I recently had to hard wire my cooling fan because i got irritated on why it wouldnt work. So now i turn the fan on when it starts to get hot. I have noticed that it is slower at the race track by a tenth or so in the 1/4 mile. Could this be becasue the car isnt hot enough??? I let the car get to 160 or so and it has a 180 thermastat. How hot do these engines need to be for there max. potential efficiency???????

 

Hmm, 160 is too cold, but the fan alone wouldn't keep it that low, a 180 tstat should be fine. Generally 170-190 should be good for performance. Let me ask you this, are you running your fan while going down the track? If so, and the car wasn't running it before while going down the track, my money is on increased draw from the electrical system, more stuff you run the more work your alternator has to do, which is of course driven off the crank, and thus saps power, if you've been running with it on, try turning it off, when you actually make your pass.

 

I always turn the fan off after im in the burnout box...so i race with it off. I usually turn the switch on at 160 and it stays there or lower. Is that too cold for performance.. should i wait to turn the fan on till its closer to 180-90. Now that i think of it my thermostat probly isent even opening since im keeping it so cold. I have accidently ran the car with the fan on and it did move the et's a good 5 hundredths...

 

As I said, 160 is too cold to run well, 170-190 is a good range.

 

ok thanks for the tip

 

Np, I did a bit of research back when I replaced my tstat, and found a lot of people saying that the 160 runs it too cold, causing worse mileage and power, I have a 170 tstat myself if memory serves, but also at 160 the heater will suck, so I went to 170 for that, and performance, I honestly don't know how 170 performs though since Idk of anyone else running that temp tstat.

 

ok i went to the track and even though it was really humid. I made the last pass at 16.79 @ 79.8 mph.. thats more what i want.....If it wasnt so humid a 16.70 or so would of been possible.. THANKS for the tip on how hot the car should be i let it get to 180 then the thermostat did the work i didnt even cool it down with the fan since it was droping to from 180 to 170 or so on its own. Last time I was there keeping the motor at 150-160 it was running 16.85-16.90 which is too slow for that car as it is.