Does your turbo ls stay cool?

[zboi]

Trying to find out how everyone with a turbo ls engine are doing as far as cooling. Especially if using a stock size radiator. 

I am doing a turbo swap and can just barely squeeze in a stock sized radiator in the stock location but can only fit 1 14" fan offset to one side. Otherwise I can get a slightly longer but narrower radiator ("double pass" style with side tanks) to fit if installed at an angle. It can fit a 16" fan in that position, but obviously is going to be a bit of work to mount. Any thoughts on which route to go?

Edited September 3, 2019 by zboi
Title misleading

[JQADDINGMACHINE]

this is my setup

 

 

 

griffin part# 2-56135-X

 

it cools wonderfully like this with no shroud and a small fan I pulled from what I think was a Kia Optima at a junkyard. high 90 degree days in traffic I never saw over 215f coolant temp. I think the 2 factory vents on my 280z hood really help extract heat from the engine bay.

[zboi]

On 9/2/2019 at 9:15 PM, JQADDINGMACHINE said:

it cools wonderfully like this with no shroud and a small fan I pulled from what I think was a Kia Optima at a junkyard. high 90 degree days in traffic I never saw over 215f coolant temp. I think the 2 factory vents on my 280z hood really help extract heat from the engine bay.

 

Impressive that that is cooling well. Well I'll be going the smaller fan, stock radiator, less work route then. Shame I already did some now unnecessary trimming to the core support.

[Gollum]

You can likely DOUBLE the airflow through the radiator over stock if you just properly seal up the radiator to the core support and remove other paths for air to flow. That said, any real advice I have is based upon what conditions you think you'll be having cooling issues. Obviously when idling and cruising around out of boost there shouldn't be any considerable heat load over a non-turbo LS, or hell, even a L28. Where you'll run into more difficult situations is cooling down between 1/4 mile pulls depending on how much air you can get through the radiator via fans, and extended time under boost on a track. The former situation is all about getting heat and air out of the bay and hood vents work wonders here. In the latter case the problem is almost certainly pressure differential related. You have too much pressure behind the radiator in relation to the front. Adding a shroud in front to ensure air can't escape without going through will raise the pressure in front of the radiator. Adding fender-well ducting to allow engine bay air to escape out the sides will lower the engine bay pressure, inreasing flow through the radiator. You'll generally see a combination of modifications done to improve both sides of the equation on dedicated track cars because lap after lap can really start to pile on the load. If your radiator isn't keeping it, it'll be obvious.

That said, look at how "small" some radiators are, like a factory C7 radiator. Sure, it's not turbocharged like you, but those will run all day at the track with a radiator smaller than the factory Nissan unit. Just has way better airflow to start with.