It's about 15% coolant mix right now with Redline Waterwetter.

I have the Ratsback racing chin spoiler.



Oil cooler seems to be the general consensus.

Anyone have any experience with this Moss oil temp spacer:

Mazda Miata Parts & Accessories at MiataMania.com

Thoughts on running that with FM's oil cooler thermostat/spacer?

Chris

 

read up on Bernoulli's law, then get back to me on how surface area does NOT increase pressure.

 

My tiny Setrab oil cooler behind the '00 foglight hole lowered oil temps by 7*C and water temps by 2-3*C.

 

24-row with ducting ftw!

 

Jason, what's the dimensions on your cooler?

Chris

 

Nice looking ride. You seem to be doing everything else except the oil cooler and the big ugly hole in the nose at this point. My vote is for the cooler. ...as if I get a vote...

 

Thanks, I agree. Plus a big hole would detract from the ~sleeper look.

Chris

 

What's the deal with the car running so damn hot in the first place??

How much boost/power are you making?

I don't get how your making so much heat that you need reroute, bigger rad, shrouding, spoiler, oil cooler, ect...

I couldn't get my car to come close to overheating on a 20min session (1.7km)short track with nothing but a gs rad and 14" fan, no reroute, running just water..

Anyway I would be doing gauges then a vented hood.

 

Wait, what? The term is specific heat, and oil most certainly DOES NOT have a higher one than water. If it did, we would all just fill our radiators up with oil, wouldn't we? Neither does Evans NPG, for that matter. Evans works better because it allows the engine to run safely at a higher temp/ cooling system pressure, and it doesn't micro boil in the water jackets, significantly reducing hot spots.

Also, more frontal area will absolutely increase pressure delta across the heat exchangers... How could it not? That 200 sq inches on the front of CSpence's car is putting a tremendous amount of force against the standing pressure in the engine bay. The air will make it's way out. You have a great big *** exit for it under the car. Not the best one possible, but it'll certainly work.

Now, Miatamaniac, if you were a local guy who brought me the car to work on, I'd start with making sure the shrouding was well designed and well sealed. It may sound silly, but you'd be surprised what some foam rubber weather seal from Lowes will do. Then I'd do an oil cooler with a thermostat. The RX-7 coolers with thermostats built into the end tank work well if you clean them well. Then I'd look into more significant changes to the car. If it's a track only car, then I'd bust out some sheet aluminum and the air riveter and make some manky hood vents. Big ugly ones with gurney flaps. You're on your own for nice ones for a street car, though.

 

I'm running only 7 PSI right now.

I see you are in Canada and probably don't ever have to endure 100°F track days. That amount of heat is hard on any car, even stock.

Chris

 

The same reason that increasing your intercooler pipes diameter doesn't increase manifold pressure. But can increase potential volume.

 

Apples/ oranges. There's a limited amount of air coming out of the compressor. The charge piping isn't the restriction. Increasing rad inlet frontal area without increasing radiator area would be like increasing compressor output without increasing charge pipe area. Even if the charge piping becomes a restriction (and relative pressure rises as a result) you will still get SOME additional flow.

 

For the record, I've done track day sessions in a Miata around your power level with a stock cooling system in 110F/ 80% humidity at TGPR without an issue. What thermostat are you using? Are you sure the rad isn't clogged or something silly like that? Big air bubbles in the system? I did rad hoses on a Grand Prix GTP that had to be driven and bled for a week before I got all the air out of the cooling system...

 

lol, this would drop my oil temps from "massively fucked" to "still fucked"

 

Sounds like a worthwhile improvement to me!

I need a real temp gauge. Also having temps climb on track days. Lot's of projects to try and improve this but waiting to see if there is a consensus on the most effective route. Oil cooler, venting, shrouding, undertray, rear exit reroute, etc.

Seems like all the guys here tracking cars are seeing temps climb even with big rads and a mix of those mods. Both Curly and I had temps climbing at our track day Sunday and it was only 85 here.

 

I'm a fan of giant oil coolers.

Take this for what you will. I had a friend take my car for a few laps, the waterpump belt exploded on track at half track, he finished the lap, then brought the car in because "it was making funny noises". The motor lived, I threw a new belt on and finished the day. Had the oilcooler not been there would the motor have survived? Probably not, the head gasket would likely have burned up at the very least.

 

Yes, my overheating issues on Sunday were very annoying. Only thing I could do was use the bottled water the Porsche club provided to keep my rad full (who needs to keep hydrated, honestly), Blast the heat on full the entire time, drive 8/10 half the time, and 6/10 the rest of the time. Oh, and all of this is with a car that was running pig rich above 6k rpms, so I was short shifting the entire time. I was lucky to see 100mph at the end of the straights, when I was hitting 105 NA.

The reason I was refilling my radiator, was that after about 10 minutes of cooling, I'd open the rad cap and it was dry in there. The reservoir was full (I filled it the day before), and I couldn't get it to transfer to the radiator, short of unbolting it and pouring it in. Is this just a sign of a bad rad cap?

My solution, is flush the system and add only water with a bottle of water wetter, get a new rad cap and make sure it's working, add a gigantic oil cooler with a **** ton of flow to it, and cut a huge hole in my bumper to get more air to the intercooler and radiator. I am NOT going to **** around with anything small or worry about oil not getting up to temp. The way I drive, I will have no problem heating the oil up after it goes though a 48 row oil cooler.

 

I dunno, it's pretty wee - 5x8" maybe?

 

Borrow a laser pointy thermometer, pull the fan plugs, and idle the engine until the temp gauge points to "worrisome" - read the temperature on the thermostat housing - warning, when using an IR thermometer you can't read off of metal surfaces - put some electrical tape on there or some paint.

 

Dammit. Sitting in slow Dallas traffic today for around 30 minutes (~85-90 ambient), the temp gauge started moving. No AC on. I'm gonna burp it again tomorrow on an incline, but the damm thing is full.

Thermostat, WP and most of the lines are Mazda with less than 30K miles on em. The fans do work and I could tell when they came on in traffic.

Maybe I'll just switch to Evans NPG and be done with it. We'll see how the trackday goes on Friday, should stay under 90 hopefully.

Chris