Overheating & What You Can Do To Stop It

[ApexEight]

I was in the #71 Type R; say hello next time and I do take passengers for ride alongs.

Yo! Noticed your PMM out there (my fav color, the one I'm hoping to get). Just saw your thread and 1:42s is insane! It was my first track day ever and did a 2:02 in my Si lol. Not pushing 10/10ths due to being a noob and brake/camber limitations. Had a blast though.

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[Jah29]

Pretty sure I‘m going to have overheating this summer here in Virginia.

I’m going to stay with a stock tune. Should my first purchase be a vented hood or the C&R radiator. Will probably buy both eventually, but would like to do in stages to see how things change.

thanks,
justin

 

[ACUITY]

Pretty sure I‘m going to have overheating this summer here in Virginia.

I’m going to stay with a stock tune. Should my first purchase be a vented hood or the C&R radiator. Will probably buy both eventually, but would like to do in stages to see how things change.

thanks,
justin

If you are planning to go to the track during the summer, we'd recommend the vented hood first. It's going to net improved heat rejection, even with the stock rad and IC. Realize the heat of racing can be rough on plastic radiator tanks though, so do keep an eye on the OEM one and plan to replace it with an all-aluminum rad when you can.

~Russ

 

[Jah29]

thanks Russ. I immediately tried to order a frp varis hood. I guess they are overwhelmed with demand, because they are not currently taking new orders. My remaining choices are the seibon vented CV-style hood, the j’s racing/firstmolding hood, and the track speed vents for the stock hood. I don’t like any of those as much. I think the trackspeed would do the best heat extraction, but they sure aren’t pretty...

 

[ACUITY]

thanks Russ. I immediately tried to order a frp varis hood. I guess they are overwhelmed with demand, because they are not currently taking new orders. My remaining choices are the seibon vented CV-style hood, the j’s racing/firstmolding hood, and the track speed vents for the stock hood. I don’t like any of those as much. I think the trackspeed would do the best heat extraction, but they sure aren’t pretty...

We've had good luck with the Seibon vented hoods in terms of cooling performance. No experience with the others. You could also use aftermarket vents on a stock hood or a non-vented carbon hood, similar to the FK8's we're campaigning this year with Eddy Segal and Mary Valdez. Those cars cool exceptionally well with that hood setup and the other supporting cooling mods.

~Russ

 

[ApexEight]

thanks Russ. I immediately tried to order a frp varis hood. I guess they are overwhelmed with demand, because they are not currently taking new orders. My remaining choices are the seibon vented CV-style hood, the j’s racing/firstmolding hood, and the track speed vents for the stock hood. I don’t like any of those as much. I think the trackspeed would do the best heat extraction, but they sure aren’t pretty...

Race Louvers makes vents even more functional than Trackspeed, but they're even uglier. Just wanted to mention it bc if you go through the trouble of cutting your stock hood, I think you should maximize its cooling performance. Also, I wouldn't count out getting a C&R radiator first. It'd definitely be an upgrade. Or even a stock detune.

 

[ImTheStatMan]

Race Louvers makes vents even more functional than Trackspeed, but they're even uglier. Just wanted to mention it bc if you go through the trouble of cutting your stock hood, I think you should maximize its cooling performance. Also, I wouldn't count out getting a C&R radiator first. It'd definitely be an upgrade. Or even a stock detune.

2nd the C&R prior to hood

 

[Lust]

I can’t remember if I shared this video before or not but there’s a lot of good information here



Some cool info about extruded tubes. Same seen in F1

 

[Hell167]

Just wondering if anyone have tried a intercooler sprayer type device directed at the radiator to battle the overheating issue.

An aem meth Injector directed at the radiator spraying water only while in boost let's say 5/10psi will increase cooling affect of the radiator. Or better yet spray both the intercooler and radiator to take full advantage of the cooling affects.

 

[Unity Performance]

Just wondering if anyone have tried a intercooler sprayer type device directed at the radiator to battle the overheating issue.

An aem meth Injector directed at the radiator spraying water only while in boost let's say 5/10psi will increase cooling affect of the radiator. Or better yet spray both the intercooler and radiator to take full advantage of the cooling affects.

We're sourcing parts to fab this up

 

[Dave B]

Just to bring this thread back to life.

1) has anyone run without the aluminum engine undertray? I would have thought this would help along with hood venting as it should increase the airflow out of the engine bay. I am sure the air under there is pretty turbulent and there may be significant loss of aerodynamics so I have no idea of how effective this would be at keeping temps down.

2) I have heard that some folks are using thicker oil for tracking i.e. 5W-40 rather than the stock 0W-20 and claim their oil temps are lower. I don't really understand that but given that the car doesn't have a true oil temp sensor, would the increased viscosity of the thicker oil trick the computer to think it was actually cooler (I assume the thicker oil creates more oil pressure when hot than the 20W oil). I used fresh Motul 300V 0W-20 oil this past weekend and according to my LogR app, oil temps went to 255 before I backed off with coolant temps peaking around 224 on a track that doesn't cool well. Ambient temp was about 85F. So far I have zero cooling mods. Certainly interesting that (according to the app), coolant temps dropped very quickly when backing off a bit but oil temps took a lot longer. Also interesting was that I never triggered limp mode. Not sure that I noticed a drop in power but there may well have been some.

