yes, i know they don't have much to do with your spring rate but...

i am currently shaping a project that secondarily might include an uprated radiator. since the acid test for ECTs is found ontrack (as in road racing) i thought this would be the appropriate section..

my question to track guys is... is there a need for an uprated radiator? by uprated i mean a radiator that provided significantly better cooling than the typical 2 inch Koyo.

i would greatly appreciate any feedback.

 

FWIW, i have a Ron Davis radiator (i.e. Mazdaspeed) with twin 25 row oil coolers. I'm reading around 205F after sustained WOT pulls @ ~ 82F ambient.

What would be nice is a Greddy quality V-mount at a price somewhere between ebay and Greddy. Doubly nice would be integrating a true CAI. No matter how nice your intercooler is, you are shooting yourself in the foot if your intake pulls from the engine bay.

 

Responded to your PM but figured I'd post some info here too...

It has been 10 years since I've done any serious track days with my FD. Been racing Spec Miata instead.

Ultimately, I don't think the commercially available radiators are sufficient for track or racing use. Especially when you consider airflow through the engine bay (a vented hood helps), intake air temps and oil temps, heat soak etc.

Note that I have not yet used the Greddy radiator that is part of their V-mount setup but I suspect it will have similar issues. The radiator is a dual pass like most radiators used in a v-mount (including my custom rad), the kit does have some ducting which is better than any other kit out there, but I speculate that it will not be sufficient. The ducting still has some gaps and the intakes are not optimally placed. Ultimately, performance of any cooling package is probably going to vary by situation - single vs twin, vented hood, ducting, ambient temps, how hard the driver is truly pushing etc.

What makes things challenging out the situation here in California is that all of our tracks (except Laguna) are desert tracks so it's always hot as hell. With air-to-air heat exchangers, there's only so much you can do in hot ambient temps.

@ptrhahn and @finger lock should have some more experience than I and the forum guys in SoCal who track and race their cars but I don't know their names.

 

Lots of variables Howard as you can imagine. For a 400hp-ish or less car that doesn't have A/C (condenser) in front of the radiator, upgraded oil coolers, and isn't running in very hot climates (TX, CA, FL, etc) I think the upgraded replacements like Koyo and Fluidyne can work well. As Gracer mentioned upgraded venting helps a lot.

You're in WI so climate helps, but you also make like 500whp+ so that's a major wildcard. Likely could still work for shorter sessions, but trying to go longer than 15-20 minutes would likely not work.

My experience running hot stock twins at about 330whp, no A/C, aftermarket dual oil coolers is that I can run flat out for 30 mins if it's 50-60 degrees ambient temp. Bump that to 85-90 degrees and I have to back off around the 20 minute mark.

 

thanks all for the help on this.

 

FWIW

After an exhaustive search I found a Griffin 1-58241-X had the right dimensions to maximise the space between the FD Chassis rails. As far an off the shelf solution goes I believe this is about as close as you'll find although it still requires a fair amount of modification to suit. My main concern is the thickness of the core (3in) in a V mount application may actually prevent any air actually flowing through it but hey, we'll give it a go. Once appropriately ducted, if it doesn't perform acceptably I'll have to pony up and pay for a PWR core.

This setup runs a 703522-6008 Garrett intercooler core, dual 25 row Setrab oil coolers and SPAL PWM fans. 'Should' be sufficient for our circa 65 degree climate.

 

Ran two events so far this year at Eagles Canyon here in Texas. Both days were in the mid 70's and had absolutely no cooling problems with 20 min sessions. Car makes 300whp in single turbo with greddy vmount and dual oil coolers.

If you want I can report back in a month for the next event. Should be in the mid 80's by then.