I was just wondering what kind of cooling mods people have and what kind of custom things have been done to keep engine temps down?

Post pics and/or mods along with, temps (highest) and under what kind of conditions?

My goal with this post is to try and help people see what works and what is just a waste of money in the never ending battle to keep engine temps down.

Thanks in advance
--Arron

 

KOYO radiator all the way
best bod to date

 

sorry I mean mod

 

full exhaust
vented hood
aluminum AST
Samco coolant and radiator hoses
Fluidyne radiator
70/30 mix of antifreeze / distilled water with 2 bottles of Water Wetter

There is more you can do but with the above mods it is almost impossible to overheat.
No flames please I sit in hot Miami traffic idling for hours and also compete in drift competitions.

 

all of the above and avoid traffic

 

I just turn the A/C on if I need to. It's free, and keeps the car @ 185 - 190F.

 

Fan mod. I just did that yesterday and ran it to my foglight switch, I love it

 

I just have a KOYO. I plan to do the fan mod in the future and maybe in the DISTANT future a vented hood.

 

Here is the list so far:
koyo radiator
miata thermostat
new main radiator lines
downpipe
Vis KS vented hood

need to install my AST eliminator soon, along with my water temp gauge, I'm running like 60/40 water/coolant mix right now, probably will go 70/30 during the summer, but I need to look into it more....

 

Koyo Radiator and full exhuast.

My front mount doesn't help but my car stays nice at 190*

 

koyo, vented hood, dp,mp, cb and a/c on when temp teaches 87C

 

You forgot the fan mod. There is a write-up on this forum stating before and after temps with this mod(I'm just too lazy to look for it).

I think you mean the miata thermoswitch. Getting a Miata thermostat will just lower the pressure build up time for the FD. They have diff. temp openings.

Yes, the koyo radiator I believe is the best deal for an upgraded radiator price/efficiency wise. Again, there is a thread posting temps of different radiator and fan combinations. The lowest temp was a Koyo copper radiator with FAL upgraded fans(This I tried looking for but I couldnt find it. MAHJIK WHERE ARE YOU! )

Heat wrapping the DP also helps heat insulation and spread less heat among the engine bay. Also, if you have a PFC and you don't use A/C( I say this because I have a PFC, I don't know if this complies with other ecu's), you can remove certain pins at the ecu harness clip that when you push your A/C button, the idle will raise and your A/C fan will turn on. But the A/C compressor will not engage allowing your fan to turn on and idle to raise, but not put more stress on the engine.

Jeremy

 

Leave the car stock!

Haha altough that does tend to remove much of the fun I suppose. I'm still stock minus the pre-cat but that came out before the water temp gauge went in so I have no comparison other than to say now I can actually open the bonnet after driving, so it has to be helping somewhat

I have to say I got very worried about the cooling stuff because of all I read on this forum, but then I guess most people on here are modded somewhat more than me. And while I would always recommend an aftermarket temp gauge, if you're still stock or very close too it, don't stress too much about going nuts on cooling mods. Today, in 100F ambient conditions, in slow moving traffic, I never got over 200F water temp.

And you guys that use the air con to cool down - turning on the air con will kick in the cooling fans, (assisting the cooling system) but dump heat from the condenser right in front of the radiator (the opposite effect). Do you guys find that the benefit of the fan outweighs the negative effect from the condenser? Because the other day while driving for an hour in the country at around 100kph (60mph) I ran about 10F cooler with the air con switched off.

 

And until you do your fan mod - remove the AC relay, turn on AC and vent to stage3 and your cooling fans come on instantly.

 

Cooling mods? Boy, that's never been talked about before

 

No ****...

 

Miata Thermoswitch
Aluminum AST
Evans NPG+
New OEM hoses and thermostat on a stock rad
Front nose ducting next

 

I like to run the fans when I am in traffic. No need for that on the freeway. I ALWAYS run the fans to cool the water temps to 180 before I reach my destination. I like to shut down the engine with the coolant temps as low as possible. This can reduce the "baking" effect of our under-hood components significantly after shutdown.

http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/fan_mod.html

 

I'm running an electric water pump with a custom super large dual pass radiator and different fans set up in a V mount with a IC I'm building. I'm using a full radiator shroud and thinking of branching brake ducting off of the radiator shroud.

Should work damn good and have no cavitation or heating issues.

