2003 cobra intercooler coolant temperature

[COBRANATOR03]

Hi
Does anyone know what the intercooler/heat exchanger coolant temp should be. trying to determined what mine should be so i can monitor it.

 

[SLPRCTM]

The temp will fluctuate depending on outside air temp, driving speed and engine load. And if you have a killer chiller, then it throws all that out and gets the fluid to almost freezing temps. There is no thermostat in the intercooler system to regulate coolant temp. Just a pump moving the fluid from one heat exchanger to the other. The faster you drive, the higher the volume of air passing through the heat exchanger to cool the fluid.

 

[COBRANATOR03]

thank you, no k/c, but do you know what it runs under nom. driving, i want to put a temp gauge on it and i have a choice of gauges 40-120 or 80 to 240. i was wondering if anyone had or is monitoring there supercharger coolant temps. and which to choose.

 

[SLPRCTM]

I would go with the 80-240. The coolant temp under normal operating conditions will not drop below ambient temperature.

 

[Parts-is-Parts]

If its 90 or above outside, expect to see 140-160 degree temps. Killer Chiller FTW

 

[COBRANATOR03]

thank you alot of great info, your right i'll go with the 100-260

 

[racebronco2]

If its 90 or above outside, expect to see 140-160 degree temps. Killer Chiller FTW

No true. Ait's might be that high but not the inter-cooler coolant temps.

 

[racebronco2]

thank you alot of great info, your right i'll go with the 100-260

I used to keep track of my coolant temps and most of the time they were lower than 100 degrees. 80-240 degree temp gauge would be best. The hottest my ait2's have ever been while open tracking was 180* in the summertime at 15psi with my whipple. The inter-coolant temps are usually lower than your ait2's, at least when i was datalogging the temps.

 

[COBRANATOR03]

let me get this right, your ait's are about 180, but your intercooler coolant temps were under 100, then if thats so i should use the 40-120 temp gauge to track the intercooler temp.

 

[racebronco2]

let me get this right, your ait's are about 180, but your intercooler coolant temps were under 100, then if thats so i should use the 40-120 temp gauge to track the intercooler temp.

The highest my ait2's been at the track was 180* in 90* weather. Don't know the coolant temps. I removed the temp gauge because it was usually under 100*. Didn't see a point of keeping it installed.

Average temps on the street was usually under 100* with the ait's about 30* higher than the coolant temps.

 

[SoCalHarley]

Definitely the 80-240. I have tracked mine for years. I have a 60-200 gauge from an original Saleen kit and the temps usually hover around 100 or so but as high as 120-140 after long pulls. BTW who makes the gauge you are buying?

 

[COBRANATOR03]

auto meter,they have a nice full swep Gauge, who makes your gauge, the 1 i'm looking at is Phantom II, Water Temperature, 100-260 Degrees F, 2 1/16 in., Analog, Electrical

Auto Meter Phantom II Analog Gauges 7555 - SummitRacing.com

 

[SoCalHarley]

Where did you see the 80-240 gauge? Was that an Autometer as well?

 

[COBRANATOR03]

Not me, i'm looking at speed hut gauges custom gauges

 

[racebronco2]

Definitely the 80-240. I have tracked mine for years. I have a 60-200 gauge from an original Saleen kit and the temps usually hover around 100 or so but as high as 120-140 after long pulls. BTW who makes the gauge you are buying?

My 180* temps were after running hard for almost 20 minutes. I have since done some ait2 cooling mods.

 

[COBRANATOR03]

i've been looking at a dual digital gauge that does both intake air temp and intercooler temp at the same time. so i cam watch both and compair.

Prosport Gauges dual intercooler air temperature gauges with in and out digital display

 

[NGO]

I have a 2003 Cobra with a 170 thermostat, aftermarket HE, 2.76 upper pulley and a custom tune. It dynod at 488 HP with the A/F right at 11.4 at WOT...

I did some data logging last night getting ready to run Sebring in April (never road tracked her before). It was 75F outside... After 20 mintues of hard driving (in and out of the boost) and a couple of hard pulls in 4th up the bridge my engine collant temp never got higher than 196F and my IAT2 never got higher than 148F. What concerned me was that I have read that with an IAT2 above 120F, the tune should start to pull timing... mine was at 22 degrees at WOT the whole time! Should I be concerned?

RaceBronco has given me good advice in how to prepare these types of cars for road tracking. He suggested re-installing the factory upper pulley but am too lazy to do that. I am thinking of going back to my tuner and getting a tune that backs off on the timing when the IAT2 is high.

RB- Not to hijack the thread but what other IAT2 colling mods can I do? Thanks.

 

[racebronco2]

The Ford strategy starts to take out timing at 101*. At 150* it's pulling 3.6 *. When you datalogged your car was the timing actual or was that the timing commanded. If your tuner disabled the temp tables you are going to have detonation once the temps get higher. I have seen a couple engine that burnt the electrodes off of spark plugs. Some of the engines ran fine afterwards and some didn't.

Running on the street is not the same as running at the track, my ait2's have never been as high as they are on the track. On the street the temps go down as low as 100* but on the track they have never been lower than 120*.

If you are running in temps over 80* and your running your car hard it will go into limp mode unless you have cooling mods and even than the temps will keep rising and never really go back down to normal.

I used to would bring a bigger just in case the ait2's were too high. A pulley change can lower your ait's and you engine temp as much as 20* per pulley change. 3.10 vs 2.93 vs 2.80. So it's a 20* increase in engine temps if you are going from a 3.10 to a 2.93 and another 20* difference engine temps if you are going from a 2.93 to a 2.80. likewise if you going up in pulley size you can reduce engine temp 20* for every size you increase the pulley size.

 

[NGO]

I have a Predator Diablo SportProgrammer. In regard to the timing, I think you are correct; I was monitoring a paramerter labeled SPRKADV. The definition in the manual is Desired Ign Spark Timing. I can't find a parameter for "real" spark timing?

 

[NGO]

IAT2 Temps

Just finished a track day at Sebring... installed a Interceptor to see what is going on. My IAT2 temps are approaching 174 and coolant temps reach 212 running with a 2.76 upper.

This is my second track weekend and I am catching up with the car now. Engine is running great but the temps scare the crap out of me. Time to do some research and drop some dollars.