To put the oil temps in perspective, in my previous car, a C5Z06 Corvette, without the oil cooler, the oil temps ran to 300F and with adding a cooler, 265-275 with no perceptible damage to engine over a number of seasons. My sources at Mobil 1 say their oil isn't phased by these temps but they could make no statement about the engine itself. Can't remember the coolant temp peak.

If the oil temp of 255 doesn't trigger limp mode and is unlikely to bother the engine but coolant at 224 triggers a loss of power, then I would have thought venting and potentially a better radiator would be more important than an oil cooler. BTW, what temps trigger limp mode anyway?

 

[Lust]

Just to bring this thread back to life.

1) has anyone run without the aluminum engine undertray? I would have thought this would help along with hood venting as it should increase the airflow out of the engine bay. I am sure the air under there is pretty turbulent and there may be significant loss of aerodynamics so I have no idea of how effective this would be at keeping temps down.

2) I have heard that some folks are using thicker oil for tracking i.e. 5W-40 rather than the stock 0W-20 and claim their oil temps are lower. I don't really understand that but given that the car doesn't have a true oil temp sensor, would the increased viscosity of the thicker oil trick the computer to think it was actually cooler (I assume the thicker oil creates more oil pressure when hot than the 20W oil). I used fresh Motul 300V 0W-20 oil this past weekend and according to my LogR app, oil temps went to 255 before I backed off with coolant temps peaking around 224 on a track that doesn't cool well. Ambient temp was about 85F. So far I have zero cooling mods. Certainly interesting that (according to the app), coolant temps dropped very quickly when backing off a bit but oil temps took a lot longer. Also interesting was that I never triggered limp mode. Not sure that I noticed a drop in power but there may well have been some.

To put the oil temps in perspective, in my previous car, a C5Z06 Corvette, without the oil cooler, the oil temps ran to 300F and with adding a cooler, 265-275 with no perceptible damage to engine over a number of seasons. My sources at Mobil 1 say their oil isn't phased by these temps but they could make no statement about the engine itself. Can't remember the coolant temp peak.

If the oil temp of 255 doesn't trigger limp mode and is unlikely to bother the engine but coolant at 224 triggers a loss of power, then I would have thought venting and potentially a better radiator would be more important than an oil cooler. BTW, what temps trigger limp mode anyway?

In the early days we tested no belly pan. It didn't do anything significant for cooling and is suspected to hurt cooling performance actually.

Running thicker oil creates more friction which means more heat and less power. Continue running 0w-20 unless your pressures are dropping which they shouldn't since you're running a high quality oil

 

[metal_driver]

Dave, as Lust mentioned above I also remember reading several other posters who had tried removing panels on the underside for better cooling only to find out if did nothing to improve it at all. There are quite a few folks on here (Lust, Jason, iPeefreely, Mike Baxi, Grimace, etc) from the past who ran or run their CTRs hard in Cali or a few other hot US locations and I believe that have the best experience and recommendations for cooling for this platform...
As i'm sure you have seen in multiple other threads the recommendations always seem to have a recurring theme and are along the lines of a mix of cooling mods including a better front grill that lets more air through, a more efficient rad, a good air flowing i/c, oil cooler(s), thermal barriers or wraps for turbos, etc., and a good cooling hood amongst other things... and I'm sure I missed and item or two..

 

[Dave B]

Lust, I agree, it makes no sense to say a thicker oil makes for actual lower oil temps. It should be the opposite. OTOH, I wonder if these folks are using data from the on board computer that deduces oil temps from a number of factors including coolant temps and oil pressure among them. A thicker oil would trick the computer into thinking that the temps were lower even though they actually may be higher. I guess it all depends on where they got their temp readings.

Another question is, what sort of oil temps actually cause engine damage? Certainly my old LS6 Chevy motor wasn't bothered by actual temps in the 275 F range but I have no idea about the FK8. Also, I was a bit surprised that I didn't trigger limp mode. Do the 2020 cars maybe have a more lenient trigger for this? Any idea of what coolant and oil temps trigger limp mode?

 

[Lust]

Lust, I agree, it makes no sense to say a thicker oil makes for actual lower oil temps. It should be the opposite. OTOH, I wonder if these folks are using data from the on board computer that deduces oil temps from a number of factors including coolant temps and oil pressure among them. A thicker oil would trick the computer into thinking that the temps were lower even though they actually may be higher. I guess it all depends on where they got their temp readings.

Another question is, what sort of oil temps actually cause engine damage? Certainly my old LS6 Chevy motor wasn't bothered by actual temps in the 275 F range but I have no idea about the FK8. Also, I was a bit surprised that I didn't trigger limp mode. Do the 2020 cars maybe have a more lenient trigger for this? Any idea of what coolant and oil temps trigger limp mode?

I believe the car goes into limp mode when ECT reaches above 260F.

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