Rb Engine Track Work Temp.

[GTSBoy]

You can spend as much as you want, or as little as you can afford. As long as you can test your new instruments (pot of boiling water is a help here) then you can know how accurate they are and when call it quits.

I just bought some of those cheap stepper motor driven gauges (Defi ripoffs) and they are actually pretty good. They have settable high level alarms that will flash red and squeal at you which will be useful, and they're as accurate as I could hope for. I put in a boost gauge and oil and water temps.

The best temperature to call things off at is an open question, but it is fair to suggest that if the oil is heading north of 120°C you are approaching the point where it will stop working as well and could start to break down. Best to call it off well before that actually happens. Water temperature is also fair to say that over 100°C is a good point to call it off. Above that the pressure in the system will start to rise very rapidly and that will open up any weaknesses. In an ideal world, the oil and water temperatures would be coming to about the limits at the same time anyway.

[gtr jet]

Well that pretty much answers all my questions. Thanks mate.

I have been looking more towards autometer gauges as i'm not a fan of the jap (defi) style gauges but i do like the warning functions they have.

[Roy]

The one thing that people are ignoring is that one man's cooling system will be typically overkill for others. Hp and revs are really what you first need to consider before doing anything to your cooling system. If you are only making 200rwkws then std is fine for plenty of track work.

Driving on the track does not equal "need race car". Most cars out there are near std

[gtr jet]

I would consider my car fairly standard with -7s at 325kw on E85 so i take it I hopefully wouldn't have too many over heating issues?

[D.I.Y. Mik]

Driving on the track does not equal "need race car". Most cars out there are near std

Want race car!

Cant afford, close enough is good enough.

[Tonks]

Slightly off topic but better than a new thread, Ive just done another oil change yesterday with edge 10/60 and got time to fit my sandwhich plate and my oil px and temp gauges.

Just driving round town normally off boost etc my oil temps around a 100 degrees, coolants between 80-90 depending on hills and that.

Seem normal? I thought oil would have been slightly colder driving round normally but not 100% sure? Want to head to a couple of track days this year but not sure if I should get an oil cooler just for a couple of days of the year or is it worth while to have all the time?

[GTSBoy]

Driving around Adelaide in the heat recently? Not surprising that things are getting hot. Having said that, I had my gauges in my car whilst it was still RB20, and with a big 3 core Chinese (coolant) radiator the oil temp would generally sit at about 90°C unless I was caning it somewhere or stuck creeping in hot traffic. Hot traffic creeping last summer saw it get up to 120°C. Now I have a 25Neo in there, and even though the thermostat on them is nearly 10° hotter than the old RB20, I haven't seen the oil temp get above 100°C this week. Of course the Neo has a water/oil heat exchanger on the engine, so some oil heat is being put into the coolant and my radiator is clearly big enough to cope (+ I have GTR front bar), so not everything is easily comparable.

Anyway, my point is, there are so many variables that it is impossible to say that there is anything particularly wrong with your numbers. Having said that, what sort of radiator do you have? How old is the water pump? These are probably the biggest variables. If they are old bits that ware blocked up or worn down, they may be working at a low fraction of what they could. The other big aspect is, how well looked after is the airflow situation in your front end? Still got the undertray under the front of the engine? etc etc.

[ARTZ]

Personally , for the sake of simplicity and cause im a lazy bugger I took out all of the plastic shrouding and left it out....

Driving on the track does not equal "need race car". Most cars out there are near std

haha...yeah but those people don't hang around in FI section ,they just go and race their boring hardly modified cars....

the really interesting people come here to discuss building race cars

But you're right Driving on a track does not equal "need race car" .......The fact that I am alive = "need race car" ...you should know that ...

[R31Nismoid]

Slightly off topic but better than a new thread, Ive just done another oil change yesterday with edge 10/60 and got time to fit my sandwhich plate and my oil px and temp gauges.

Just driving round town normally off boost etc my oil temps around a 100 degrees, coolants between 80-90 depending on hills and that.

