I currently have a 170 degree thermostat in my car. The temperature on my car stays at around 180 throughout the race normally with no issues. Well Saturday I won the heat and feature but during the feature with two laps to go the temperature spiked to 230 and then immediately dropped back down. It did this a couple of times with two laps to go. My question is this a thermostat issue? What thermostat do you guys that run Honda Challenge utilize? I am going by honda this afternoon to pick up a new 78 degree celsius thermostat to rule this out. Could there be any other issues?
Thanks,
Josh

 

sounds like your low on water, have a bubble of air in the head,, or a faulty thermostat

 

Going high and coming back down is not good at all. If you were overheating the water, it would stay high. The fact that it comes back down suggests there is air in the system. When changing the thermostat, take your time and bleed the system as best you can. Check for any water leaks too, cause that is my guess.

 

I installed the thermostat last night, I was very careful when I bled the system making sure that no air came out of bleeder screw. Tonight I am going to pump up the system and see if I can find a leak. I don't want to think its a head gasket because I run it very hard and there has been no spark plug signs of a head gasket about to go. Tonight if I get a chance I will upload the video of last weeks race and you can see the guages and it shows the spike very clearly and then it drops back down.

 

Buy a spill proof funnel for bleeding cooling systems, it has an adapter to mount onto the neck of the radiator. You fill it with coolant, allow the car to sit and run until the thermostat opens. Its what I use at work and have never had an issue with leaving air in a cooling system.

 

x2

I just bought one of these recently, works great!

http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=244

 

Good news: I pumped up the cooling system and found the leak. It was leaking out of a the hose clamp which attaches the hose to the thermostat housing. The leaking wouldn't begin until pressurized because it would sit and idle all day and never leak but at WOT for a few laps the problem would surface. So I am happy and looking forward to this weekend. Sorry I didn't have a chance to post videos was busy and I didn't bring camera to work.