Is there such a thing as an uprated radiator for the fabia vrs ? Could one be borrowed off another car? Has anyone gone this route ?

Bigger fans? lower temp stats? if your concerned about coolant temps getting too high

Never had issues with mine.  Are you having heat issues?

 

I did notice on track that my temps were quite high when I had aircon fitted.  Since going down the whole "A/C gutting" I get no issues as the A/C rad no longer sits in front of the coolant radiator.  

Not once had problems with current set up, however, in my excitement last year on track temps got rather high lol. My fault to be fair but lesson learnt.

 

Day to day usage the set up is almost too efficient and have to hold higher revs to get it warmed up, especially in the recent colder weather. The turbo isnt really working under "normal" driving conditions as I tend to change gear around 2200 - 2500 and turbo starts spooling at around 2100 - 2200.

 

Once on track though I fear it will soon heat up lol. May just have to have a slower lap every 3rd go round to cool her down ?

Well, on an open pit trackday I tend to come in every 15 minutes as a maximum "stint" - I certainly have no trouble at Combe sessions.   And that's 8 or 9 full on laps as hard as I can push with respect for cold tyres early on.

 

How do you know they got rather high?  The temps are designed to get quite high without any real damage.  It wasn't uncommon before my A/C was gutted out, to see temps of 105 for water and 110 for oil.  Since A/C is out I rarely see water get anywhere even 95 on track,  And my auxilliary oil cooler also keeps oil temps below 100 too (although oil temps can happily get to 120 odd I am led to believe).

Going by the dash the coolant gauge was in the range of 115 - 120 lol

 

I was running a stage 2 pd150 hybrid at the time which was pushed to its limits. Ended up cracking a manifold and blowing a few rubber gaskets

 

Since than I have had a gtb, exhaust, manifold and injectors fitted. So a totally different set-up. Again its being "pushed" a little, but set up is more free flowing this time round.

Even when I had hot temps before, the needle never went above dead centre / 90 degrees.  Widemouth bumper might assist with ventilation very slightly.

As I said mate, it got rather hot lol. I had to miss the second session as it was still reading above 90 and smoking like a chimney on tick-over :(

Hope its not something more serious then.  Never had anything like that or heard anyone else suffering with similar.

 

Once I give mine a 15 minute break after a stint, temps are already well down to below normal levels.

It's not really the size of the radiator core that is limiting you, it's the rate of circulation, on some cars they have an additional electric water pump to assist in circulating the coolant more quickly, the vr6 engines have these on some models. other gains can be had by figuring out a way of exhausting the hot air from the engine bay like using louvred panels or even running with the undertray removed.. Another possibility is to use a large header tank say 5 litres ish for the coolant instead of the oem spherical one.

another thing often overlooked by some is the placement of the intercooler, it needs to be butted up hard against the radiator on front mount installations otherwise you get a warm air front trapped between the 2 cores which also restricts the airflow into the rad..

if none of that works then try fitting a warm climate thermostat as well, often vag group cars built for other markets like Australia or South Africa have a thermostat fitted that opens up sooner at a lower temp, you can definitely get them for 20v and pd engines.

Would a faulty water pump cause overheating if the coolant isn't being circulated quick enough?  (getting out my depth a little now.....)

Yes Jason, or if there is any scale in the coolant circuit it can restrict flow, that said on a normal engine in a mild state of tune you could drive round with the water pump impeller missing and you would be none the wiser, you get a certain amount of natural convection inside and engine where the hot coolant rises and the cooler sinks which in effect creates a small circulation current and the syphon effect keeps it going, in fact some water cooled motorcycles have no water pump fitted at all and it relies solely on this effect to keep cool.

but on a highly stressed engine like this the demands of the coolant circuit is far higher, if it's running to 120c then he only place that can come from is the turbocharger in my opinion, pressure and heat are directly related, more boost = more heat.

Definitely food for thought

Anyway of testing the system to know its working as it should ?

Is there a tool which effectively screws to the coolant bottle and monitors pressure / gases?  I'm thinking of a head gasket tester I fear.   (As said, out of my depth again )

I smashed mine round Beford for lap after lap, warped discs, mullered tyres. Was full day open pitlane on a warm day, I was sweating. The needle never went over 90 on the temp gauge. Do you have a oil cooler?

Apart from in IC the rest of the cooling system is standard.

 

We shall see what happens this time round me thinks. May have been just too much fuel being put in for the turbo causing heating issues ?