Seem normal? I thought oil would have been slightly colder driving round normally but not 100% sure? Want to head to a couple of track days this year but not sure if I should get an oil cooler just for a couple of days of the year or is it worth while to have all the time?

Yeah as said... Was that on the 40 degree days?

Around town on a 25 degree day once warmed up - Oil low 80 / Water low 70s.

[Tonks]

Driving around Adelaide in the heat recently? Not surprising that things are getting hot. Having said that, I had my gauges in my car whilst it was still RB20, and with a big 3 core Chinese (coolant) radiator the oil temp would generally sit at about 90°C unless I was caning it somewhere or stuck creeping in hot traffic. Hot traffic creeping last summer saw it get up to 120°C. Now I have a 25Neo in there, and even though the thermostat on them is nearly 10° hotter than the old RB20, I haven't seen the oil temp get above 100°C this week. Of course the Neo has a water/oil heat exchanger on the engine, so some oil heat is being put into the coolant and my radiator is clearly big enough to cope (+ I have GTR front bar), so not everything is easily comparable.

Anyway, my point is, there are so many variables that it is impossible to say that there is anything particularly wrong with your numbers. Having said that, what sort of radiator do you have? How old is the water pump? These are probably the biggest variables. If they are old bits that ware blocked up or worn down, they may be working at a low fraction of what they could. The other big aspect is, how well looked after is the airflow situation in your front end? Still got the undertray under the front of the engine? etc etc.

I had taken the recent heat into consideration, haven't driven it whilst its 35+

Fair point I understand theres a few variables. Just wanting to grasp some sort of "normal" temps to go off.

I've just ordered an asi 52mm rad as I have the old one would not be helping things, the waterpump is less than 20k old.

The front bar opening has been enlarged to help more air across the cooler and rad, but I think I need to work on air leaving from behind these two. (May have to suss a GTR front bar)

[Tonks]

Yeah as said... Was that on the 40 degree days?

Around town on a 25 degree day once warmed up - Oil low 80 / Water low 70s.

Ahk well once its cooled down around here and new rad i'll look to try and get around these, thanks lads

[GTSBoy]

The front bar opening has been enlarged to help more air across the cooler and rad, but I think I need to work on air leaving from behind these two. (May have to suss a GTR front bar)

Look at using blocks of grey packing foam jammed in at the sides to stop air leaking out the sides after it's been through the intercooler. Same along the bottom - may have to build an undertray for the section in front of the radiator support panel.

[ARTZ]

bit off track here, but will running too much timing cause an engine to run hotter?

[GTSBoy]

Not really, unless it's detonating. Retarded timing = more heat. More heat in the exhaust anyway, which tends to heat everything else up too.

[abr33]

Yeah as said... Was that on the 40 degree days?

Around town on a 25 degree day once warmed up - Oil low 80 / Water low 70s.

I have trouble getting my oil over 75 on a filthy day in traffic, even using thermostat plate! on a cold winter night oil sits around 50 degrees on highway 60 in traffic

[Piggaz]

I have trouble getting my oil over 75 on a filthy day in traffic, even using thermostat plate! on a cold winter night oil sits around 50 degrees on highway 60 in traffic

Sure your thermostat is working?

Do you know what temp your thermostat is?

[abr33]

Sure your thermostat is working?

Do you know what temp your thermostat is?

70 degree HEL thermostat, I have 7.5L sump but dont run water through the heat transfer on oil filter thing

[GTSBoy]

I'm guessing that the bypass flow through the oil cooler is more than enough under the conditions you're talking about to a) keep oil temp under control and b) keep it too cold on a cold winter night.

[abr33]

Yeah, when I fit my plazmaman ill refit the heat transfer. Its just a bit too cold in winter. hope its not an adverse choice on summer trackdays though

[GTSBoy]

You may be able to make that work for you. I'm not 100% sure of the flow path of the water line that goes to the oil heat exchanger on RBs......but assuming that it doesn't matter if it was blocked off, then you could do something like install a heater tap into the supply. Then you can open it and close it at will - especially if you fit a control cable to it so you can get to it from above the engine.