anyone running a Mugen thermo switch in their car?

after a 95 degree+ day of road racing i noitced that the cooling fans didnt come on for a loooong time even when the needle was pretty damn close to the red......i thought the fans werent working but they just werent coming on

does anyone have the mugen thermo switch? how fast/long do the fans come on for? how does it compare to the spoon thermo switch? i would imagine there pretty much the same?

 

To be truthful....it's pretty damn rare when the temp reaches that level...are you sure that your cooling system is up to par? Flush it, levels, mixture? All that the switch does it turn on the fans, and when you're at speed you shouldn't have a problem.
Austin

 

i have a new rad that i just put in about a month ago because the original was leaking. so i put a new rad and i used Honda type 2 engine coolant and i added about a liter of water to the pre-mix as well to help with the cooling.............i checked it over and over again and the level was always up to the top so i thought it was fine.

the temp guage was fine while racing around the track but once i got off the track and let it idle to cool off a little, that's when the temp guage shot up to the red. some coolant was bubbling over to the coolant resivoir and the fans were OFF.........that's what was pissing me off......then i ran into the car and blasted the heater on, then the guage slowly came down to normal........the fans finally came on after a couple miniutes of cooling off.......

kinda weird how that happend........

is the stock cooling system enough for my engine? i have a built N/A B20 BTW

 

Wow, try getting a Mugen thermostat and radiator cap. Should be enough. After a hard race park your car and raise the hood open.

 

would a diffrent rad cap help with the cooling much? how will it help?

i dont think the thermostat will do much since it's job is to open when it's hot.......once it's hot it will not close until it'c cold.......so having one that opens sooner isnt really gonna do much is it?

 

It will help

 

That happened to my other car aswell... It was the thermostat that went bad. It couldn't tell the temp. of the engine so it didn't switch on the fan, therefore over heating.... have it checked out before buying all kinds of stuff.

 

can someone tell me how a rad cap can help with cooling?

i'm gonna assume it simply resists more pressure from the collant boiling over? so it keeps the coolant in the rad instead of boiling and causeing air pockets?

am i right?

 

A rad cap helps w/ cooling by raising the pressure, which in turn raises the boiling point of the liquid

 

Makes ya wonder. Supposedly a higher pressure cap raises the boiling point. I guess that has value, but I've tracked my car in 90+ degrees w/a stock cap and thermostat, and it's fine IMO. As for the low temp thermostat, I think that's a waste. Here's why. When I'm tracking my car, the temps go up enough that both thermostats would be open. So what if one opened earlier. Bumping the rev limiter will help bring those temps up...and if both do indeed open full, well, it's all the same then. $0.02.

 

if you've got overheating problems I'd look into making sure that your stock thermo is good (use the boiling water in a bowl test to see when it opens). purchasing the mugen one, or any unit that opens sooner means that it will have a better chance of keeping the temps down sooner.

the mugen radiator cap, or any of those rice radiator caps are pretty much not worth it. they are cheap for the companies to make, and produce tons of profits. case closed.

you'd be MUCH better off going with something like Redline's Water Wetter additive (which suposedly is just soap?).

Getting a good radiator, such as the Fluidyne, is also a good start. I wouldn't pop the hood while actually running the car (causes the radiator to vibrate and crack, and ruins the air cooling flow designed for the car). Using some washers to prop the back of the hood up while closed you could do though.

edit\\\ btw, a stock car is HOTTEST at idle. if you want the car to cool down then turn it fully off. the fans will still cycle on as needed.


[Modified by Tweakmeister, 4:37 AM 7/2/2002]

 

Part of your problem is that the Mugen fan switch was designed to work with their thermostat, which is set 10 degrees Celsius lower than the OEM thermostat...