G27 cooling system

G27 cooling system

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Discussion

GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Monday 8th March 2010
quotequote all
following cooling issues:

yesterday i drove my G27 for a longer distance on the motorway. (outside temperature aorund 0degrees)

temperature gauge didnt climb up more than 50degrees.

later, driving in town with lots of traffic, the temperature rised up to 85, the fan cut in...so erverything ok there.

temperature sender for the gauge sits in the thermostat housing (towards engine).

sender and gauge are matching.
thermostat is fitted and opens at requested temperature.

i have a similar phaenomenem also in summer, where the temperature on longer motorway trips does not climb up more than 65 to 70 degrees.

any ideas?


GinELla

61 posts

187 months

Monday 8th March 2010
quotequote all
Typically the thermostat does not close.

GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Monday 8th March 2010
quotequote all
the thermostat is ok. it opens to the requested temperature and is fully closed when cold.

as a test i removed it completely and there was not much differnce.... but this test was made last summer.


Darkspeed

120 posts

214 months

Monday 8th March 2010
quotequote all
What engine?

GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Monday 8th March 2010
quotequote all
vauxhall20xe

dandarez

13,444 posts

290 months

Monday 8th March 2010
quotequote all
Overcooling. Radiator/venting too efficient?

GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Monday 8th March 2010
quotequote all
the radiator is a relatively small VW Polo one.(as recommended by Ginetta)
but in town, during traffic its already on the limit, even in winter time.

due to the bonnet construction of these cars the air is forced to go through the radiator, so overcooling on motorway could be exlained by that.

on the other side: if the water is too cold, the thermostat wouldnt open the circuit through the radiator.


GinELla

61 posts

187 months

Tuesday 9th March 2010
quotequote all
GinG15 said:
the thermostat is ok.
If it's been acting like that all the time, fit a hotter thermostat.

The cooling system needs to be big enough to dissipate all of the heat created at maximum power.

When stopped and idling the water pump is turning slowly, reducing the water flow. At speed it's the thermostat that should reduce water flow to the needed amount.

Darkspeed

120 posts

214 months

Wednesday 10th March 2010
quotequote all
The temperature gauge is correct and calibrated and reading the block temperature?

Have a heater fitted?

Has it always done this or is it something more recent following changes?

XE's are not known for over cooling like the Zetecs are if not plumbed in correctly so to offer any more advice it would be necessary to post a few pictures of how the engine is plumbed in.

Andrew

GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Thursday 11th March 2010
quotequote all
the temperature gauge and sender are matching (already tried with a new sender)...another prove in this case is the fan thermostat: it cuts in the fan at 88degrees and in this case the gauge also shows 88degrees.

no heater fitted.

it has always behaved like that

GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Thursday 11th March 2010
quotequote all

Darkspeed

120 posts

214 months

Friday 12th March 2010
quotequote all
Pictures speaking a thousand words - that one speaks about ten I am afraid when it comes to detailing the cooling system plumbing.

Andrew

GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Sunday 14th March 2010
quotequote all
can you be more pricise, please?

by the way: the pressure cap is a double valve one (with 2 seals), overflow goes into a bottle.

to point out: i havent done the engine installation nor the design of the cooling circuit. it came as in the pictures. as it didnt show any signs of overheating i left it as it was.



Edited by GinG15 on Sunday 14th March 20:55

g32turbo

365 posts

236 months

Monday 15th March 2010
quotequote all
GinG15 said:
the thermostat is ok. it opens to the requested temperature and is fully closed when cold.

as a test i removed it completely and there was not much differnce....
Surely seeing not much difference when removed points to the thermosat not closing. How did you test the thermostat? and how do you know it closes fully. The fact that in town the engine reaches normal temperature and even needs the electric fan to cut in points to nothing really untoward. But not achieving temperature at speed (with higher revs?) really points to the radiator overcooling. If the thermostat is closed then the radiator has little if any effect so for the small cost of a new thermostat I'd just change it.

g32turbo

365 posts

236 months

Monday 15th March 2010
quotequote all
Just had another daft thought. Which way has the system been plumbed in (i.e. which way is the water flowing)? As your temperature sensor is in the thermostat housing (not on the engine block) are you measuring the temperature of the cold water coming from the radiator or the hot water going to the radiator. I know its possible to get the Zetec water pump to run backwards if you don't use an idler pulley and new belt.

jamesG20V6

873 posts

264 months

Monday 15th March 2010
quotequote all
One other thing to note - the radiator on the G27 was from a vw passat diesel not a polo. I know westfield use the polo rad on their cars so may not be relevant.

GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Tuesday 16th March 2010
quotequote all
to be honest: i´m not the specialist in vauxhall engines.

so i even dont know the flow direction of the water through the cooling system.

anybody has a diagram of it?

i checked the thermostat only visually by dismounting it when the engine was cold. there it was fully closed.

searched through the web and it seams that its not unusual for vauxhall thermostats not closing properly.




GinG15

Original Poster:

501 posts

178 months

Tuesday 16th March 2010
quotequote all
update:

found a diagram of the original cooling system.

the water leaves the engine through the thermostat into top of radiator and returns from the rad-bottom towards the water pump. so from that point of view, the system is correctly plumbed.

g32turbo

365 posts

236 months

Wednesday 14th April 2010
quotequote all
Darkspeed said:
XE's are not known for over cooling like the Zetecs are if not plumbed in correctly so to offer any more advice it would be necessary to post a few pictures of how the engine is plumbed in.

Andrew
Hi Andrew, I've just MOT'd my G27 with the new Raceline 2.0 Zetec and taken it for it's first run out. I too am having problems with overcooling and from your previous post it seems you know about this issue with Zetecs.

I have the Passat radiator with bottom hose going to the water pump (which has the correct Raceline idler pulley). The Raceline water rail moves the thermostat and pipework to the front of the engine. At the rear of the engine I have the temperature sender fitted to the water rail housing and half way forward along the rail I take off the supply to the heater (before the thermostat). The heater return goes into a tee in the bottom hose between the radiator and water pump.

Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers,Tony

Darkspeed

120 posts

214 months

Thursday 15th April 2010
quotequote all
Have a search on the WSCC - westy forum - If that fails to answer the Q's get back to me and I will search around my hard drive - most of the stuff I had on overcooling was all hardcopy in a file that went with the car when I sold it.

Cheers

Andrew