Shopping list...

Well after Llandow I found that my weak bits on the car are cooling and tyres...

Tyres I can't do anything about now as they function and held up well and still got life left, but cooling, well I can do something about that.

I have on order as part of a group buy one of these in black:



Which will go here between the bumper and slam panel to stop air escaping up and under the bonnet and force it a bit more through the radiator:




Also looking at wrapping the manifold as sooo much heat off this I really can't imagine it's doing the cooling or oil (under the sump) any favours.



Check out this link (CLICKY) and see whether you think it's good enough stuff to use!


Also planning on doing something with the numberplate, although not sure what yet (relocation/stick on etc), and removing the air con as it doesn't work anyway and the air con rad is in the way of the radiator that needs to do it's job properly!


Also looking at getting the sandwich plate and oil gauges (temp and pressure). I know it's not the expensive stuff but just want it to give me an idea of what's going on so hope it will do the job...what do you think:

SANDWICH PLATE

OIL TEMP AND PRESSURE GAUGES


Any opinions would be good!

Heat wrap = itchy skin lol but it would help.

Itchy skin?

^^ Made of fibreglass so is a nightmare to work with!! but I will be taking my manifold and downpipe off the car to wrap them so should be not as itchy!!

Famous last words lol

Itch, itch, itch

Plans sound good, though as said before i noticed the biggest cooling gain was from the oil cooler.

Adam86 wrote:

Famous last words lol

Itch, itch, itch

itch itch itch

I did think about an oil cooler, but not sure yet what the oil is doing until I get the gauges and get them fitted.

Want to get the rad cooling first, and wrap the manifold to stop the oil cooking, and then will see wha'ts going on when using the gauges...and then in the future if needed will change to an oil cooler setup and move the sensors for gauges into the cooling line somwhere!

^^ Dunno why you're laughing...you're going to be over mine helping when I do it!!

Heat wrap will help a lot, hanging the manifold onto the front of the engine has never been a good idea!

What about fans? If it's anything like any other honda fan then it's next to useless! I can pick up Pacet style ones for cheap if you need.

A/C removal will help cooling, but more importantly about 15kg weight

Is it known for prelude's to have cooling issues on track? Was the temp gauges reading normal in the car?

One thing the guy didnt mention in the briefing was cool down laps. As you can imagine if your spanking your car round a track then coming in and turning the engine off suddenly the water is very very hot around the engine as it not being pumped through the rad.

Cool down laps just help bring things down to a normal operating temp. More important for brakes really but essential on turbo charged cars to stop the hot turbo burning the oil.

Good point but the two fans I have on there now seem to shift a fair amount of air so think they're ok (but nothing to compare them against), but that made me remember I'm also going to wire up a fan switch so I can leave them on! The rad I have on there now is new (well 6 months old)...probably should have gone for a double core at the time but didn't think I'd need it!!

Yeah my air con rad is almost the size of the coolant rad so can't imagine that's helping, although probably not affecting it as much as I make myself believe!

Temp was ok, done in bars (digital dash) rather than numbers, and ran at normal temp for about 12 mins then went up another bar so not dangerously high but thought it would cope better than that!

I learnt about warm down laps, forgot on one occasion when I came in and wondered why coolant started leaking out, so future note to self...always cool down before coming in!

Boiling coolant - from memory this is what yours was doing sam?

I'd drill holes in the bumper behind the standard number plate plinth, it can be removed for track but doesnt look wank on the road?

Boiling coolant is nothing... boil oil is the way forward... just ask the disco

hey sam, did you get my email about the gauges we supply in work,

Only really leaked from the expansion tank...which is what's it's there for on occasions like this. Just got me thinking about the temps though, and hoping the above will keep them down a little longer so I can play for longer on track!

Norledge wrote:

Boiling coolant is nothing... boil oil is the way forward... just ask the disco

Well it gives you something to do at the weekend lol

Nutter!!

Norledge wrote:

I'd drill holes in the bumper behind the standard number plate plinth, it can be removed for track but doesnt look wank on the road?

Funnily enough I did think this, took the numberplate off later in the day at Llandow to help with more air, and thought to myself...do I drill some holes in the bumper. Behind the plate holder would be ideal to keep concealed on the road or could just do some more on the front to help with cooling anyway as plan to keep the car forever anyway?!

james_gti6 wrote:

hey sam, did you get my email about the gauges we supply in work,

I did mate and meant to message you back about prices. Only after oil temp and pressure and has to be electrical as don't want oil lines running in the car. If you can get a price as not 100% on the ebay ones as not sure how good a quality they'll be?!

nellers2001 wrote:

Only really leaked from the expansion tank...which is what's it's there for on occasions like this. Just got me thinking about the temps though, and hoping the above will keep them down a little longer so I can play for longer on track!

Cant remember your setup but you could also try a high pressure rad/expansion bottle cap if you have that option.

yeh no probs, il check tomorrow, the ones we supply are quite good, come with the sender to screw into to the block and adaptors for different threads

I've got a 1.1 bar on there now, some people use 0.9 bar and others 1.1 on the Preludes. Not sure I want to make that any higher though as would rather coolant boiling out the expansion tank than blowing the waterpump seals or the HG!?

Yeh your better off sticking with what you have lol

james_gti6 wrote:

yeh no probs, il check tomorrow, the ones we supply are quite good, come with the sender to screw into to the block and adaptors for different threads

Brill cheers! Did think about a pipe off the sandwich plate for the oil pressure sender so I could mount it elsewhere as apparently some people have had them snap when screwed directly into the sandwich plate due to vibrations?!

http://www.durite.co.uk/pdf/5/05.6%20equipment%20and%20accessories%20-%20gauges,%20automotive%20and%20marine.pdf

try this, you may have seen it