Essential cooling mods?

[Sweetspeed]

Wanted to get her some advice about what mods are essential for those of us who track the CTR. Which ones have biggest bang for buck? Which one is the first on your list?

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[JESFromASC]

Been following all the related threads and the answer is simple:
None of them do much of anything.
[zero real data supporting anything]
Hit the track when it's cold/cooler and/or buy another car... or just drive it at 8/10th all day long and enjoy the hell out of it and it will be just fine.
If you want a wring-its-neck 10/10ths race car then you bought the wrong one.
Or drop $3000, $4000, $10,000 on a ton of changes that will all do little more than help the situation at best.
I've never seen so much money thrown at a problem with no solutions.
But hey just my 0.02.

 

[Sweetspeed]

Been following all the related threads and the answer is simple:
None of them do much of anything.
[zero real data supporting anything]
Hit the track when it's cold/cooler and/or buy another car... or just drive it at 8/10th all day long and enjoy the hell out of it and it will be just fine.
If you want a wring-its-neck 10/10ths race car then you bought the wrong one.
Or drop $3000, $4000, $10,000 on a ton of changes that will all do little more than help the situation at best.
I've never seen so much money thrown at a problem with no solutions.
But hey just my 0.02.

Wow... And I thought the Mclaren had heat issues... I’ve had this thing on The track once on a cooler day and didn’t run into heat issues, is it that common and wouldn’t something be better than nothing? Not looking to be the next Mario, but did buy the car to REALLY push my limits. Thanks for your opinion on the issue.

 

[JESFromASC]

And --- I'm sure you will see pictures and comments of oil coolers, radiators, wraps, oversize inter-coolers etc, etc, etc... on what appear to be actual R race cars. Maybe, just maybe, gutting 200, 300, 400+ pounds of interior and glass etc in and of itself is enough to reduce the problem? I just tracked mine here in SC at 78 - 96 degrees at Atlanta Motorsports and had no issues but - again 8/10ths not 10/10ths wring-its-neck stuff. I just climbed out of a race Miata so I do know the difference.

 

[jinderC]

Try this

 

[ExVTEC]

How could it not have a solution? What is so unique about the R that it can't be remedied?

 

[ipeefreely]

Try this

Varis hood?

 

[AR-Delta]

Varis hood?

Not Varis, new hood being prototyped by another company for later release

 

[TypeSiR]

Matt had overheating issue on a stock car in normal (not hot) ambient temperature. He mitigated the problem by turning up the heater at full blast and went for 16 laps.



So a tuned/power modded CTR will just heatsoak even worse than a stocker. And currently there’s no real solution.

Maybe try adding cooling mods (grille, intercooler, oil cooler, larger radiator) without adding power mods (ECU remapping) may help it last longer with heatsoaking on the track. Combine these with cooler weather, cooling laps, and not going balls to the wall as necessary.

 

[ipeefreely]

Been following all the related threads and the answer is simple:
None of them do much of anything.
[zero real data supporting anything]
Hit the track when it's cold/cooler and/or buy another car... or just drive it at 8/10th all day long and enjoy the hell out of it and it will be just fine.
If you want a wring-its-neck 10/10ths race car then you bought the wrong one.
Or drop $3000, $4000, $10,000 on a ton of changes that will all do little more than help the situation at best.
I've never seen so much money thrown at a problem with no solutions.
But hey just my 0.02.

Kind of sad but true.

I have, if not all, most of the cooling mods installed onto my car already. Still overheating after a couple of laps (highly dependent on ambient temperature).

My cooling mods so far include:
- USR Turbo Blanket
- PRL Intercooler
- Koyo Radiator
- USR Side Mount Oil cooler
- Mishimoto intake
- HKS Intercooler Hard pipes
- Water wetter mixture
- Vented Seibon Hood
- Cut OEM grille

Car is actually currently back in the shop again to tackle the overheating issue. Have the following additional cooling mods being installed.

- Custom Oil cooler
- USR Inlet blanket
- RV6 Coated FP / DP
- Exhaust wrap for FP / DP
- Eventuri Intake - Switching it from the Mishimoto one as we heard it heatsoaks
- Mishimoto Secondary Racer Intercooler
- Going to also add more vents to the hood. More specifically the area directly above the turbo.
- installing oil temp, oil pressure, and water coolant temperature gauges to monitor
- Custom tune?

Will report back and let you guys know if we still have issues running on track... lol. Honestly, I don't know what else we can do after this. If it still overheats, I'm probably just going to switch platforms. Not buying a car to run it at 8/10ths.

