Cooling the engine

Vitale999 · Post by **Vitale999** » November 23rd, 2004, 10:37 am

How can I keep my K8 engine from getting so dang hot!? It's rediculous how hot my entire engine bay gets. Any suggestions?

lakersfan1 · Post by **lakersfan1** » November 23rd, 2004, 11:21 am

Phenolic spacers. Look at the giant ad banner at the top of V6 Forum pages.

babyblueMX3 · Post by **babyblueMX3** » November 23rd, 2004, 12:35 pm

air vents/scoops, pheno spacers, aftermarket bumper with big opening, better fans

goldsberry1 · Post by **goldsberry1** » November 23rd, 2004, 1:34 pm

try so exhaust wrap and insulation for all the pipes. that would go along with all the other things talked about here

Vitale999 · Post by **Vitale999** » November 23rd, 2004, 2:37 pm

What is the "coolant bypass mod" and how do you do it?

IanL · Post by **IanL** » November 23rd, 2004, 2:49 pm

Originally posted by Vitale999:
What is the "coolant bypass mod" and how do you do it?

The coolant bypass mod is a mistaken idea that by removing the hot coolant supply to the throttle body, you can improve performance. All it does is prevent the air bypass valve from operating, so your idle is ****ed in cold weather, and it could help to promote icing of the TB, which would reduce power, increase fuel consumption, and could even bring you to a halt.

Why is the hot engine bay a problem, anyway? The car is built that way, and the engine works fine under those conditions.

SIXPACK · Post by **SIXPACK** » November 23rd, 2004, 4:02 pm

lets add redline waterwetter to the list also

perhapsadingo8yerbaby · November 23rd, 2004, 6:46 pm

Originally posted by SIXPACK:
lets add redline waterwetter to the list also

Good call. Could also install an inverted style CF hood that would vent the engine bay.

RoundTop · Post by **RoundTop** » November 23rd, 2004, 7:53 pm

here is a question... I have a stock K8 from 96... but I don't have any heat issues, it never makes it over 1/3 up the heat scale, let alone above half.

So why would you need to cool the engine compartment more?

Yeah, heat shielding, the proper mixture of water to rad fluid, spacers, larger front opening(though we have a fairly large opening in our stock bumper for air), and inverted hoods are good ideas for cooling it more.

I only ever once had an over heating problem in a car and that was an 85 RX-7 sucking in hot exhaust off an SUV in traffic through a very small front opening... and it went right back down once I started moving.

perhapsadingo8yerbaby · November 23rd, 2004, 8:08 pm

It's not so much what the temp gauge reads, as the amount of heat retained by the "heatsink" effect of Mazda engines and the resulting warmer than desired intake temps.

Rope04 · Post by **Rope04** » November 24th, 2004, 1:00 am

This question seems to me it comes up a LOT!!! Well even though I haven't been on here in forever as it seems

water wetter</li>
Exhaust heat wrap, both mani's about 1ft' before the cat IF YOU HAVE ONE</li>
Phenolic spacers a must</li>
slimmer more effecient coolant fans</li>
Front bumper with larger opening</li>
Inverted hood or hood with an ACTUAL hoodscoop cut out vents etc....</li>
Wrap your intake with exhaust heat wrap to keep a MAJORITY of the heat out</li>
OR...COMPLETELY REMOVE YOUR HOOD IF YOU WANT NO HOOD HEAT...THAT SHOULD SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM...lol </li>

IanL · Post by **IanL** » November 24th, 2004, 4:56 am

I'm sure quite a few will disagree with me, but here goes anyway:

When you're getting your engine to deliver a lot of power, you are sucking in a large volume of air per second, and the flow rate is going to be really high. I don't think the air is in contact with the hot metal of the inlet tract long enough to pick up an appreciable amount of heat - plus - it's only the air in contact with the metal which is heated, the rest would have to be heated through convection, and that's not going to happen in that quick rush through the inlet tract.

Now one way to prove this would be to install a fast reacting thermistor in one of the runners, in contact with the air, but not the metal - anyone in a position to do it?

TsiMiata · Post by **TsiMiata** » November 24th, 2004, 12:41 pm

Originally posted by Rope:
This question seems to me it comes up a LOT!!! Well even though I haven't been on here in forever as it seems


water wetter</li>
Exhaust heat wrap, both mani's about 1ft' before the cat IF YOU HAVE ONE</li>
Phenolic spacers a must</li>
slimmer more effecient coolant fans</li>
Front bumper with larger opening</li>
Inverted hood or hood with an ACTUAL hoodscoop cut out vents etc....</li>
Wrap your intake with exhaust heat wrap to keep a MAJORITY of the heat out</li>
OR...COMPLETELY REMOVE YOUR HOOD IF YOU WANT NO HOOD HEAT...THAT SHOULD SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM...lol </li>


Why would water wetter cool your engine bay? It will in no way shape or form have any effect on the engine temperature. It will only allow better heat transfer into the water. Since your thermostat is controlling the water temperature the water wetter can't make your engine run any cooler. Never mind reduce engine bay temps.

I wouldn't use a hood scoop either. At highway speeds your radiator is cooled by the air rushing through it. If you have a hood scoop that just vents into the engine bay you are making the air pressure in the engine bay the same as whats in front of the radiator. If the pressures are the same then no air will flow through the radiator. The hood scoop could also cause the car to be more unstable at high speeds. You could be forcing air under the car which is a bad thing. Postive pressure under the car makes it want to fly.

Phenolic spacers aren't really a way to keep the engine bay cooler. Just your intake manifold. The heat that was going into your intake manifold still has to go some where. It will go into the radiator and be dumped out over the engine. It's an improvement I'm sure. It's not really keeping the entire engine bay all that much cooler in the end though.

I think a list of things that heat the engine bay would be helpful in thinking about this. I'd say the three biggest culprits are-

#1 The engine itself. Theres lots of 200 degree+ surface area to radiate out heat. Short of ceramic coating the entire engine I can't see how to prevent this one. ceramic coating of the intake manifold and maybe the valve covers would help a little.

#2 The exhaust. Ceramic coating of the pipes and header wrap should really help this one out.

#3 The radiator. It's just dumping all the extra heat the engine makes right into the engine bay. The only way I see out of this one is to duct the radiator right out of the hood. There isn't much room up front to do it but maybe its possible.

[ November 24, 2004, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: TsiMiata ]

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