I am thinking about going with the following modifications to keep the car running cooler and prevent power loss:

-Mugen thermostat
-Mugen thermoswitch
-Mugen radiator cap
-Filling radiator w/pure water + waterwetter

My thinking is that I will have improved thermal transfer coefficients (waterwetter, without the antifreeze) and earlier use of fans before the car can get hot. With the Mugen radiator cap, I will have about the same boil-over temperature as I would have with antifreeze. I intend to use the car for 1-2 track days per month.

Does this make sense to the gurus?

 

I think 15% antifreeze is commonly used to provide the anticorrosion additives even if there is no freeze risk.

Your cooling changes will certainly help with water temp but there is no easy way to overcome the high air temp in your locale.. you may get some of the ECU safety adjustments despite the changes (we do here in Texas) unless you migrate in the summer.

 

CD is correct. While water has a better heat carrying capacity then anti-freeze it has no corrosion inhbition properties. Lowest I've heard is 10% unless it is a full up race car. Then the slickness of anti-freeze during a spill may be a factor and the anti-freeze prohibited from the track. Real common prohibition in the sport bike arena.....wonder why .

 

redline waterwetter details can be found here:

http://www.redlineoil.com/redlineoil/wwti.htm

seems to me that it does have corrosion inhibitors in the solution. but its not really a problem to add normal antifreeze in it as well, or just go with straight water (if you live in the south where it never snows).

I've used it in prior cars with great results.

 

Like Arizona, Florida extends extreme temperatures. I installed Spoon's thermal kit with Royal Purple's "Purple Ice".
One 16 ounce bottle "Purple Ice" with 15% anti freeze / 85% water. This product is specifically designed to protect aluminum engines and reduce the overall system temperature.

 

interesting stuff, I haven't come across that before.

Royal Purple racing/non-commercial automotive products:
http://www.synerlec.com/

and fyi www.jegs.com has it for 9.99 a bottle.

 

According to the site, if you use waterwetter with 50/50 antifreeze/water, you get little benefit. Looking at the graph below, notice how the 50/50 and the 50/50+waterwetter curves are very close together.

Now look at the curve for water+waterwetter; cooling occurs much faster than with antifreeze. You can see that the waterwetter solution is often 20 degrees cooler than water alone (vertical distance between the lines).

Waterwetter provides corrosion protection and improved coolng capacity, at the cost of lower boiling point (compared to 50/50 solution). Increasing the radiator cap pressure should restore the boiling point, though.

If the numbers on the site are correct, using waterwetter will keep the head 45 degrees cooler than using 50/50.

 

That would be spectaular results.. don't count on it. The product has it uses but independant tests have also shown results that are nothing to get excitied about.

 

I recently discussed this with Scott at King and he recommended to stay with a 50/50 formula. I took his advice but I did add a bottle of water wetter to this solution.

 

I was planning on the Spoon t-stat/switch but only b/c I had no idea Mugen made one. Do they really, and does King stock it?