6
Car overheating on track days...(Use distilled water or WaterWetter?)
- Thread starter Jcarollo765
- Start date
APRMK6GTi
Go Kart Champion
have you checked your condenser fins? they might have been smashed from debris and rock chips that end up blocking airflow to the radiator. there was a member that had that problem and that fixed theirs
http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106847&page=2
http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106847&page=2
Yes it does, but still not enough. Water temp still rising.
Now I run a custom made dual pass front mounted 2 in 1 cooler (water & oil). Going to test it on next month's trackday
red_stapler
Ready to race!
The engine is not air cooled, so you want *all* the air flowing through the radiator.
I think it is impossible for the radiator to have all cool air from the front as it is totally blocked by intercooler and a/c condenser. All it has is suction air from the cooling fan.
zrickety
The Fixer
You say the engine is not air cooled, but all the underhood temps come into play. The weather strip by the windshield isn't stealing air from the radiator. Bent condenser fins can be a real problem though. It is possible there is blockage inside the radiator or pump, have you mixed the coolant with another brand? It can turn to gel.
red_stapler
Ready to race!
The intercooler and condenser don't stop the air though.
Underhood temps don't have much impact on coolant temp. Now if we were worried about the battery or electronics getting too hot, sure.
It totally does though. Air wants to flow from an area of high pressure, in this case the front bumper opening, to an area of low pressure - the engine bay. By opening up the cowl, you're partially filling in that low pressure area in the engine bay with high pressure air from the base of the windshield instead of the front bumper opening.
I'll concede that it would help if OP was having trouble with the car overheating when sitting still.
jay745
What Would Glenn Danzig Do
I always remove mine for track days, but still have the heat problem.
I'm doing a number of things to try and combat it for this season.
Removing my neuspeed IC and replacing with a sandwich mount IC
Adding an oil cooler
Running 70%water/30% coolant instead of 50/50
Hoping that with doing all of that I won't have the problem anymore.
RudolphTheRedNosedGTI
Ready to race!
I too am APR K04 and track very hard on road courses. If its warmer than 70*F outside, temps will get to 240+ very quickly, usually meaning I have to back off, and hopes for good times that day go down.
I have heard of others running a 70/30 mix of dist. water and coolant, but the owners manual states you should not run less than 60/40 dist. water and coolant. I was going to do a full coolant flush (to remove the possibility theres air in the thermostat as the radiator has been removed a few times now) and swap to that, as well as add water wetter.
Will report with findings
I have heard of others running a 70/30 mix of dist. water and coolant, but the owners manual states you should not run less than 60/40 dist. water and coolant. I was going to do a full coolant flush (to remove the possibility theres air in the thermostat as the radiator has been removed a few times now) and swap to that, as well as add water wetter.
Will report with findings
red_stapler
Ready to race!
Vented hoods rely on the same principle in the opposite way. They take advantage of the low pressure area in the middle of the hood. The idea being to decrease pressure in the engine bay by having the air flow out. That does encourage air to flow through the cooling stack.
I would check all the obvious stuff.
1. radiator fins.
2. not familiar with that intercooler - did you alter the order of the radiator/intercooler
3. flush cooling system and radiator, stuff can accumulate and slow flow through radiator.
DSG does get very hot on a course and it shares the engine coolant so it can contribute to engine heat. I added a seperate DSG cooling system on my car for the track.
The best thing I have to fight heat is water meth, its like magic, you keep things cool and of course the benefit is your car isn't pulling a bunch of timing to protect the motor from all the extra heat that occurs when you drive on a track.
1. radiator fins.
2. not familiar with that intercooler - did you alter the order of the radiator/intercooler
3. flush cooling system and radiator, stuff can accumulate and slow flow through radiator.
DSG does get very hot on a course and it shares the engine coolant so it can contribute to engine heat. I added a seperate DSG cooling system on my car for the track.
The best thing I have to fight heat is water meth, its like magic, you keep things cool and of course the benefit is your car isn't pulling a bunch of timing to protect the motor from all the extra heat that occurs when you drive on a track.
WeekendWarriorz
Ready to race!
+1 on this, after i removed the weather strip my IAT went down almost 8 degrees. Also I noticed you have the unitronic intake which is not enclosed, hopefully you have the heat shield still on there or it could be heat soak city.
MrFancypants
Autocross Champion
My first two steps would be fresh coolant and run a fin comb over the compressor coil. If that doesn't do it I'd see what's going on with the tune and if that's bringing the temps up to an abnormal degree.