i know what your talking about with the heat. i took my car to the track about a month ago, went straight from work, wanted to get a few passes in before it got packed. i never shut it off and made my first pass and ran 14.4 and got slower from there. last week i went back to the track and let my sit for about an hour and a half and went 14.0 first pass. the engine heat seemed to play a part in my cars performance.

 

well, i prevent it at the track, if thats what your talking about. . .

first of all, i never hotlap a car, thats just asking for a bad time . . .

next, i always raise the hood when i park it. . .

and last, i usually put a bag of ice on the intake manifold and CAI if i plan to run it again in less than about 45 min.

when i do this, i usually pull the best times. . . and never notice heat soaking,

i hotlaped my first time at the track, and will never do it again

 

i will never hotlap mine again either, but when you're at a stoplight and mr. camaro or gto wants to play, there's not much you can do then.

 

just granny your car around till that happens, it'll wake up

 

Waterwetter works great, but it is only useful if you have a lower temp thermostat. Even if you have an oversized radiator, have your fans on, and you're running water wetter, if the thermostat is doing it's job your temp should not drop below the thermostat's temp.

Low-temp thermostat + water wetter is a good mod. If you live in a warmer climate where the freeze risk is lower, then run less antifreeze and more water in your coolant. Water is a much better coolant than antifreeze is. Straight water has 50% more cooling capability than a 50-50 mix does.

Cold air isn't much of an issue on these cars, except when you are stitting still (stopped in traffic). Once you get moving forward, outside air rushes into the engine compartment and the temps drop very quickly. I have monitored this with a thermocouple thermometer while doing some test runs. I don't think fancy "cold air ducts" do anything, except in the case of 5 MPH and below.

 

At the track, when waiting in line, idling, i run the heater full blast with window open. I figure pulling out every bit of heat helps [8D]

 

Wrapping your headers is good for removing engine compartment heat. The rule of thumb that Ive heard from racers was for every 4* you can cool the engine compartment youll gain 1HP.
And "heat soak" happens to EVERY engine. Its basic chemistry, when the particles that make up your engine block are cold theyre closer together, therefore your engine tolerances are tighter. When the engine gets hot the particles expand making the tolerances looser.
I think the best thing you can do for engine compartment heat is a cowl hood. As youre driving itll suck the heat out.
One thing Ive noticed is that my car seems to run a hell of a lot stronger when its damp outside. Go figure.
-P.

 

Once the car get's up to operating temp.. it's already too late so I don't think that will make a difference.

So who makes this Cooler Thermostat?

 

Actually I think you have that backwards. Hot parts expand and thus cause tighter tolerances while cold parts contract and have larger tolerances that is one reason some motors, like the 5.4 is notorious for piston slap when cold and once the motor gets to operating temperature the piston slap goes away…

 

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