Cooling system maintenance - the hotter months are coming!

Had some cooling issues in the last 2 track days where we've seen temps of 100 & 105°C. This was with new coolant, water wetter and new water pump.

So I decided to replace the thermostat with genuine OEM 80°C. When I removed the old thermostat I tested it in a pot of boiling water & it didn't start opening until 85.6 & was fully open @ 95.4°C. I also tested the new thermostat as these 'can' be faulty even when new but it started opening @ 83.1 & fully open @ 90.1°C so this is a major improvement over the old one.

I looked into the hype on using a lower temp thermostat & basically what I found is that there is no point as the more important number is when the thermostat is fully open & not when it starts to open. A good read I found is here http://www.tuneruniversity.com/…/low-temp-thermostats-what…/

Nothing real scientific in it but an informative read none the less.

While the thermostat was out I did a full flush of the block, heater and radiator with the Wynns products. 3 bottles just to be sure 

Then I turned my attention to the radiator cap. I tested this also with one of those pump up things which reads the pressure of the cap & it wouldn't pressurise over 1.1 bar (the cap is rated @ 1.1, so this is fine) but what it did do is leak all the pressure. So time for a replacement.

While reading that blog I also found another post he made which is a good read http://www.tuneruniversity.com/…/beating-the-heat-advantag…/

So based on those findings & seeing I will be doing a lot of track work I've ordered a 1.3 bar cap & just a cheap $15 one off eBay.

I refilled the system with distilled water, filling & flushing the block with it while the thermostat was out & have topped it up with water wetter.

I've been running data logs while driving around with the old cap, until the new one arrives, & I’m only seeing temps of 83 - 85°C. So it's spot on atm and will be logging all my track sessions with the new cap & report the logs here