I am having some cooling issues mainly at idle. Let me give you guys some info. It's a sbe lsa with Frankenstein boost monster heads and a Kong 2650. It had a custom grind Martin Smallwood cam. He spec'd it for me when i was running a max ported lsa blower the cam has about .7 overlap. Over the winter I added a Kong 2650 and a Vadder hx. Due to the minimal overlap on the cam the Kong I feel was making to much boost. With a 9.17/3.5 I was making 18.6 lbs at 6500. That is where I stopped making pulls was going to wait till I got the new cam. The new cam has more overlap for the Kong blower. Before I pulled it apart I was noticing my idle temps were getting a little warm around 212-217. This was also the first week that the ambient temps outside where getting a little hot in the 90s. Before if I let it sit and idle for 10-15 minutes before the Vadder and Kong it would never get above 185. When I tore it apart for the cam swap I swapped a new water pump even if mine was not leaking. I also bought a new 160 thermostat checked the old one in a pot of boiling water and it opened around the 165 temp with my temp gun. My tune is conservative; I am running 14.5 degrees on 18.6 lbs of boost on twin meth nozzles with 100% m1 on pump 93.My question is do you guys think its a radiator problem or a head gasket problem? I am running ls9 gaskets with arp 2000 lsa head studs. I am leaning towards radiator problem but not sure. I might have a bad spot in on a head gasket even though i have checked my combustion in the cooling system with a combustion checker and it was fine. Thoughts?
Cooling Question
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A couple of comments:
My guess is head gasket. Compression check and check for exhaust gases in the coolant.
The Vadder is for cooling the HX loop so it doesn’t apply to engine coolant temp.
You might want to clean up your post with punctuation and paragraph breaks, it makes is much easier to read.
Also, a 2650 on a 6.2l is a lot of blower, and 18.5 psi is a lot to ask long term.
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My guess is head gasket. Compression check and check for exhaust gases in the coolant.
The Vadder is for cooling the HX loop so it doesn’t apply to engine coolant temp.
You might want to clean up your post with punctuation and paragraph breaks, it makes is much easier to read.
Also, a 2650 on a 6.2l is a lot of blower, and 18.5 psi is a lot to ask long term.
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I Checked for gases in the cooling system with a combustion tester. It did not change colors so assumed all was good. I have not checked compression due to the combustion checker results. But guess i can. The vadder is for hx but the twin cores also block the front of the radiator blocking some flow was the only reason i mentioned it.
I will go back and proof it i was drive down the road when i made the post.
I am aware that's why I swapped the cam with more overlap because i was trying to keep it around 15-16 at the most.
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Fiat enough on the Vadder aspect.
I would think that the boost will still come up at high rpm, does it not?
Is the blower going on something bigger? Curious why you went with such a big blower.
My reasoning is that it takes a fair amount more power to drive the bigger rotors under load, so you have to make up for that extra load.
This is the reason I asked about BSFC in a thread when these blowers first came out, yet nobody responded. I was trying to determine how much extra drag the blower was creating on the crank and also showcase that there’s a cost associated with going to a bigger blower.
I get between 16 and 17 psi on my 1900, depending on the air density. I’m certainly not going for the most power, but I have tried to be as efficient as I can, while on the stock bottom end.
My reason for suspecting the gasket is the 18.5 psi. On a 4-bolt block, the sealing isn’t that great. Studs help but that’s still a lot to ask with an alloy block and heads.
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I would think that the boost will still come up at high rpm, does it not?
Is the blower going on something bigger? Curious why you went with such a big blower.
My reasoning is that it takes a fair amount more power to drive the bigger rotors under load, so you have to make up for that extra load.
This is the reason I asked about BSFC in a thread when these blowers first came out, yet nobody responded. I was trying to determine how much extra drag the blower was creating on the crank and also showcase that there’s a cost associated with going to a bigger blower.
I get between 16 and 17 psi on my 1900, depending on the air density. I’m certainly not going for the most power, but I have tried to be as efficient as I can, while on the stock bottom end.
My reason for suspecting the gasket is the 18.5 psi. On a 4-bolt block, the sealing isn’t that great. Studs help but that’s still a lot to ask with an alloy block and heads.
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Yes boost will come up after the bypass reaches its mechanical limit to where its slammed shut then boost will be increasing as rpm increases. if you understand what i am trying to say. That is why i stopped at 6500 when i saw the kpa was around 230 when i was datalogging.
I am in the process of building a lsx 427 for the Kong. I found slightly used with like 1000 miles on it so i jumped and sold my ported blower. This was only going to be a temporary thing. I will say this I enjoyed the ported lsa blower on the sbe more than i do this Kong.
That is my thoughts as well as the more power it takes to spin the Kong is putting a greater load on the whole engine.
On my ported lsa I was around [email protected] 6800 with around a 70 degree ambient.
I agree 100% on the stock 4 bolt block ;but I also feel 18.6 with studs and thicker deck of the Frankenstein heads should not be a issue. Especially when this tune as conservative as it is.
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