why is heat soak bad
 

why is heat soak bad for the car? I mean the engine is off and it's just sitting there.

heatsoak is usually spoken in terms when refereing to the stock intercooler while you are driving --- once the engine bay heats up and the intercooler heats up, it is difficult to get the intercooler to cool back down enough to efficiently cool the air flowing through it... ie it becomes a heater instead of a cooler. :(

higher intake temps = less dense air = less power, and also means greater chance of detonation. :( :(

K

thanks for the clarification. i'm talking about when you turn off your engine and the temp goes up. but i'll keep the ic thing in mind and put it on my upgrade list :D

Well, you have no air coming in, no coolant circulating, etc..... Raising the hood can help the heat escape a little quicker, but only so much.

i understand why it goes up, i'm just wondering if i should be concern since to me the engine's off and it's just sitting there just let the temp rise all it wants. i know some people open their hoods and put a big fan in their gargage to cool the engine down but i'm just thinking maybe it's all a waste...just live with it.

Well, depending on what the temps are that you are seeing should depend on if you should be worried or not.

The temp will rise, but you should allow the car to cool down a little bit before shutting it off anyways. If you have a garage, just pop the hood when you are done. Having a fan blow into it at the same time is overkill IMO, but to each their own.

I usually pop the hood when I get into the apartment complex and take my time getting over to the garage. Then when it's in the garage I raise the hood and leave it up.

I've gotten into the habit of always pop'ing my hood when I get home to help cool down the engine bay ... no need for all that heat to sit in there and bake all my electronics/hoses, etc...

I'll tell you what, if I pull into the garage & close the door behind me, then come back 10 minutes later:

1) if I had pop'd my hood it's like 10 degrees warmer in the garage
2) if I hadn't pop'd my hood you can't tell that it warmed up the garage at all

That's ALOT of hot air escaping to heat up a 2 car garage like that...:)

BTW: A hot turbo housing makes a nice lighter...since I don't smoke in my car, I'm always lighting up when I get out of it, so popping the hood and lighting a smoke off the turbo housing while the car cools down is always fun... The chics think I'm so cool...hahahah :D

K

I have noticed that popping the hood decreases the temps under there way faster than leaving it closed...obviously. But I can't say its GOOD for your car to sit hot.

It will be good to work on our cars in the winter.
Pull in the garage go inside for ten minutes you got a toasty garage to work in

Yeah, but now it's too damn hot to touch anything in the engine bay! ;)

seriously. on a hot day you can easily burn your fingers from touching the hood or the prop rod too long.

I pop open my hood so much that I'm beginning to hear rattles when I close it...

Need a vented hood but all of them looks like A$$ imo (except the REamemiya one)...

If the temps get high enough, the rotor housings can warp, necessitating a rebuild. I assume that's what you were asking.

where is danger temp zone?
215+ ?

It's higher than that... The stock ECU doesn't even kick on the fans normally until around 220F.

The stock temp gauge doesn't start moving from the center until around 250F (and that doesn't mean your seals are done at that point), so I would say that if you are seeing temps below that, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. People take this cooling stuff a little too far.. ;)

Question:

So even if you do the fan mod, will the ecu still turn on the fans at the "220F mark" if you forget to turn on the fans yourself?

Yeah, unless I'm completly mistaken here, the only thing the fan mod lets you do is turn the fans on whenever you want. I don't believe it interfers with the ECU at all. Could someone who's alread completed this mod confirm this for us?

the fans SUPPOSED TO kick in at 221 F to a low speed(WELL TO BAD MY CAR KICKS TEH FANS ON WHEN TEH AUTOMETER GAUGE SAYS 240!!!!), when ever the ac is on fans kick on automatically, and when temp reach over 226 the fans go to med speed, if its over 226 and u have the ac on teh fans go on to teh high mode. there are diff fan mods, most of them are to control teh fans on or off at whatever speed u want with a swich. i have my fan mod done to kick in the low speed with a switch. i ususally turn them on if i see temps start commming to the 210 mark, or whenever i drive aroudn town i turn the fans on cause the temp goes up over that, with which i am not too comfortable with.

Cooking
 

So I think it matters becuase heat cycling is a big issue. I think the big deal is the water jacket o-rings. They harden with excesive heat and that will cause a coolant leak. Mine is really a problem because about 10 minutes after it's shut off the coolant temp will hit 120-130C. I hate that. So I usually run the fans when the coolant temp is over 93 or so. Personally, I'm too lazy to open the hood. It does help but like everyone says only so much.

I usually just pop my hood when I'm less than a minute away from home (ghetto hood scoop)...and open the hood up all the way when it's sitting in the garage. I think it's worth the few seconds it takes to open up the hood.

Re: Cooking
 

Actually, it's helps a lot...

Like I said, I usually pop the hood latch when I get into the apartment complex and continue driving to my garage. When I get into the garage, I raise the hood. The rod and front of the car are easy to touch.

However, if I don't pop the hood and just wait until I get into the garage, the front of the hood and the rod practically burn my fingers. The idea is to get all that hot air out of there as soon as possible (man I can't wait into get my Mazdaspeed hood painted).

I would say popping the hood helps a ton if you don't have a vented hood....

When im all most home from school. i just drive the car with hood open (not all the way just lil bit) that helps to cool down car alot.

I need new hood...