Originally Posted by hcsi99
I ran at Gingerman yesterday where it was around 85 degrees most of the day. I'm running an Earl's 16 row cooler with AN10 fittings and hoses, and Improved Racing's 180 degree oil thermostat mounted right side up. I have an Auto Meter digital oil temp gauge with the sensor mounted in the Improved Racing oil cooler adapter reading the oil temp of the oil going to the cooler.
The first few sessions I drove the car the way I've always driven at Gingerman. I keep the car in 3rd gear until I get to the long straight between 10B and 11 where I shift to 4th. I've always felt that my lap times were good (1:46.9) driving this way. The RPM's drop to about 4,300 from what I remember in the slowest corner on the track, but the car still has good torque and gets me going just fine out of the turn. Driving the car this way I was seeing oil temps of around 288 degrees, with a few times hitting 295 with someone in front of me.
The last few sessions I tried down shifting into 2nd in the slower corners to see if I benefited at all. I felt that I got out of the corners faster, but felt that I had to slow down more to justify 2nd gear, and I also felt that my times reflected it. I was running low 1:47's keeping the car in 3rd gear, and running high 1:48's when I shifting into 2nd for the slower turns. Sure it felt quicker, and I was busier, but for me, it was slower. To each their own. When down shifting into 2nd I and pulling 2nd gear to redline I the oil temps were at 305 degrees, and I expected that with more RPM.
I'd love to get my temps down to the 250 to 270 range, and I'm going to need to do some research to figure out how to do that. I can also confirm that my factory oil temp will not read above 266 degrees. I know I had said in another thread that mine went higher, but was wrong.
One thing I noticed was in the few left handers that Gingerman has, my added oil temp gauge would read 200, 170, 130, then 0 while in the left hander, then as soon as the car was straight again the temp would go back to more realist numbers. I didn't encounter this on right handers. I'm assuming that the oil is going away from the cooler pickup in left handers, and causing the false readings.
The icing on the cake came in the last session. I was on my 5th lap and noticed the corner worker in 5 waving a black flag in one hand, and pointing at me with the other. I looked in my mirror and saw a little light colored smoke behind me. I made my way to the pits where I was greeted by a track worked telling me that fluid was dripping from under my engine. I made my way over to grid and shut the car down. At this point there was some more smoke, and it was coming out of the vent on the hood. I released the hood, grabbed my cooler full of ice and water, and opened it up. The 2nd to last spark plug wire on the passenger side was on fire. It wasn't big, maybe 3 times the size of flame that you get from a lighter. I grabbed a hand full of water and ice and quickly put out the little blaze. Further inspection revealed that the dip stick had popped out of the tube and sprayed a 1/4 of a quart of oil all over the under side of the hood, the passenger front strut tower, and the passenger exhaust manifold. I removed my top engine cover long ago because I believe it causing the coils to retain to much heat, so all the coils and wires are exposed. I always check my oil before each session, and I'm 90% sure that I got the stick back in the tube all the way. It still takes a good amount of force to get the stick out of the tube, so maybe I didn't. I was able to borrow some brake clean and spray off the oil that had leaked out, but I didn't dare touch the spark plug wire that looked like it was hanging on by a thread. I started the car expecting a misfire, but no misfire felt, no check engine light. We loaded the car up, topped off the oil, and hit the road for our 100 mile drive back to Indiana. The car ran great, and the dip stick stayed in the tube. I need to order a new wire, maybe some wire insulators this time, and I'm going to invest in a fire extinguisher to take with me. A trailer is also in the works for next season. My wife called me on my way home and asked me how it went, and I replied, " just a small fire, no big deal."
I'm going through the video and data, and hope to have something put together this weekend. I tried a new external mic that mounts to my gopro, but still got a lot of wind noise, so I'm going back to my old set up.
I'm going to be doing some instructing again at the Optima Battery Challenge at Road America. I instructed their event at Michigan International Speedway when they ran the roval earlier in the summer. Some of the guys running in the pro class had some very fast 5th gens, but I didn't get a change to see what kind of set up they are running as far as oil coolers go. I instructed a guy with a built 1LE that has 500 plus HP, and was also running an external oil cooler set up, but he was seeing temps well over the 300 degree mark. He told me what cooler he was running, but I didn't get a chance to see it, or recognize the brand.
The oil temp drama continues.
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