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ok in this summer heat both of our l seires are over heating. whats an easy option to fix it?? this is without driving it super hard.
any simple duckting we can put in?? or extend the radiator header tanks

Just get a 2 core radiator and be done with it

Spike, not sure there is an easy solution. New radiator perhaps depending on the age of your ones, might need ridding etc. Lowe temp thermostat, but unlikely to make much of a difference. Dual or triple core rad will be best option but getting $$$ here. New/bigger thermo fans to move more air when the car is not moving fast, again if ur using the original clutch fan this might help a fair bit. I have a manual switch on mine. But that means I have to turn it on and off etc. But has made me pay far more attention to the engine temps. Less likely to have a temp issue, in the Lib, so used to efficient cooling if there ever was a problem it would prob be too late by time i noticed.
Best bet would be to visit a Rad shop and ask them, maybe a combo of a few things will make the difference. Having two L's you could always try different things, that will let u know what the best options are.

Put the factory belt/waterpump driven fan back on. It moves far more air through the radiator than any thermofan can

So long as your aged cars don't have blown head gasket, it is always gonna be a suck it and see approach. If you make sure nothing blocking air flow into radiator, A/C condensor in the way?, using A/Cmakes life harder for the radiator. There is always make sure you have full of coolant, full of good engine oil in sump, make sure any thermo fan actually cuts in a little above half on a properly working temp gauge. I like to run a 77' C thermostat in summer to keep op temp lower in first instance, run a switch to rad switch so you can earth out the switch manually when in traffic or before climbing hills. A radiator assessment or service is next best thing if you don't know its history. Water pump efficiency test is nest.

Tridon make a larger valved thermostat in 76 and 82C .
If your car doesn't have AC you could fit the extra elec fan and run it of a Davies Craig bulb type thermostatic switch .

One slight advantage to having a cross flow radiator is that you can get two bites at the cherry meaning a primary and secondary fan pulling air through the same horizontal water tubes .

You can use twin elec fans but most people cannot understand that the on temp of at least one needs to be not real high temp wise .
The stupid way to switch fans is to wait until things are real toasty and then operate the fans - which dump a whole lot of heat into the engine bay .
You really need one fan working from a little over 80c - RADIATOR temp NOT engine water temp . To me its SO OBVIOUS , if the rad temp is the same as the engines water temp it ain't gonna cool the engine is it - no matter HOW far the water thermostat opens .

Keep the rad water temp down and let the water thermostat do it's job , there is no other way aside from oil cooling .

Provided the rad water temp is cooler than the desired engine water temp then the water thermostat should be able to regulate the engine water temp .

People always want to say - "OMG the elec fan runs too long !"

So what , the mechanical one runs constantly doesn't it ...

i still have the clutch fan on both cars, im going to get the radiator and engine power flushed on mine and see if thaqt makes a difference.
im also tempted to put in another resovoir in between the engine out and rad in to give a little more coolant space.

im might see what can be done with another radiator trawling the wreckers for sizes and then ordering a new one in

What about running not much coolant, say 20% of the capacity and the rest distilled water? Then maybe a bottle of Redline Water Wetter (http://performancelub.com/Redline%20pricelist.htm - down the bottom of the page).

On the tridon thermostats Disco mentions, it may be an order in job, will cost you twice as much as std but will be tworth the extra few bucks. If you have efi stick with standard temp to keep ECU happy.

I have a L series 2 core custom brass tank radiator for sale which has seen about a years use im my L series before I took it out to sell the car. PM me if your interested. Looking for around $350-$400. Was going to put it in the RX coupe but I have sold that as well.

Cheers,
Justin

A useful tip i picked up off my father was to wire a sender unit in to the ignition on the car so that if the water boils it cuts the ignition off and stops the motor, that draws your attention to the engine temp!
you need a sender that is closed when cold, most are open and close to make a circuit when the water overheats .

tony wrote: if the water boils it cuts the ignition off and stops the motor

Not really a good idea. What happens if your water boils while you are crossing a 4 lane highway with a B double heading for you?

You have no need for your wheels or a saved engine ?
It would not be a boil warning using a normal temp sender as they don't convey the message of steam, maybe just a hot, hot HOT sender? That is why the watchdog was invented

Have any of you guys experimented with elec fans between the grill and radiator ? It sounds like a/c there is pretty much necessary. Here its not really needed much and I prefer windows down anyway. Ive considered pulling my condensor and giving this a try.

subuaroodude wrote:Have any of you guys experimented with elec fans between the grill and radiator ? It sounds like a/c there is pretty much necessary. Here its not really needed much and I prefer windows down anyway. Ive considered pulling my condensor and giving this a try.

I've done it as a temporary setup before I got some other fans sorted behind the radiator. The trick really is to find a set of fans that will fit in the area that's available. If you've got a wrap over bar you'll have less space due to the way its mounted...

As for the cooling issue of spike - get your radiator rodded when the engine's flushed, this will remove any imbedded debris from the channels of the radiator's core that the coolant flows through to be cooled...

Cheers

Bennie

I've got a fan in front of the radiator because it was theonly way i could make it fit. It's best to have it behind the rad though, as fans can generally suck harder than they push. So to speak.

Dane.

The other disadvantage of having them at the front is less airflow to the radiator. The middle of the fan where the electric motor is, is a huge blank spot that no air can flow through.

and for those that don't like the idea of a thermo fan run more often - just think if it is the AC fan you have wired up running a lot - it would be running any time you have AC switched on woodentit?

steptoe wrote:and for those that don't like the idea of a thermo fan run more often - just think if it is the AC fan you have wired up running a lot - it would be running any time you have AC switched on woodentit?

Yeah but what's your point? I don't know why anyone's against a thermo fan running more often. Suparoo says that a mechanical fan can move more air than any thermo can - that's incorrect as the mechanical fan is running when ever the motor is. The thermo fan runs at a set speed when its needed so long as the system that operates the thermo fan is in good working order.

The MY's have two thermos for those with AC. The L series is the only model subaru that I know of that has one mechanical and one thermo from the factory. As we all know there are several design features of the L series that were tried then shelved on later models, I won't list them here unless someone wants to know about them. Since the L all subi's I've seen have two thermo fans to cool the radiator when needed - so there's gotta be some good reason for it, I'd reckon its cheaper, easier (radiator's moved further way from the motor in later models when compared to the L series) and it saves a little bit of power from the motor by not running a mechanical fan.

Cheers

Bennie

El_Freddo wrote:Yeah but what's your point? I don't know why anyone's against a thermo fan running more often. Suparoo says that a mechanical fan can move more air than any thermo can - that's incorrect as the mechanical fan is running when ever the motor is. The thermo fan runs at a set speed when its needed so long as the system that operates the thermo fan is in good working order.

Cheers

Bennie

When I purchases my RX it had the mech fan and fan clutch removed, hp reasons I guess. Its my understanding that the clutch disengages the fan at crusing speed , thus not much cooling at speed. I recall some years ago when "flex fans" were the hot ticket ( more years than I want to admit ) allowing fan rotation at all speeds but the blade flattening out at speed to minimize drag on the engine. Thoughts?