Stephen

 

Unless motion was almost constant at 30-40 km+, then this could only be true (stock) with help from fans. Fans normaly on at 221F stock, but come on early with AC, parking/head lights on, cabin fan at 3+, or mabe rear window defroster on.

This would fall under the catagory of "methods" to keep cool.

Agree that healthy stock system, with right methods, will stay cool if car is not raced/tracked.

 

leave the car in the garage

 

LOL Yeah really!

Dude you need to do a search...but I'll humor you anyways:
Taken from:
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=185649

My own post:
A list of things to do to bring temps down: For general consumption:
1) Bigger radiator (I use a Mazdacomp)
2) 80/20 or 70/30 (minimum) water to coolant mix
3) Bottle of water wetter
4) Twin, or large single, oil coolers (for track use OE units at a minimum) I use CWR twins. Oil cooling in a rotary is anywhere up to 40% (the numbers vary but it is SIGNIFICANT) of the total cooling needs of the engine.
5) Synthetic engine oil (no debates please...it lowered my engine temps a few degrees where every degree counts)
6) Run lower boost
7) Turn on heater full blast when on the track. I rarely find this necessary with my set up. The heater core is after all just another radiator.
8) If have a PFC set fans to come on at lower temp. IIRC mine are set at 89, 95, 95C
9) Drilled thermostat (summer months track only)
10) ***Perfectly sealed radiator*** Ducting on the sides and to the nose, foam in holes around piping pass throughs, etc etc. Hold a bright light behind/under the undertray, in the engine bay near gaps, and look through the nose of the car. See light? Got a hole? Plug it
11) Vented hood. I have a Knightsports 4 vent hood
12) Throttle body coolant line bypass.
13) larger intakes in nose of the car - NTech Sharkmouth mod for stock nose or aftermarket nose piece. I used to have the sharkmouth mod on a stock nose but now run a Rotary Extreme '99 nose.
14) Relocate the battery. It acts like a giant heat sink and once heated up it keeps the radiator hot too.
15) Fix anything that's supposed to be working that's not - both fans, any coolant leaks,etc etc. Also make sure the cooling system is properly "burped." Airpockets are bad.
16) Reinstall plastic undertray. The number of cars I see running around without one is simply incredible. And they wonder why their car runs hot? Jeez!
17) Replace the OEM Precat with a DP preferable ceramic coated as is mine.
18) Suggest NOT using a FMIC (no debates please). I use a large SMIC. Great for power bad for cooling.
19) Lowered/horizontal A/C condensor - it obstructs ariflow to the radiator. A/C won't work in stopped traffic but so long as you are moving A/C functionality is acceptable.
20) Aluminum AST -it won't help cooling but is a protective measure against splitting the OEM plastic POS and cooking a motor after all your coolant ends up on the ground.
21) and last but not least ditch the OEM twins. Go with a more efficient single turbo setup. Kinda drastic I know but more pumping losses by the smaller twin turbos when the boost is turned up - when you crank up the boost creates more heat.

FWIW I have seen 110C in the past with fewer than all of the above mods. I do at 110 because I have the PFC set to retard timing 6deg at 110 to save the motor. No point pushing harder if the car is down on power, so I lift. Normal everyday street driving temps are typically rock steady at about 90 and rearly exceed 95 no matter how I drive. In the winter (0-10C) if I have the drilled Tstat in the car will NEVER get up to temp.

HTH,
Crispy

 

Thanks for the post, what brand of water wetter do you guys use? and what brand of coolant?

 

Intresting

 

Crispy's list is good. One thing that helped my track temperatures a lot was to underdrive the water pump pulley 25%. Of course this only helps when you're running your car for a long time at high rpms.

I had heard this would help but I didn't really believe it (it seems kinda counterintuitive to slow down your waterpump for better cooling) so it was the last cooling mod I did. It made a huge difference at the racetrack. Intead of getting too hot after 4 laps or so I could run all day long and stay cool. At first I thought it was because maybe the waterpump was spinning too fast at high rpms and causing cavitation. I later found out that while high rpm cavitation was a problem with the FB and FC it was supposedly fixed with the FD. A knowledgable person told me that slowing down the flow of coolant at high rpms just allows the FD to cool much more efficiently and that is the reason for the cooling improvement - not due to lack of cavitation.

I don't have any problems getting too hot on the street or at idle with the underdrive pully but your results may vary.