I've seen that some people on this forum have a pettit ast and others have the ast eliminated altogether. What are their justifications for going with either of those choices? What does each do for the FD?

 

Well, I have no AST at all. The good things are that I did'nt spend money on an AST tank!!, the car runs @ normal temps. The negative side of the story is that without the ast, my reserve tank is also useless. becouse of this I have to add literally 1/4 cup of water to the car about once a month.
If you have the 2 piece thermostat housing, you can change the top piece(where the radiator cap screws on to) with one from an FC, It has a nipple so you can connect your plastic reserve tank. My car (for still unknown reasons) has a one piece housing, so I can't do squat!

 

The AST does give you a few more cc's of coolant...every lttle bit helps.

 

I have the AST eliminated and I have yet to see any problems yet. My bet is that Mazda put it there for a reason, so it would be best to have one. But even race setups don't use one so i figure, it's not that important. What kinda logic is that? I don't know, I'm just trying to gain posts.

 

if you wanna clean up the engine bay make those turbos non-sequential

 

I'd never do anything that will reduce the cooling capacity of the FD.

Race cars eliminate them, but they have upgraded radiators, oil coolers, and improved air flow to feed them.

 

So, how much would I be looking to spend for a pettit ast?

 

$149.95 http://www.pettitracing.com
under MAINTENANCE & LUBRICANTS

 

Eeeeeeek! 150 dollars!! On second thought, maybe I should just trash the sucker. I could put that $ to good use on a mod that will actually do something for my FD other than keep it a few degrees cooler.

 

Is the Pettit AST the polished one? I want a shiny one in my car if i get one... TIA
Huy