Hi Guys. I searched around to look for the cooling mods for track use in the forum, but I cannot find many. I bought my supercharged 03 Z one year ago, started learning everything and autocrossing since last summer. I focused more on the suspension, brake, but not very much on the cooling. With your help to understand tires and brakes, I finally go for the 245 square RE-11 and Stoptech HP+ (F), Stock non-brembo HP+ (R). I will have my 1st HPDE 1 in mid April/May, just want to be fully prepared, now I am a bit concerning about the cooling since it’s supercharged. Can anyone suggest if anything I should do for the cooling?

Current:
-oil cooler, behind the intercooler sit at the driver side. And 1/3 is hidden by intercooler.
-Motul 5W30 300V
-Stock radiator, thermostat.
-Stoptech with HP+ (not intend to do air duct until I realize it’s a must)

Will do:
-colder heat range spark plug (NGK?)
-oil temp gauge
-transmission fluid

Thanks in advance!

 

Get a radiator, the large Koyo or AMS is a must.

 

use silicone radiator hose or stock should be fine. Any coolant you recommand? Thanks

 

Hoses, whatever. Thermostat is nice to get, Coolant i just run 25% coolant with added water wetter. Undertray is a must , it keeps air going to the radiator

 

I have Zspeed aluminum undertray. so I will assume to seal off the area around radiator would be helpful as well.

 

Where are you taping your oil temp signal since you have an oil cooler?

 

If you're just using it for Auto-X and not HPDE I think you will be fine. You will have time to cool down after each run.

Maybe go water-meth injection

 

the oil adapter only has two ports for the oil cooler. I'm think of getting a new adapter with extra port for the temp. Or drill a hole in the oil pan.

 

yup, autox is totally fine. but I am going to one/two HPDE 1 this year. I can remove the belt to run w/o supercharger. But not sure if that will mess up the engine, since it was tuned for FI, and injector swtiched to 600cc??

 

Not really possible , you would be able to limp the car around the track, no fun there.

 

How could you run the car without a belt on the supercharger? What does it connect to?

When I snapped a belt with my supercharger on my Civic the car shut right off. Then again it had 1 belt for everything, but I believe all superchargers run on the same belt as the crank.

 

There are three belts. The 1st driven by the crankshaft. 2nd from pulley to pulley(driven by the 1st belt). the 3rd from pulley (driven from 2nd belt) to blower. I used to remove the 2nd belt and ran NA since the bearing connects to the 2nd & 3rd belts was cracked.

the car ran OK whatever in low/medium rpm, but I was wondering how can it got sufficient air from FI intake setup...

 

Flush your brake fluid and get a good DOT5 brake fluid (I run motul) and get plenty of fluids for yourself the rest will be fine.

Its your first DE event, you will be learning how to drive smoothly and safely.

 

+1 for the brake fluid flush.

As stated, dont run your car with the sc belt off. It will run with the belt off but from my experience unless you have it tuned to run with it off it is going to run rich as hell and belt out smoke. If you had to limp somewhere ok but at the track? huge fail.

 

I will switch the OEM caliper to Stoptech start from this Sunday after the autoX and will flush the brake fluid with DOT4 ATE super blue. It will be my 1st time to change caliper and flush fluid. wish everything goes well~~

 

+ 1 for running rich. I will order the KOYO V2577 today. hopfully i will get things done before the DE.

For coolant, can I just use pre-mixed 50/50 coolant from walmart. or it's better to mix the distilled water with coolant by myself? BTW, I saw wiki or somewhere says the soft water is better than distilled water? It has the explanation, but Im not good at chemistry...

 

You don't really want to any coolant at a track. It actually reduces the cooling efficiency of the water. However water is not a good lubricant and that is when a product like water wetter comes into effect, as well as other things. Most tracks don't allow cars to run that use coolant because if it leaks it is a hazard (slippery) But HPDE might be different, you will want to check on that. I run like a 15-20% coolant to water mixture for the street just for the lubrication and metal protection.

 

Thanks Chin and Terrasmak, I probably will run 25/75 coolant/water. is it necessary to add water wetter along with the coolant & water?

 

Yeah that's where I was gonna mine too but just haven't.