent on it it'd be like 1600)

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