Bloody hot!

[GreyAsp]

At the tracks I drive, ambient can get to 90+ in the summer. At those temps, I can only get in about 20 minutes at a time before I'm pushing 230*. "Normal" driving (even in traffic) is fine, pretty steady at ~200. But I otherwise want to keep the temps down so I'm not wasting track time.

So what is everyone doing for cooling?

(BTW, this is for an '01)

 

[Quadcammer]

bigger radiator, running pure water, water wetter, 180 degree thermostat, boxing the radiator, mark VIII cooling fan, etc.

 

[ac427cobra]

At the tracks I drive, ambient can get to 90+ in the summer. At those temps, I can only get in about 20 minutes at a time before I'm pushing 230*. "Normal" driving (even in traffic) is fine, pretty steady at ~200. But I otherwise want to keep the temps down so I'm not wasting track time.

So what is everyone doing for cooling?

(BTW, this is for an '01)

Are you N/A?!?

 

[GreyAsp]

Are you N/A?!?

Yessir.

Quad, I have to use coolant because I could be in freezing conditions 8 months of the year. I could use water wetter, but it doesn't help much when using coolant. I'll look at the other options.

 

[ac427cobra]

Yessir.

Quad, I have to use coolant because I could be in freezing conditions 8 months of the year. I could use water wetter, but it doesn't help much when using coolant. I'll look at the other options.

Well in that case like Quad said, box the rad. If that's not enough you need a bigger rad.

 

[Quadcammer]

Yessir.

Quad, I have to use coolant because I could be in freezing conditions 8 months of the year. I could use water wetter, but it doesn't help much when using coolant. I'll look at the other options.

Its a pain, but you could always switch to pure water for track season, and then add coolant when you get into the cooler months.

 

[jbp99cobra]

Also, our hoods suck at getting heat out, so you might want to consider going with an '03 hood.

 

[racebronco2]

At the tracks I drive, ambient can get to 90+ in the summer. At those temps, I can only get in about 20 minutes at a time before I'm pushing 230*. "Normal" driving (even in traffic) is fine, pretty steady at ~200. But I otherwise want to keep the temps down so I'm not wasting track time.

So what is everyone doing for cooling?

(BTW, this is for an '01)

This past weekend i was running in 95 degree weather and temps didn't go above 205*.

bigger radiator, running pure water, water wetter, 180 degree thermostat, boxing the radiator, mark VIII cooling fan, etc.

Mark 8 fan doesn't help one bit except in the pits. I have the high volume mark8 fan with a manual switch hooked up and it doesn't make a difference on or off .... but in pit lane it usually stays a little under 180 degrees.

Also, our hoods suck at getting heat out, so you might want to consider going with an '03 hood.

The 03/04 hoods might help a little but opening up the vents does lower engine temps by about 10-15 degrees on sc cobra engines.

 

[brkntrxn]

Here is what I did to reduce the temps on my 99 in this order:

- 100% distilled water, a bottle of water wetter and a spash of antifreeze
- LFP radiator
- 03 hood with vents removed
- removed the ProCharger (this was the single biggest help) and built a solid NA setup
- a good tune
*to be honest, I no longer had heating issues after this point*
- removed the AC condensor (and compressor, evaporator, etc)
- elementary boxing in of the radiator (nothing as dramatic as the others on here)

As for coolant in your system, where I live in NC does see freezing temps a couple of days/weeks each year. I keep a small heater in front of the car in the garage on the really cold nights and I go out and crank the car if I think it is going to get extremely cold.


*edit - forgot the radiator

 

[brkntrxn]

One other thing... are you still returnless? Return style setups are more prone to overheating the fuel which in turn (I believe from my experience) can lead to a hotter engine.

 

[racebronco2]

One other thing... are you still returnless? Return style setups are more prone to overheating the fuel which in turn (I believe from my experience) can lead to a hotter engine.

I have a hard believing fuel can make your car run hotter. I'll take it one step futher, if we ran our fuel lines thru a remote ice cold reservoir our cars would run cooler????

 

[brkntrxn]

Carlos,

I should have elaborated on my experience.

Twice in the last two years I have one of my twin Walbro 255 external fuel pumps go bad. Each time they went bad, the pump itself got VERY hot. Since I had twin pumps, neither time did I truly go into a lean condition. However, BOTH times my engine temps increased significantly, as in between 3/4 and full hot (I do not have a water nor oil temp gauge). I did have what I think was cavitation due to the hot fuel which lead to the occassional hiccup.

In my experience, these two times the overheating occurred when I had a fuel pump going bad. Therefore, I personally cannot rule it out as a bad pump having an effect. Of course, a bad pump is a bad pump, but external pumps are much more likely to get hot.

I am now running an external A1000 with a sumped tank. I am still encountering hot fuel issues, but that is because the sump is now too close to the tail pipes where they come out from under the diff. Time for side pipes.

I have had other heating issues, which were cured via the items I posted above.


-Kevin

 

[GreyAsp]

Thanks all, good info. I may just try the water option for the next few months.

Two things:
1. What is "boxing" the radiator?
2. Are there any disadvantages to a 180* thermostat (especially in the winter in CO)?

 

[mu22stang]

1. Boxing the radiator
2. I'd recommend a 170* thermostat from Reische Performance. They are made by Joel, SVTP member jm@ReischePerf. The disadvantage would probably be limited to longer warmup time.