SR20DET OPERATING TEMP AT RACE TRACK

[jessejames]

I'm seeing 210F at the track and I pit in. Usually on the Street i'm between 180-190F. How how is too hot for these motors? Thanks

[mario_82_ZXT]

210 or 215 is when the electric fans kick on in a FWD SR20 so I think you're probably OK.

Unless you're getting detonation from the heat issues...

[RS Speed]

Pretty good actually considering you are on the track. Whats ambient temp like?

[69sroadster]

My ZX JDM gauges are in metric, but they were showing 125ish Celcius on oil and water at Hallet over last Memorial day weekend. The outside temps were in the 90's Fahrenheit I think, off track. My SR ZX normally runs around 100-110 C on normal driving with the A/C on. I was interested in this response too given the higher temps I thought I was seeing. I'm not 100% certain that they are calibrated to the SR water temp sensor nor that the oil temp sensor is spot on too.

[TheMission]

I see 180-190 on the street on hot days and my first speed kicks in at 183 and the second speed at 193 and I rarely ever see over that.

 

Oil temps are consistently 200-210.

[VKLR]

So what thermostat is everyone using? I'm running stock tune, boost and a 180 degree thermostat. When I get a z32 MAF, injectors and a good tune what thermostat would be ideal? For street use.

 

My cooling system is currently working very well. No problems just looking for the sweet spot on temp.

[logr]

Where is your sensor? If you read it in the outlet neck, it will be hotter as that is before it is cooled back down by the radiator. I have one there and the stock one too. The neck one sees 220 fairly easily but the stock one stays in the middle.

[69sroadster]

i'll have to look at where i have the sensor plugged in since I can't remember.  Since this post I haven't been to the track again yet, but I have swapped in a generic (read chevy) aluminum radiator that fills in the frame rails in the ZX and put in a thunderbird 18" monster electric fan.  I've never got the higher speed to kick on with the fan due to a sticky solenoid, but i've never even come close to needing it either.  I have to say that fan is awesome for flow but damn sharp edges.  I also had to spray out some oil from everything up there since my oil cooler line busted and clogged up some fin cooling area.

[dislexicdime]

My sr 510 use to see 205 to 210 on long hard freeway pulls 180 190 normal driving

[johnc]

The fan doesn't matter once your speed gets above about 25mph.  210F on a race track is normal.

[69sroadster]

Thanks for the info on track temps.  For daily driving, I rarely run the fan below 25 mph unless I have my a/c on.  I also have a pusher fan I'm going to move over to in front of the oil cooler for when it starts to get really hot under sustained boost levels.

[69sroadster]

After my latest track day at AMP, I have to revise now.  Running VR 20w50 oil in 80's temp I was seeing around 95 c normal driving and about 115c on the track with about 10-20 minutes of all out racing.  The coolant temp this time was a surprise to me.  It was normally not much higher than usual sitting around 70c but there was a time when it went up closer to 100c.  I thought what the...why not try turning on the fan despite the speeds and see what happens.  It dropped the temp down very quickly again to 70c.  I didn't expect that given the speeds around the AMP track anyways.  Now that I think about it the coolant temp may have spiked this particular time when I blew off some of my vacuum lines.  Too bad the Go Pro didn't actually take video to watch and learn from.