Can we get rid of the thermostat??

The purpose of a thermostat is not to cool the engine. It's purpose is to allow coolant to bypass the radiator to allow the engine to warm to operating temp.

Putting in a "cooler" thermostat wont do anything for you. The engine will eventually reach the same temps. Especially within the time it takes to make one pass and definitely while sitting & running for 20 minutes.

I agree w/ Mychailo when he recommends the 2nd fan and / or oil cooler.

[michael]

What is your water/coolant ratio?

[benebob]

Originally Posted by michael

What is your water/coolant ratio?

70-30 or maybe 75-25.

[UberRoo]

Unless I'm missing something, it sounds like your cooling system is simply in need of a tune-up. It should have no problem keeping the temperature down. Test the thermostat. (Even new ones can be bad right out of the box.) If the thermostat tests out fine, it's possible that the water pump has failed mechanically. (It does happen.) If the pump and thermostat are working, the only other problem must be with your engine or radiator. Oxidation can reduce the ability of the engine and/or radiator to transfer heat. Most cooling systems are designed with a rather small safety margin. If the heat transfer is only slightly reduced, problems will immediately manifest. I don't know of anything that "repairs" oxidation. Fortunately, engines usually don't suffer badly from oxidation, but radiators often do. The radiator may need to be replaced, and - as reluctant as you may be to do so - replacing it is usually the final solution when all others have failed. If you replace it with something from another model of vehicle, make sure the horsepower rating of the donor vehicle is equal or greater. Displacement is also a good indicator, but not a safe bet.

As for cooling your engine at the track, you can lug around a couple of box fans to place in front of the car. Wetting down the radiator would definitely be the most effective solution - if you were permitted. Perhaps you can mist the air passing through the box fans, or maybe drape a wet blanket over the engine?

What is the ambient air temperature at the track?

[benebob]

Cooling system is in fine shape. W. P. good and nice last it was out 60 miles ago, thermostate functioning as it should.

Car simply has issues with 2-3 dtrivers sometimes in the same heat (as that is what is prefered in some regions) with only short breaks between. The cooling set up is definately less than ideal for such racing. Of course temps have been above 80 most of the time that it has given us issues.

[michael]

Could you wire the fan to stay on while you are cooling off?

[SVXRide]

I was thinking along the same lines as Michael -- why not wire the fan into a switch so you can manually turn it on and off? Have you checked your overflow tank at the end of runs to see if it's filling up/overflowing?
-Bill

[mbtoloczko]

Have you by chanced checked the color of the motor after a few of these high heat runs? There was a post by SmallCar a year or so ago saying that one of his Vanagon-SVX customers told him the the motor oil temps in the SVX run very high. If that's true, then I imagine the oil temps on your car are probably getting well beyond acceptable levels.

[UberRoo]

A factory cooling system should be adequate to allow you to do stop-and-go's all day long. The trip back from the end of the strip should be more than adequate to get the engine down to normal operating temperature. The only exception to this would be if something isn't functioning at 100% or you're pushing more than the factory horsepower.

[Stevebsy]

The second fan will do wonders for you.

On my XT, the mechanical fan is not enough to keep it cool with the AC running while sitting still, but with the electrical fan on, all is well..

Sacrifice the 5 lbs. for a fan and be cool again.

[ssnsltd]

It will cool better without any antifreeze. Water alone is a much better cooling agent. You can add lubricant to the water if you are worried about corosion.

[Hocrest]

It got somewhat of a test over the past two days...

So far all we changed is increasing the water to AF ratio and adding some of that watter wetter.

It was staying nice and cool, even during the heat I was running with only 6 other cars, I was getting almost no cool down between runs and it still didn't touch the half way mark

[thundering02]

One more thought flush the system and put in the newer DEX-cool as its rated for -50 and the regular green is -34 degrees... And yes this makes a difference approx 30-40 degrees in a newer sunfire during general street use.