David,

I have done all the cooling mods that I know are available (minus a new radiator), and I am pretty confident that it is as good as it needs to be. Based on the temp measurements that you and I took with your MiniTemp, my cooling system was maintaining temps over 30 degrees F cooler than yours (stock). I agree that the higher pressures may cause a hose failure at 6.5 years, instead of 7 years, but frankly, I am okay with that, especially if it keeps my engine cooler during that same period. I feel confident that there will be hot spots in this engine that generate localized boiling, that would benefit from the higher boiling point.

I also think that the higher pressure (higher boiling point) is a must if you plan to run less anti-freeze in your coolant mixture (75/25 instead of 50/50).

 

You said you have done all the cooling mods, I know you are running the Hondata insulator gasket and the low temp thermostat and fan switch but does that include pluggin' all the holes around the radiator?

If you haven't then you have less head room and are running hotter than you need to be when you stress the system.

To each his own. I will not be putting the rad cap on until I have done everything short of a bigger radiator and find I have a need.

 

I used to race a Fiat in 1974 that was highly built up; cooling was marginal to poor. The simple addition of a 5 row Earl's oil cooler solved all the problems. Your oil is much hotter than your coolant and does not give up heat as easily. Radiators are big buck items for this car, and some sites indicate you forfeit the A/C. So you know how stressed the engine was, we got 166 hp from a 1660 cc stroked block in a 128 coupe. 0-60 5.2 sec 1/4 in 14.2. Engines are way more refined today, but horsepower makes heat just the same.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by David b
[B]You said you have done all the cooling mods, I know you are running the Hondata insulator gasket and the low temp thermostat and fan switch but does that include pluggin' all the holes around the radiator?

 

Greg, try the experiment with the screen door, it will open your eyes in a big way!!!!

No proof that managing air flow increases cooling capacities? Read any book on cooling systems and they will tell you that is the single most important item in the design. In the 60's Shelby Cobras were considered unreliable until Carroll Shelby added a simple sealing duct in the nose. Look at all the work formula 1 cars, nascar, etc.go to get air to the radiators. Go to most any car list and lurk for a while, it is always a big topic in the summer and ductwork is ALWAYS the solution.

As to your oil cooler chipperman, I know oil coolers can work wonders. The 30 degree difference Greg referred to between our cars was the oil temperature. I was amazed that a low temp thermostat would make such a difference in the oil temps.

What started this thread was me looking for the best low temp thermostat and a place to buy one. In the interim I have been looking for oil cooler kits also, but haven't found a kit yet. Canton Racing makes all the adapters so I will probably get the parts from them and install them this winter when I have time (yeah, I know winter is not the optimum time to be doing cooling work). I am trying to find a decent price oil thermostat as Canton's is $200.

I have opened up the brake duct openings on my car and intend to get a cooler that will fit up there on the driver's side so it doesn't add heat in front of the radiator.

FYI I had asked earlier if anyone knew below what temp did the ECU try to add fuel as it thought the car wasn't fully warmed up, but no one knew. Since then I have found out that the rest of the Honda family of engines doesn't think the car is fully warmed up until 170 degrees so I am assuming it would be the same for the S2K.

Now what is the temp of the lowest thermostat available for the S2k?

 

If you have 60 MPH winds blowing on a house that has a screened front and rear door, you will get some air flowing through the house, but most of the air will blow around the house. If you then open a window next to the screen door, more air will flow through the house, and a little less will flow around the house, but the amount of air flowing through the screen doors will stay pretty much the same. You are saying that the air flowing through the screen doors will drop when the windows are opened, but I don't think that is the case.

The temp measurements that we took are posted below. The differences we measured were primarily in the cooling systems, not the oil.



The Spoon thermostat has the lowest opening temps.

 

Greg, try the experiment before you speak. You will be amazed!!

I didn't quite follow your reasoning on the window and screen door, but if you are saying that a low pressure area behind the radiator won't increase air flow then you have never lived in a house without AC. You always opened the back door so you could get a breeze thru the house. With only the front screen door open there was never a breeze. An attic fan lowered the pressure in the house even more and made for a much greater (and cooler) air flow.

And yes, there is NO comparison to the air flow thru the window without a screen vs the air flow thru the screen door. Even tho the screen door was over twice the size it would flow MUCH less than the open window. Of course the bugs came in the house thru the open window.

Maybe why it isn't so hard for me to get it is that I have been exposed to the practical applications all my life. (any more old farts out there who can speak from experience?) We never had AC until I was in High School and in self defense everyone became an expert on how to get max air flow thru the house. As a matter of fact, look at demographics, the south's population explosion didn't happen until after AC became widespread because people couldn't live & work comfortably.

Thanx for the chart, I never saw it posted. Notice that the differences in temp differences are much lower after the reasonable hard drive due to the fact that the cooling systems could actually do their job. We never really taxed the systems to the limits which is where you would see the most differences due to air flow &/or system efficiencies. What happened to the radiator hose temps after the drive? Did we forget to take them or could you just not read them?

Now we need to do it again after I add the low temp thermostat. That will more clearly show you if there are any negative effects to the Hondata Insualator.

 

I will do the experiment the very next time we have 60 MPH winds (my house example was based on 60 MPH winds). I don't think a 10 MPH breeze will be at all indicative of anything pertaining to the radiator. My point is that a car moving 60+ MPH has such a high pressure zone at the nose, that blocking the air passages will not increase the flow through the radiator, rather it will increase the air flow around the car.

We didn't measure the cooling system temps because both our fans were off, which indicated that both of our systems were fully "cooled". We should have verified it, but I'm sure that if the cooling systems were above the 163 or 198 marks, the fans would have been running. The only temps that really went up were our oil temps.

 

The car comes with a simple water/oil cooler (filter base), so if you feel cooling needs more improvement a larger radiator should help both coolant and oil.

 

An oil cooler is much cheaper than a larger radiator.

Many cars now come with this same type of "oil cooler", but they still benefit from a real oil cooler.

The stock system just puts more of a load on the radiator whereas a separate oil cooler, if it is not placed in front of your radiator, adds to your cooling capacities since it it dissipating the oil heat elsewhere.