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General Cooling Discuss

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:31 pm
by BETEK
With triggering comment from "Archyman" in the thread Turbo Projects viewtopic.php?f=29&p=14150#p14150
archyman wrote: Remember that the engines internals are calculated by an thermodynamics engineer and changing pistons with different shape may proove for the worse.
It is allways better to invest first in superb cooling system, perfect the a/f ratio, not touch the rev-limiter or compression and so on.. to get the max of the stock engine+turbo in a safe manner and sustained reliability.
Or if you want more than 7-9psi, go the hard way and straight to the aftermarket performance parts.
I have to say that generally Honda have on of the best cooling system designs.
I have hardly ever heard overheating issues with Honda engines.
Overheat a Honda engine I can say that it must the owner fault. Old coolant, damaged thermostat, damaged sensor, blocked radiator or turbo engine with bad cooling design for specific power.
Honda have open deck design engines between piston sleeves and block that gives a lot of space for coolant.
This feature it is very important to prevent the engine from overheating. For this reason many car manufacturers have copied the open deck design, for example KIA-Hundai.

Now the question is: Can D14s cooling system accept an increase in the engine power without problems?
I can say yes with a up to a limit in the power increase such as 125-130 horsepower.
Have in mind that D16y7 have the same radiator with D14s, also some of D15s have the same radiators with our D14s.
But with changing the radiator from a narrow one that have D14s to the bigger one that have D16y8, D16z6 or the B-series radiator the capacity of the cooling system for our D14s will increase dramatically.
Even with a turbo set-up we can't overload the D14s cooling system with a just OEM radiator from D16y8, D16z6.
The B-series radiator will not fit because of bigger radiator hoses despite the same size with D16y8, D16z6 radiators.

Re: General Cooling Discuss

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:38 pm
by BETEK

Re: General Cooling Discuss

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:56 am
by archyman
It is true that most of performance engine faults are due to bad maintenance and pure ignorance of obvious mistakes. That is especially true for turbo setups.
The cooling system of the turbo engine consist of 3 main types - water cooling, oil cooling and air cooling.
While the first two may be somehow left alone in mild turbo setups, the air cooling should be given special attention to prevent explosions and add power and reliability.
First of all, investment in an efficient intercooler system is a must. It must be as close to 100% efficiency as possible. IC that looses more than 2psi boost is also bad.

Using higher octane fuel is good for boosted engines to prevent pinging-the higher the better. Fuel also serves as coolant in the combustion chamber. That is why a turbo setup usually runs a little bit rich. Also the higher the compression ratio and boost the higher the octane needed.

The oil supply of an N/A engine is generally enough for turbo setup and charger bearings cooling.
Some people tend to install fancy oil tanks, coolers and pumps without calculation. If setup is done properly turbo should do fine with oem oil feed. Fitting an oil radiator may lower engine oil working temperatures below advisable levels. For most of the time changing oils frequently is the best option to prevent damage to a performance engine or turbo.