I was curious if anyone experiences what I feel is excessive heat soak. I feel like after my first hot lap or during, the car is way down on power. I think it may be because my oil/water temps are a bit high but I am not sure. I have an oil cooler and my oil temps still hit 280 on a 95 degree day. Water temps are around 210. Perhaps I should upgrade to a bigger radiator.

I made 248whp on a Dyno Dynamics dyno. Car was tuned by Dynosty (aka IP in KY) According to NASA rules, we are to use Dynojet dynos and if dynoed on a DD dyno then add 10% to get roughly your Dynojet whp. I am not sure how accurate that is but if that is the case that puts me at ~272whp. At Nationals I was put on the dyno on site (Dynojet) after a session so the car was hot. It actually sat in line to get on the dyno for about 20 minutes (with hood closed) and it only made 235whp. I am wondering if I have some serious issues going on or what. Compression is still good on the engine too.

Like I said though, I feel it is noticeably down on power by the middle of my first hot lap.

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

 

I'm not road racing, but I know I need to manage under-hood heat on warm autocross days.

I often use a nice warm engine on cold days to get the front tires pre-warmed...

 

Although I've never measured engine bay temps on a 350Z, I did on a Ford Contour SVT. Four direct read temp sensors in the engine bay showed that once the car got up to about 30 mph engine bay temps were within 2% of outside track air temps regardless of how hard I was driving. This was a WSIR on a 100+ degree day.

Make sure you've got good airflow through the oil cooler and, if anything, I would increase the oil cooler's capacity to get the hot temps down to about 240. That will also help the radiator, unless the oil cooler is blocking radiator air flow.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. I was thinking of going to a bigger oil cooler. I don't think its enough. Probably get a bigger radiator too.

I was also wondering if any of the other track guys on here experience this.

 

You are correct, I have had drivers experience this in cars that I work on. On the SCCA T2/T3 cars that I work on, we run coolers on everything as much as possible because there is a power drop when the water temperature gets over about 205 degrees. A bigger radiator and oil cooler are both good ideas.

 

How big is your oil cooler?

 

Has the programming been checked to see if its pulling timing based on temps?

 

I honestly cannot remember how big the cooler is. It is the stillen kit if they even still have it. I got it a long time ago.

I have not checked the programming, but that is a good idea.