Here's a pic from our last track day. As temperatures rose, our sessions were gradually cut short. lol.

 

[TypeSiR]

Kind of sad but true.

I have, if not all, most of the cooling mods installed onto my car already. Still overheating after a couple of laps (highly dependent on ambient temperature).

My cooling mods so far include:
- USR Turbo Blanket
- PRL Intercooler
- Koyo Radiator
- USR Side Mount Oil cooler
- Mishimoto intake
- HKS Intercooler Hard pipes
- Water wetter mixture
- Vented Seibon Hood
- Cut OEM grille

Car is actually currently back in the shop again to tackle the overheating issue. Have the following additional cooling mods being installed.

- Custom Oil cooler
- USR Inlet blanket
- RV6 Coated FP / DP
- Exhaust wrap for FP / DP
- Eventuri Intake - Switching it from the Mishimoto one as we heard it heatsoaks
- Mishimoto Secondary Racer Intercooler
- Going to also add more vents to the hood. More specifically the area directly above the turbo.
- installing oil temp, oil pressure, and water coolant temperature gauges to monitor
- Custom tune?

Will report back and let you guys know if we still have issues running on track... lol. Honestly, I don't know what else we can do after this. If it still overheats, I'm probably just going to switch platforms. Not buying a car to run it at 8/10ths.

Here's a pic from our last track day. As temperatures rose, our sessions were gradually cut short. lol.

Hope you find a solution. We can all learn from the progression of mods documented in your other thread on tackling this issue. Best of luck.

What other platforms are you considering?

 

[rajahdat]

modified grill and a better vented hood...

 

[JESFromASC]

How could it not have a solution? What is so unique about the R that it can't be remedied?

Part of the "problem" is that not everyone has the "problem" so it isn't so easy to come up with a solution to an inconsistent issue.
I think the other is that only a small percentage of these cars end up on the track - and even less on the track under the conditions ripe for creating the problem.
Yes - we bought the car based on those amazing track times it was laying down around the world ---- but marketing is marketing!
(Never forget it is based on a family friendly 4-door hatchback)

In a way it is sad that so many feel it necessary to drop thousands and thousands of dollar and countless hours of work to try to fix something.
If we buy a race-biased car that we want to occasionally take to the track we should be spending thousands and thousands of dollars and countless hours on stuff to make it lighter, faster and handle better.

I love my R but if it shuts down into limp mode during a great track session - I suspect it will quickly become my ex-R.

To the post about that hood that is, "...in the works."
Prove it actually works and I'll buy it.
P-R-O-V-E it works!
I can't believe how much stuff has been thrown at this with not one company actually providing hard data to prove their solution has actual results.
I mean reading under hood temps shouldn't be that hard to do, right?
$100,000 on R&D but can't afford a few extra temp sensors for the data logger?

 

[boosted180sx]

Will report back and let you guys know if we still have issues running on track... lol. Honestly, I don't know what else we can do after this. If it still overheats, I'm probably just going to switch platforms. Not buying a car to run it at 8/10ths.

Here's a pic from our last track day. As temperatures rose, our sessions were gradually cut short. lol.

i'd try a better vented hood. Something similiar in style like the varis where you had a open right by the turbo area.

I feel you on the switching platforms though.

 

[d15b7]

hey guys. a couple of weeks ago I was at NJMP Thunderbolt racetrack in Millville NJ watching the SCCA races that were ongoing there (my friend Roger was driving a STU 4G Prelude and my other friend Martin was driving a ITA CRX). it was a very hot day when I was there (over 90 deg and very sunny). I caught the Big Bore race which was 90% V8 cars, with one exception -- there was a new CTR running in T2 class! I've never seen one actually racing (this was not a DE this was a RACE!). the guy easily won his class and finished 5th overall behind some serious iron (Boss 302S mustangs and a bunch of corvettes). I went over to talk to him; he was not having overheat issues (but he had in the past). T2 allows very very few mods the car was mostly close to stock. almost full interiour (power windows stereo full dash etc etc). weight was 3050 lbs. he had fixed his cooling issues by the following: mesh style ebay grill. turbo blanket and cat delete. oil cooler. stock hood with vents cut into it behind the radiator. koyo radiator. he had had to submit a special request to the SCCA to allow him to cut into the hood and put a vent. (T2 requires all stock bodywork). if it didn't overheat on a 90+ degree day with him flogging it for 14 laps (it was a sprint race that went for 25 mins) then I call that 'solved' on the overheating issue. BTW this guy is a SCCA national champ (previous car was a EVO also I believe in T2.

so yes its very solvable and no you don't need to spend 'crazy' money.

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