Okay, I have owned my Z for 6 months and want to know about how long it takes for the Z to cool down. I drive about 45 mins back home from work which is about 12 miles, I take city streets back home.

4 hours later I go into the garage, place my hand on the hood and it is still very warm. Am I imagining things or is this a normal for the Z/all cars.

 

I had the same experience you had, just this night, i parked my car for the day around 6pm in the garage, i touch the hood around 8pm its quite warm, but im not surprised.....the only guideline i follow is, if your fan kicks on just run the car till it turns off.....4 hours seems like a long time for the car to be quite warm...it could just be a little left over heat from your daily drivin, check the thermostat on the car, or pop the hood and have a look, this could just be normal thing ur noticing.

 

Consider that the hood is aluminum and NOT insulated. As long as the temperature gage does NOT read HOT, you're OK.

 

i do that .. but i just pop the hood .. not fully opend and close the garage so the heat will go ..

 

before i bought my '06 Z, i had a '96 maxima. same motor (VQ30DE), minus the tuning to get it to 300HP. even after a long drive with my maxima, i touch my hood a few hours later, its still warm. so u shouldnt worry.

 

get one of those things the turbo cars have, i think its a called a turbo timer or something? it allows the engine to continue running with the fan on after you remove the key to allow it to cool down for a couple more minutes. can you do that??

 

This is completely normal for the Z. Due to the type of metals used in making the block, the Z does not dispate heat as well as most engines. A turbo timer has nothing to do with cooling the engine, only the turbo.

 

oh sorry, my mistake, i always thought of it as a device that allows the entire engine to continue to run after you remove the key, and that allows the engine to cool down. i dunno...

 

The whole point of a turbo timer is to keep the engine running while the turbo cools down. The reason for the engine to keep running is so the turbo is still receiving oil while it is red hot and spinning.

 

the Z isn't going to cool down.. it's still so HOT since its introduction in 2002!!!
oops.. you mean the temperature?

 

hhaha..now that was funny

 

Does the vented hoods help with this?

 

The heat from the block flows up through the "very-conductive" aluminum plenum making it and the hood just inches above it hot for a long time.

While doing some experimentation with the plenum temperatures, I observed that if the plenum was about 140ºF when I parked the Z, the heat soak would cause it to rise to over 160ºF shortly after. I would leave the car parked all day long, then 9 hours later when I left work, the plenum would still be over 100ºF. That was on summer days where the air temp was in the low 90s.