here's what happened. I was driving top up one evening with my so and we had the AC running. Came to a parked spot and spent a significant amount of time sitting and talking with the car running and AC going.

smelled a bad smell and looked at my temp gauge which was 3-4 bars above the 8 that is normal temp on the AP2.

I immediately freaked and shut off the AC and the car. Popped the hood which was HOT and just let the whole thing rest.

The car has been running fine since and this was a few weeks ago, I've paid close attention to the temp gauge since and have never seen it go above normal operating temps. I'm not sure if I caused damage but I assume smelling something is not good and the car did get hot while sitting there at idle. The truth as to whether or not I caused significant damage is yet to be determined.

I am assuming this happened because the fans were having a hard time pushing air through the 2 1/2" radiator and cooling both it and the heat transfer from the condenser.


has anyone else experienced anything like this with a thicker aftermarket radiator and running their AC?


I know that if I was driving I wouldn't likely have not seen anything like this but it's definitely a hard lesson learned and something that's good to know.

 

How recently did you install the bigger radiator? Improper bleeding of the coolant can cause an air bubble to dislodge a long while later.

 

Yep, my guess too. Hopefully no damage was done.

 

I've never bled it, the car came with it when i purchased it back in january.

I can bleed it this evening. is there anything special for these cars for that procedure?


I have a lisle funnel for radiators.


put the front on wood blocks or incline. Put funnel on radiator. Run car and add/bleed as it burps? or is there something else I should be doing?

 

nevermind, billmans faq.

 

Yeah, it's pretty simple. Run the car till it's at operating temp with heater on full. Then shut engine off and crack front bleeder slightly till air hissing out stops and/or you start getting fluid out. Then add coolant to rad and run the car again for a minute or two. Then shut engine off and crack front bleeder... etc.

I had to bleed mine when I lost some coolant during a coolant hose change. I kept doing it until I would get nothing but fluid come out from the front bleeder. Took like 4-5 cycles. I also checked it for the next couple days and got only fluid so I was satisfied.


I read Billman's post on this which was very well worded and easy to follow. S2Ki should be paying him to be a member here...

 

I cracked the bleeder at the intake manifold after running for a while on a incline and got no air. squeezed the upper hose and cracked and still all liquid.

let it cool a bit and topped off at the radiator cap and refilled the overflow canister. I don't think it was problems with air in the lines my heat is always hot as hell.


I'm guessing the stock condenser/radiator fans have a hard time pushing air through the larger radiator and the condenser. it was a very humid night when this happened which makes AC's heat transfer a lot harder to work so I'm assuming the condenser carrying all of that heat to in front of the radiator and the fans not being able to push air through efficiently caused a heat soak situation.

I'm going to assume that sitting still for extended periods of time with the AC on and this larger radiator is going to be no bueno for the s2k. I was sitting completely parked with the car idling and the AC on for ~30 minutes which is a rather long time.

 

I would use Honda genuine 50/50 coolant pre-mixed. But....you can make do with any good quality 50/50 coolant meant for aluminum engines.

I buy premixed coolant...or distilled water. If you use tap or drinking water...you'll do some damage.

 

I wouldn't idle any gasoline vehicle for 30 minutes, fwiw. Go inside or something! Lol

 

I never had any issues with a Koyo and significant AC use, even when parked. Stock fans.