Engine Heat with AC On Options

[HardHead93]

It got a little warm today in southern New Mexico so today was the first day I drove the 3sgte swapped Celica in stop and go traffic with the AC on. Normally without the AC on, the engine temps bounce between 189 and 199 degrees F. When I turned the AC on it climbed to 209 degrees in the course of 5 minutes before I turned the AC off. Once I turned the AC off the temp quickly dropped back into the normal range in about another 2-3 minutes. I am reading the temps off an aftermarket water temp gauge with the sensor on the upper radiator hose. Below is a picture of the type of gauge I am using. It is a Glowshift MaxTow water temp gauge.


When that gauge reads 215 degrees the stock dummy temp gauge in the car starts moving towards the H. I am running an Ebay 2-row radiator with aftermarket fans and I have a FMIC. Should I keep the aftermarket fans or go back to a stock radiator with stock fans? Also, the Ebay radiator is pretty dirty from constantly taking it in and out of the car during the build process, could that be the culprit? Is there something else I should check on that may be causing the engine temps to climb with he AC on? Below is a picture of the 2 different radiators.


Is there really an advantage to running a 2 row radiator with a 3sgte?

This post has been edited by HardHead93: Mar 17, 2017 - 7:33 PM

[HardHead93]

Sorry I have not posted in a while but with what happened with Photobucket, I did not want to post anything until I had a new way of adding pictures. It sucks that Photobucket pulled the mess they did but that will not stop my build thread. I understand they need to make money and I would have been happy to pay a couple dollars a month but $39 a month or $400 a year, that is ridiculous! I am using PostImage now and will be spending the next few weeks rebuilding the pictures on this thread as well as the others I started. I will not let greedy companies destroy what I have added to this great online resource. With that out of the way, let's continue.

So I was still struggling with the engine getting hot with the AC on when I was at a constant speed on the freeway. Every time it was the same thing, the temps would rise while going 65 mph or higher on the freeway on a hot day and then when I would come to a stop or turn the AC off, the temps would immediately drop. The next step was to put a puller fan on the intercooler to hopefully get more air flow through there.




I also got rid of this weird aftermarket condenser I had and went back to an OEM one. The aftermarket one was thicker than OEM and looked like if flowed less air. Here is a pick of the aftermarket one off the car.

Look at those beastly tubes, it is WAY to much.


I added more ducts and put the car back together.


After all that work I took the car for a drive on a 105 degree day and guess what. . .

The problem did not go away! I had the intercooler fan set to turn out at 190 degree and turn off at 175 degrees. The fan proceeded to turn on like it should and then it NEVER turned off and the temps still rose to 215 degrees and was still going up until I cut the AC. Then like before, the temps dropped back down to normal levels. By this point I was getting furious because this problem was only occurring in 100+ degree days at high speed on the freeway. I track the car but never run the AC when I do and the car is fine. I did dyno pulls on the car and it was fine so something was up.

After a lot of surfing the web I ran into a Honda Civic and a Lancer Evo forum (please don't judge ), some of them were having the same problem. One person chimed in on the thread and said he fixed his problem by going to a water to air intercooler. That got me thinking, the ST205 was water cooled from the factory and they do not have these problems. So I did some research on water to air intercoolers and found the following:
PROS
1. They are very efficient at cooling intake air temps
2. The heat exchanger does not need to be as big or thick as a air to air intercooler for the same cooling capacity
3. The heat exchanger does not heat the air passing through it as much as an air to air intercooler
4. Less under under the hood space is required because of the lack of air tubing
5. The efficiency can be increased by adding ice to a water tank in the system

CONS
1. Systems tend to heat soak faster at idle
2. Needs to be driven by an electric pump
3. More components need to run the system so there are more points of failure
4. Since it is a water system it adds extra weight to the vehicle (8 pounds per gallon of water in the system)

At this point I was willing to try anything so what the hell. I installed a water to air intercooler system on my car. I went with the following components:
Frozen Boost 12x12x2 heat exchanger
Frozen Boost Remote Radiator Inline Filler Cap -3/4"
CX Racing intercooler pump
CX Racing Aluminum 13.75x4.75x4 inch charger cooler
3/4" Water Lines
9 inch Radiator fan mounted to heat exchanger
Relay wired to give the pump power with ignition on
Generic Radiator overflow reservoir

I found that once I got all the parts, installing the system was not that hard and I was happy to gain some space back under the hood and behind the bumper. No more having to worry about an intercooler pipe popping off in a hard to reach location. I also switched the heat exchanger fan switch out so that it would turn on at 210 degrees and off at 195 degrees so hopefully the fan would not run the whole time.






Then I took it for a drive and was pleasantly surprised. The water temps never rose past 204 degrees on the freeway on a 100 degree day and the intercooler fan never came on because it was never needed. I was so happy!

I am reaping the benefits from the pros on my list now I need to prepare for the cons because going water to air has its trade offs. Here is how I plan to deal with the cons I have listed:
1. I have a fan on the heat exhanger and plan to have it wired into my standalone ECU so it will cut on when intake air temps reach a certain level as well as when engine coolant level temps rise.
2. I plan to install a water temp sensor on the system to alert me to issues if the water pump or other components are not working properly.
3. Nothing I can do about the added weight but at least I can drive with the AC on.

This post has been edited by HardHead93: Jul 26, 2017 - 1:45 PM