How to Improve Radiator Cooling?

[no_8wire]

Car in question is not a toyota, but I thought I would ask for suggestions anyway.

Driving around town and in traffic is fine. Driving hard in the hills is fine when I am the only passenger in the car.

Basically when the car is under heavy loads, like towing a trailer, or trying to attack the waitakere ranges/piha road the temperature will rise above 90.

It hasnt overheated as I have been careful to slow down my driving to help cool it down a little.

Is there anything I can do to help increase the cooling ability of the vehicle? Or do I just need to slow down when I have a load?


Plan to flush the rad and refill with a proper coolant first off, but what are the options?

Get the rad rodded?

[Adoom]

What kind of car is it?
Is the radiator standard? Is it in the original car, with the original engine?

If it is all standard, then I suspect you may have a BHG or the radiator is stuffed, or the water pump is not working.

If it is not standard, a transplant or something. Get a bigger radiator.

[no_8wire]

Peugeot 405 1.9 turbo diesel.
Shows no sign of water in the oil or oil in the water.
Uses no water either. Doesnt get hot other when I have extra 400kgs up hills.
i.e people loaded up around town, no worries.

So was thinking that the thermostat and waterpump look like they are working...but rad may not be.

Original engine original rad as far as I can tell.

As I plan to raise the boost, I want to make sure the cooling is up to it.

Bigger rad it may be...

[cat007]

Get the rad cleaned?

[Malcolm]

Basically when the car is under heavy loads, like towing a trailer, or trying to attack the waitakere ranges/piha road the temperature will rise above 90.

This is not a problem. If it starts getting above 105-110 (assuming it's a pressurised system), then you can start worrying.

[no_8wire]

Sweet. Well in that case I may just give it a flush and replace the coolant.

I have had a hilux boil on me before and not too keen on it happening again, hence the posts.

[Bling]

Manual / auto?

[no_8wire]

Manual

[evil_si]

Any sign of rust in the cooling system.
Id start by having radiator cleaned, were they remove the tank and actually clean the cores,

[no_8wire]

Any idea of the cost I could expect to pay for that?

[evil_si]

$60-100 id guess,
Seals for the tanks are bugger all so just the labour really,

[strx7]

where is the 90 degrees measured? hot or cooled side of the radiator??

[no_8wire]

I assume it would be the hot side .

[gt4dude]

I just had a major thread about overheating... yeah turns out my block and head were slightly warped and there wasnt a good seal between cyl 1 and the 2nd major water jacket for #1 cyl on the exhaust side, headgasket was fine tho, and no oil/coolant contamination allthough probably some oil/combustion contamination (blowby)...

theres lots of things u can do to beef up your cooling system tho as a bandaid fix you could flush it with some alkaline rad cleaner and give it a thorough wash out, also blast out your heater core so if you have to use it, it works... find an alloy radiator that u can get to fit, upgrade the fans, replace the thermostat incase it might ocasionally stick.. and also redline water wetter you can add to your coolant mix

[strx7]

I assume it would be the hot side .

if it is the temp before it goes into the radiator, stop worrying, that is a normal temp.

[Mr Ree]

Exactly, I see nothing alarming about a 90 deg temp, especially when towing of loaded up with 400kg extra.

Instead of removing your radiator, if you were already planning on getting new coolant, just get a respected radiator flush too and run it before refilling your system. It will get any gunk out, and then when you refill with new coolant, your boiling point will rise slightly too so even if you were getting 100deg on the gauge, your system wont overflow.

Dont stress

[no_8wire]

When I am towing/loaded it was creeping up over 90, and I made myself drive slower so it did not exceed 95 etc.

May just do a flush and coolant for peace of mind.

[Mr Ree]

Definitely do a flush, but dont use one of the powdered types

I recently used the prestone liquid flush and it did a great job. I drained and refilled my cooling system (inc heater core) multiple times until I had absolutely no traces of coolant, or murky water left. Then I put in the flush and went for a 30 minute drive, came home and drained it and it was very dirty again so there is no doubt that it got rid of plenty of crap out of the galleries. I then refilled it and drained it completely, 2 more times, just to ensure all the flush was gone, before topping up with coolant and distilled water.