As I understand for racing purpose you should mount a thermostat that opens the cooling line earlier tahn stock.

Which on eshould I get...the Mugen or Spoon?!

Whats the difference and is it really needed?!

Thanks,

Yves

 

I have the mugen thermostat and fan switch installed along with the hondata insulator. The engine no longer suffers from the heat soak it used to encounter in the warmer months here in Texas. No bogging upon takeoff in first gear anymore and a slight improvement in throttle response and pep is noticeable.

I went with the mugen over the spoon because from the research I've done the spoon cooling combo has been shown to make the engine run even cooler than the mugen combo. Since I'm mainly on the road and very seldomnly at the track I didn't want the extra few degrees of cooling the Spoon setup may have offered. I also read that on the 00-03's, the spoon thermostat could keep the third bar from showing at times on the temp gauge where as with the mugen it always shows up. It just takes it a bit longer to show vs. stock obviously because of the additional cooling.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

In a track environment, you don't need a thermostat. You will be at operating temperature while driving and unless its -40 degrees out, stay there. For a track only car, there is no meaningful reason to use a thermostat that opens a few degrees sooner. A thermostat is just one more part that can fail and ruin your day.

So the short answer is neither the Spoon nor the Mugen thermostats are appropriate in a track environment. Therefore they are not parts offering any benefit.

 

I have the Mugen thermostat, fan switch and radiator cap. They were installed right after I got the car and I now have about 30,000 miles and have 7 schools.

If your S2000 is going to have a dual life of street and track driving then a Mugen or Spoon thermostat is appropriate in a track environment.

 

It's actually a track only car!

I thought these thermostats were specially made for track purpose to keep the engine from overheating!?

 

The issue is that with a stock radiator any of the thermostats are going to be wide open most of the time on the track.. so it makes no difference. The cooler units (Mugen or Spoon) may get you to the grid with coolant a few degrees cooler but once lapping it would take a larger radiator to have cooler temps.

 

So as i can understand, if you already have an aftermarket racing radiator, then the lower temp thermostat works fine, because the bigger radiator can hold lower temps. right?

 

I knew I had read this before. "Search" worked.

 

How do you install one of this thermostat thingy?

 

Can it be installed at home?