SvoChuck wrote:
Weston was saying we needed to better burp our cooling systems ... besides that I plan on relocating my oil cooler and putting a fan on it. michelle's car ran cool as did Gary's ...
Running alone (i.e. at the back) with no cars in front to obstruct the airflow might have helped my car stay at the 'cool' water temp of 210 (
![](http://944spec.org/944SPEC/components/com_kunena/template/default/images/emoticons/shocked.png)
) in Sunday's race. Short-shifting once I noticed the temp get that high might have helped the temp stay there, rather than rise even higher, but I can't say for sure.
Beyond that, it's likely that the new radiator (flushed right before the event), fans, and thermostat in my car could have helped, too (I'd hate to think what the fins on a 20+ year old radiator might look like.) Also, the wire mesh screen covering the opening might have prevented some of the junk that was being kicked-up on track from getting in there and clogging it up, but you never really know about that.
Future cooling mods include an oil cooler, and potentially hard-wired radiator fans, as it was very demoralizing to see all of the heat-related problems that the group experienced.
I think that Weston's post has a lot of good suggestions and ideas for addressing this obviously critical problem that we're all finding ourselves having to deal with.
It sounds pessimistic to say it, but I'll bet that the money that one would save by choosing to skip just a single event would likely pay for some significant upgrades to engine cooling.
More cooling = more reliable racecars = better, cheaper racing, since we're not all having to drop out of races and spend money fixing expensive, heat-related engine failures.