I don't worry about cooling the car down under most circumstances. However, on the track I do like to make sure I take a cooldown lap. This is mostly for the brakes, but it also helps dump the worst of the engine heat out as well. The key is that the car loses most of it's heat to the moving air, so if you aren't moving you aren't cooling the car down.

The main concern is actually soakback heat. When you are driving, the oil temp is lower than the engine wall temp because the oil is taking heat out of the engine and losing it through the cooling fins on the oil pan. When you stop the engine, the oil stops circulating. Even though the engine is cooling down, the oil actually heats up. However, the car is designed for this.

I try not to go straight from a hot lap on the track to a shut off engine. If I can't get a cooldown lap on the track, I'll drive the car slowly through the pits and let it idle a bit, until I think it has reached more of a steady state. This is probably more benefit for my peace of mind than it is for the car.

I don't drive to Taco Bell, so I don't worry about how to cool the car down from that. I do know that the engine gets somewhat hotter during soakback after the track than it does in normal driving -- I've seen it on the temp guage (Modifry ECT module).

 

The extra heat generated will heat up the metal around the combustion chambers. If you just shut the engine off, that heat will continue to transfer into the water. This water will not circulate once the engine is turned off. You can have boiling water (and extra pressure build up) in a part of the engine that cannot be removed.

 

If you really have no place to drive the car easily at high speeds, then find a flat spot to park, do not step on brake or pull up e-brake (make sure the car isn't goin to roll ...), put the top down, pop the hood, and turn the heat to MAX. Let the car sit there for a while.

But then, I still feel that drving in 6th gear at 50mph or so for a while will help the most (to cool down brakes and other fluids) -- if the condition allows you to do it.

Just don't shut the engine off immediately. Gas is expensive, but relatively cheap when compared to the cost of replacing the block.

 

Please don't take this as a smartass remark.

Can you confirm that the fan will continue to run after you shut the ignition off? I've noticed that if I shut the ignition off when the fan is running, the fan shuts off. If I read the wiring diagram correctly in the Helm manual (and I may just be reading it wrong), it looks like the rad fan operates only when ignition is ON.
Nevertheless, let's just say that the rad fan does continue to run after you shut the engine off. This will only cool what's in the radiator. Since the water pump no longer circulates the coolant, the water inside the engine just continues to get hotter. Under normal driving conditions, the system can handle this. However, under hard use, a lot more heat is generated - heat that takes time and circulation to dissipate.

 

I'll look in my owners manual when I get home, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't say anything about waiting for it to cool down.

My sister has a 1g DSM, and her owners manual specifically states letting the car cool down.

 

The manual will not tell you to do this cooling stuff. This is more or less analogous to how Honda didn't tell you to put synthetic oil into the engine, because the manual is meant for average use of the vehicle (average here means driving to and from work, road trip, but not racing). Or an even more extreme example, the manual never suggested one to get a reinforced diff. These super spirited drives and intense races require another type of maintenance and driving habits, and the manual simply can't cover all that ... Perhaps they assumed that people who put themselves in those situations know what they are doing.

If they start putting in comments about "cooling down" the vehicle, then paranoid people will end up "cooling down" the car inside an indoor parking lot after a 2 mins drive to a grocery store, with the A/C turned on.

EDIT: If it's just a little bit of VTEC-ing for fun, then it's not so much of a deal. Just drive easily for a mile or two ... should be alright

 

Is that a turbo? I'm not sure what a "1g DSM" is, but if it's a turbo, then I think most owner's manuals of turbo cars will say something about a "cool down". I recall that my wife's old Turbo Caravan said something like this, too.

 

It may not be necessary or needed but I go for option 2
Also because I live in an area where other people live, cars are parked, children play, pets cross the street, etc, etc (overhere its called a villeage), so when almost home I drive slowly

 

Yeah, it's the oldest of the Eagle Talon/Mitsu Eclipse models. Technically, DSM refers to anything produced by Diamond Star Motors, but the term is loosely used to talk about the Talon/Eclipse/Laser triplets.

 

Maybe we're not clear on something. The question was do you let the car cool down after VTEC-ing. By that I assumed some spirited street driving, and not tracking a car. We all know that tracking a car is much harder than almost anything you do on the street. I feel driving through my subdivision at 25 mph for .5 miles is plenty enough for the engine to cool down, and I don't set the parking brake. I just leave it in gear.

Now if I were to track the car, which I haven't btw, I'd probably do a cool-down lap afterwards.