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cooling alternatives

yeah, too much air will be bypassing the radiator to actually run cooler without it.




yeah, the only difference is that the 160* is going to open sooner which just means it takes longer for the car to get to operating temp (about 190-210) which it will still do. as such the car may not go to closed loop as soon as well as the oil may not get up to temp as soon (which means less protection for bearings). obviously that means you cant have real fun with the car as soon either. :laugh:

apparently my xcal3 datalogger lies huh.
 
u did a back 2 back testing?

i've been doing lots of testing trying to get everything to run cool as possible. yes, i've tried both ways. the only thing i can't change is the cooling fan on/off temps but they were changed on the dyno. that change seemed to help the most but i do notice a difference with the diff. thermostats and the air dam on or off. i dont have an ac condenser or lower mesh so i do have an advantage over you guys with AC, as far as keeping the engine cool.
 
notice that you are still in normal operating range though when you are at 190* (from your other post), which is exactly what i said would happen no matter what thermostat you used. now, ~190 is exactly where i ran on the interstate in 95*+ heat with the air dam (splash shield as you called it) and the AC on.
 
you can adjust the fan turn on points via the xcal. well at least on the xcal2 anyway. no need to go into the tune.

I have mine set to come on at 200 and 212 for the low and high fan respectively.
 
Edit: Didn't see morbid's post about the function of the lower bumper panel.

my physics could be off on this, but wont that trap heat in the engine?
Nope, that lower panel performs two functions:

1. It keeps air that enters through the lower bumper opening flowing through the radiator, instead of wasting through the lower resistance path below the radiator that's created when the panel isn't in place. On the CSVT's, Ford put foam gasketing on this panel where it contacted the lower radiator support.

2. This panel works somewhat like a proper full sized splitter, in that it creates a low pressure zone behind the radiator, which helps pull air through the radiator. Ford and other OEM's have done this on a lot of cars, even a simple 1 or 2" high vertical strike on the lower radiator support will create this low pressure zone behind the radiator.

On your oil weight question, if anything, higher viscosity oil tends to have higher pumping losses, it has higher shear energy, and it tends to dwell in the bearings longer, all of which will raise the oil temps, so I'm surprised to hear you have lower coolant temps with heavier oil, especially since you're dumping oil heat into the coolant. Perhaps the environmental conditions are different since you changed the oil?

Do you have decent full sweep oil and coolant temp gauges, or is all your information coming from the OEM dash gauge? Reason I ask is that I do have good oil and coolant temp gauges on my (non-boosted) CSVT, and I can tell you I've learned that the dash gauge is about useless as a temperature diagnoses tool. My point being that we need to put some real temperature numbers to this problem, otherwise, it's difficult to diagnose where your problem might lie. I have two well instrumented boosted track cars, and even with all the gauges, I sometimes have to hook up a data-logger to get at the root of a problem.

Others have touched on tune, and this can make a huge difference in engine temps. Lean fuel and/or advanced timing can drive up coolant temps in a heartbeat. What's your WBO2 telling you about your tune?

One other thing to check, your coolant's anti-freeze to water ratio. Among all the basic thermal properties of water and water/glycol mixes, the most important is the thermal convection coefficient (TCC), expressed in Watts per Meter per ºC, this is primarily how heat moves between the coolant and the engine or radiator surfaces, assuming turbulent flow and no localized boiling is going on. Pure water has twice the thermal convection coefficient of a 50/50 water/glycol mix, and the more glycol, the worse it gets. Depending on Vegas wintertime temps, you can probably get by with a lot lower glycol concentration than somebody in Minnesota.

Water Wetter: WW is good for perhaps a 5% improvement in TCC with a 50/50 water/glycol mix, and with pure water, less than 5%. Compare this to doubling TCC going from a 50/50 mix to pure water. However, WW is a good additive for pure water cooling systems due to its corrosion inhibitors, anti-foaming and surface tension reduction agents, and when you blow a cooling system on the race track, unlike glycol antifreeze, WW won't leave the equivalent of a patch of glaze ice for the bloke coming up behind you.
 
