new radiator issue

[cruton5]

So recently my Corksport radiator sprung a huge leak leaving the car undrivable. being in the middle of no where its hard to get radiator work done and not wanting to buy a whole new expensive radiator i got an OEM style ebay 80$ radiator. Figured whatever, ill get the corksport fixed when i can and atleast i can still drive.

So on to my problem, installed the new radiator, hooked it up to the after market (weapon r ) overflow rez. that i've had on the car for awhile without issue. fill her up take a run, car over heats. blowing alll sorts of steam from the overflow but...not leaking water elsewhere. checked and tighten my rad. lines and turbo coolant line etc. still no good. replaced thermostate and gaskets associated with it. still over heating. tried two seperate caps as well. got slim line fans, checked to confirm they are indeed running. craziness!!! I was thinking maybe the worst....head gasket...(boom05)OMG!! but checked oil and its not milky or strange looking.

Any ideas?

 

[CHIQLES]

engine coolant flush?
my next thought after that is that your pump may no longer be pushing water.
good luck.

 

[cruton5]

Didn't think about the water pump its self. that a fairly straight forward swap? havent done one. coolant flush will come this afternoon .trying to get any and all airpockets out. but even with some of that i cant see it overheating so fast. We shall see. Its hard to not blame this suck radiator but maybe an underlying issue is what burst the hole in my corksport.

 

[cruton5]

After some flushing an burping, replaced overflow can with the original etc. this afternoon the SOB still cant go 3 miles without completely redlining the temp. gauge. I'm starting to wonder if this thin little cheapo depot radiator is the problem. correct me if Im wrong, but i did read somewhere that the radiator for an NA protege wont give the cooling need for an MSP!? could that be it?

 

[Dr0]

check your upper and lower radiator hose temps with an infared gun. check for proper thermostat operation...

 

[cruton5]

going to get another thermostat and try it out. the one I got from NAPA looked abit off compared to what i pulled out of the car. Much smaller (less spring). Its listed for 2003 protege but... My hopes are that it has somthing to do with it and once i get an identical match my problems will be gone.

There are only so many things to troubleshoot on a coolant system and I am running out of ideas.

On a side note, I did notice today that when turning on the heat full blast it was only blowing cold while the temp. gauge was at a steady mid range. clogged heater core?? Sucks throwing money at somthing like this when there are better/more fun things i could be investing in if I wanted to spent money on the MSP.
Hit somthing in the road whilke test driving it earlier and exploded my "lip" lip into a hundred pieces... UGGG, atleast it wasn't DG carbon. cant even remember who had those polyurathane lips on here anymore.

 

[CHIQLES]

test the thermostat with boiling water see if it moves. I bought one at jordans here in town and the bastard malfunctioned right our the box. It was a gates thermostat....

 

[destineal]

Can't you run it without the thermostat and see if it overheats?

 

[Dr0]

yeah you could but checking temps with a infared means less work, less mess, less time. literally takes two seconds to see that your upper hose is at 230(over temp) and your lower is at 100(thermostat not opening).

also you can check your heater hoses in 2 seconds to see that you have a heater core blockage. its either that or the blend door isnt operating as it should(in the dash)

and if your not getting pump flow or you still have a leak your cooling system will NOT build any pressure (thus lowering the boiling point and making the car overheat, even under normal operating conditions)

idk thats all i can think of for quick tests. other then that your next step would to rent a pressure tester and see if the system holds pressure. I dont have any experience with our cars overheating (yet *cross fingers) but usually cooling system faults are pretty easy to find (if you do the right tests).

only time ive been stumped is the first vw 1.8t i came across where the impeller disconnected from the water pump shaft and the sucker kept overheating. we figured it out bc it would hold pressure in the system but when it was running it would NOT build pressure on its own.

just my 2 cents