LT1 Firebird Firehawk Hood "Inserts", Anyone ever done this? Options

[Jon A]

I am returning to the theory that the temperature sender is too close to the exhaust...

I don't know, for the exhaust to heat up the sensor enough for it to give false readings it would have to be damn near touching it. From this picture: http://community.webshots.com/s/image9/9/3...09mLtiIC_ph.jpg I don't see any exhaust anywhere near the sensor. The sensor is in the pan, submerged in oil. If the exhaust is heating it up, I'd say it's heating up the oil in the pan and the sensor's reading is accurate.

I'm sticking with the theory that you need to dump that RV Tranny Cooler thing and put in a stacked plate oil cooler, one designed to cool the engine oil on racecars, one that's many times more efficient. This is a theory that can be tested. You're measuring the oil at its hottest point. It looks like your guage is electric, if you install a sender to give you after cooler temps with a switch you can see exactly how much or how little the cooler is doing.

[94bird]

Keith, I'm with Jon. I'd put some thermal barrier on the wiring since you don't have steel braided sheathing on the wiring, but that would only be to protect it from melting. The picture doesn't show it but I'm guessing the wiring gets pretty close to some primary pipes as it goes up and towards your firewall.

Anyway, I don't think you exhaust is heating up the sender. Jon's suggestion is good to see how much temperature drop you're getting through the cooler.

I'm finishing up my front breather work today (wahoo!) and should be testing tomorrow. If it drops my temps I'll take some pictures and send them to you. It's a lot of time consuming detail work but it's not hard to do at all and seeing the radiator/oil cooler right through the fascia tells me I'll be getting a LOT more air.

[KeithO]

Well, I buried the oil temp in all three sessions today. I suppose I should look into a better cooler...

Mike - Beaver Run was wet yesterday. In the practice session, the line dried out. In qualifying, it was very wet. In the race, it started wet and began to dry by the end of the race. Today, it was warm and clear all 3 sessions.

We had 37 (!) cars in our run group. That's alot of cars. In the Big Bore group for the weekend, there was only one accident - a single car ooops today from a newly licensed CMC driver. He apparently dropped 2 wheels off, over-corrected, shot across the track and slammed head-on into the armco... I didn't see it, but I was lapping when I came around and saw the car. The driver was shaken, but OK, but the car was destroyed. With all of that tight racing, everyone was very careful. I've never run like I did this weekend and I find it absolutely amazing that we get through these races without incident.

Here's a good one - during the warmup lap for the Hona Challenge race, the polesitter crashed into the armco while scrubbing his tires. The car is pretty messed up. I'm sorry - that's funny to me.

[94bird]

So, all this race talk and no comments about how you did? Are you writing a long post about the race weekend and just want to make sure you catch everything before you post it? (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

[KeithO]

So, all this race talk and no comments about how you did? Are you writing a long post about the race weekend and just want to make sure you catch everything before you post it?  (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

I have been keeping a written diary of my events for my own purposes. I can post writeups if you guys are interested. I am just hesitant to do this because some people are so beyond my experience that they may find it to be drivel... Do you want to see an account of this weekend? I haven't written this weekend's entry, but leave for a business trip to Canada today and may write some things during my travel time.

In brief, I finished ahead of the other rookie points contender both days. He and I paddocked together and we have agreed to set our goals by gauging each other - and we look for each other on the track to run together. On Saturday, it was due to better driving. On Sunday, he was significantly quicker than me (I shouldn't have advised him on his approach!) but had a clutch problem on the 8th lap and pulled off the track. My personal goal was to simply run a 1:09, but I could only get 1:10's faily consistently (In the race, Griswold ran 1:01's!!!).

They weighed me and my car yesterday - 3553!!!! at a whopping 287 rwhp. The other rookie has 330rwhp and is near the limit on weight within the rules - he runs 110 octane gas! Actually, I am pretty happy with my lap times considering how porky my setup is. The other rookie and the VVC driver that I hang out with are buying me "oink oink" stickers for my car. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Jon A]

Tuesday my oil temps topped 300 once but usually stayed in the 285-295 range. That's with the sender in the location above the filter which should give cooler temps than where you have yours.

That's without an oil cooler, water temps stayed at about 190-195. It was a hot day--I think probably the hottest day I've ever ran PR--temp was about 80 and the sun beat down all day heating the track surface up to 115 or so.

One other note, this was the first time I was seeing decent oil pressure at those temps (around 60 psi instead of 45) at WOT. I gave Mobil 1 15W-50 a try. I don't know if that did me any good other than making me feel better, but it sure did make me feel better.... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)