Car heating up to 100 very quick on track

[benyimin]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can answer what is probably a stupid question! I went to a track day yesterday and all went well but my car seemed to run at 100 degrees virtually all the time. Today on normal road use it ran slightly above 90 where normally it would pretty well stay there, and then would rise up to 100 before dropping quickly down to just below 80? Does this point to any particular problem? And if I was to drain my cooling system is it possible to fill it with a 'super' coolant which might help keep it cooler!

On closer inspection I have noticed a fair few bugs in the radiator, which I know won't help but surely wouldn't make it so eratic would they!

[chevin]

Try
http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/products/ProductDeta...

Edited by chevin on Tuesday 23 June 23:43

[benyimin]

thanks look like it might do the trick, certainly an easy place to start!

[Herman Toothrot]

Aslong as your running with coolant not just water don't worry. My car on road sits at 90 degC on track its always between 100 and 108. Never overheats as such, a proper coolant mix shoud be good for 115/120degC.

[benyimin]

is it not quite bad for them to be running above 100 degrees for sometime?

[Herman Toothrot]

If the engine management doesn't adjust fueling then maybe. I'm not overly concerned though I've done 3 years worth of trackdays with it behaving this way. (6-10 days a year).

[mat205125]

benyimin said:

is it not quite bad for them to be running above 100 degrees for sometime?

So long as it doesn't go much past 100. Remember that the system is under pressure, and therefore even though the temperature is over 100 degrees, the water won't be boiling.

[Wh00sher]

thermostat sticking ?

[Adrian Gumball]

Sounds like air-lock after the high temps.

[benyimin]

now I'd thought about the thermostat sticking but an air lock sounds more likely.....good thinking!!
How would I go about curing that, would I have to drain the system or should it sort itself out!?

[Bozwell]

even if running at over 100 degrees may not give you any problems you are losing horsepower. i used to work on a rolling road and found that with a water temprature of around 75 degrees always gave the best power figures. it didn't matter what vehicle it was or whether it was carb or fuel injection the results were the same. 75 degrees water temp gave best power figures.

after a long rolling road session to get the fueling and timing as best as possible i would leave the car to cool before doing the final power run. on a TR7 V8 it made 20 horsepower extra compared the the last tuning run. thats 20 extra horsepower (final run was 230HP) without touching anything and just leaving it to cool for a fair while before bringing it back up to 75 degrees.

[Monty_M100]

what temp does your car normally run at on track?

If you`ve done a coolant change lately then it could be trapped air.
Sticky thermostat
Are you losing any coolant and/or a lot off pressure in the header tank? If so could be a HG failure, i had this on my Elan on my 3rd trackday at cadwell and the temp gauge only went slightly higher but the rad started leaking because of the extra pressure in the system. You can do a block test (sniffer test) or get a garage to test the coolant for hydro carbons.
Did a quick search on a Block test and found this
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Fingers crossed its some thing simple.

[benyimin]

I've done 3 track days now and it always seems to run at 100 when it's being hammered, which is fine I guess although I would prefer it to stay a little cooler!
I only really started to get concerned the next day when the temperature gauge began showing odd readings during normal road use, its always heated up quite quickly whilst sat in traffic but it was the way that it would then quickly drop back to around 80....which it never does!

[Scuffers]

fit a better radiator then?

[mrmr96]

What car is it? I'd be more concerned about oil temp than water temp. Do you have an oil temp gauge?

[benyimin]

its a westfield with a 1800 zetec engine. haven't got oil temp gauge only pressure.

[benyimin]

ok, have just been out in it tonight for about 30 mins and the temp seemed to behave a little better, but did run slightly hotter than usual and soon crept up to 100 when giving it some for short periods. Got home and slowly undid the lid on the water reservoir which appeared to be under quite high pressure and water gushed in from the exit(?) pipe in the bottom of the tank, enough that I had to replace the cap to prevent it from overflowing......does this point to it being the head gasket or is it normal and I'm now imagining things?!

[Scuffers]

benyimin said:

ok, have just been out in it tonight for about 30 mins and the temp seemed to behave a little better, but did run slightly hotter than usual and soon crept up to 100 when giving it some for short periods. Got home and slowly undid the lid on the water reservoir which appeared to be under quite high pressure and water gushed in from the exit(?) pipe in the bottom of the tank, enough that I had to replace the cap to prevent it from overflowing......does this point to it being the head gasket or is it normal and I'm now imagining things?!

sounds like the rad's not doing the job, either it;s not big enough, it's blocked, or the stats not opening