Edit: Didn't see morbid's post about the function of the lower bumper panel.


Nope, that lower panel performs two functions:

1. It keeps air that enters through the lower bumper opening flowing through the radiator, instead of wasting through the lower resistance path below the radiator that's created when the panel isn't in place. On the CSVT's, Ford put foam gasketing on this panel where it contacted the lower radiator support.

2. This panel works somewhat like a proper full sized splitter, in that it creates a low pressure zone behind the radiator, which helps pull air through the radiator. Ford and other OEM's have done this on a lot of cars, even a simple 1 or 2" high vertical strike on the lower radiator support will create this low pressure zone behind the radiator.

On your oil weight question, if anything, higher viscosity oil tends to have higher pumping losses, it has higher shear energy, and it tends to dwell in the bearings longer, all of which will raise the oil temps, so I'm surprised to hear you have lower coolant temps with heavier oil, especially since you're dumping oil heat into the coolant. Perhaps the environmental conditions are different since you changed the oil?

Do you have decent full sweep oil and coolant temp gauges, or is all your information coming from the OEM dash gauge? Reason I ask is that I do have good oil and coolant temp gauges on my (non-boosted) CSVT, and I can tell you I've learned that the dash gauge is about useless as a temperature diagnoses tool. My point being that we need to put some real temperature numbers to this problem, otherwise, it's difficult to diagnose where your problem might lie. I have two well instrumented boosted track cars, and even with all the gauges, I sometimes have to hook up a data-logger to get at the root of a problem.

Others have touched on tune, and this can make a huge difference in engine temps. Lean fuel and/or advanced timing can drive up coolant temps in a heartbeat. What's your WBO2 telling you about your tune?

One other thing to check, your coolant's anti-freeze to water ratio. Among all the basic thermal properties of water and water/glycol mixes, the most important is the thermal convection coefficient (TCC), expressed in Watts per Meter per ºC, this is primarily how heat moves between the coolant and the engine or radiator surfaces, assuming turbulent flow and no localized boiling is going on. Pure water has twice the thermal convection coefficient of a 50/50 water/glycol mix, and the more glycol, the worse it gets. Depending on Vegas wintertime temps, you can probably get by with a lot lower glycol concentration than somebody in Minnesota.

Water Wetter: WW is good for perhaps a 5% improvement in TCC with a 50/50 water/glycol mix, and with pure water, less than 5%. Compare this to doubling TCC going from a 50/50 mix to pure water. However, WW is a good additive for pure water cooling systems due to its corrosion inhibitors, anti-foaming and surface tension reduction agents, and when you blow a cooling system on the race track, unlike glycol antifreeze, WW won't leave the equivalent of a patch of glaze ice for the bloke coming up behind you.

wow g. u're the man. that was a really good breakdown. i promise you, the outside temp has remained the same. mid-high 90s during the day. i dont have datalogging equipment, but that would be a weird coincidence for the temp needle to act up after changing the oil. is this analogy correct?: will it not take a higher amount of heat to evapourate a cup of orange fruit smoothie than it would to evapourate a cup of orange fruit juice?
 
lean fuel and/or advanced timing can drive up coolant temps. this is not totally correct. advancing timing will often times bring your air/fuel ratio to a more rich state (proven in my tuning session) but this of course all depends on the fuel grade when you are making a comparison like that. exhaust gas temp is going to have a bearing on the overall temp of the engine but there are a few other things to consider. which engine are you running? the newer 3.0L engines have a bigger water jacket which in turn will flow more but produce a pressure loss in the coolant system. there are a few things you can do to fix issues like this. if your having severe engine cooling problems then you will need to go to extreme measures to make sure it gets what it needs. you can modify the plastic style water pump impellar to push more coolant, run a manual override for the cooling fans so they run constant, etc. or just move somewhere that its not 110 degrees all the time. that sounds painful anyways
 
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