The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

Register Log in
  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

Cooling Modifications

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Junkyard Dog

Junkyard Dog

777
378
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Georgia
I did not see a thread for S650 and cooling modifications, so I thought maybe I would start one.

If you have made modifications to your S650 for extra cooling (engine, transmission, differential), please let the rest of us know what you did here and how effective it was.

Thank you.
 
Junkyard Dog said:
I did not see a thread for S650 and cooling modifications, so I thought maybe I would start one.

If you have made modifications to your S650 for extra cooling (engine, transmission, differential), please let the rest of us know what you did here and how effective it was.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
I’m so glad you’ve made this thread! I was just wondering about this. I have not yet modified my dark horse, but I get some serious heat issues with HPDE here in south Florida. I have been eyeing the Mishimoto radiator and coolant overflow tank, but it’s a steep cost with little data available on how much of a difference it may make. My last visit to Homestead was brutal.
I’d also be curious to hear from anyone who’s changed out the hood - I’m wondering how much of an airflow difference through the radiator we might see, and therefore what sort of temperature reductions.
 
Don't need to change out the hood, just install a good set of louvers up there. It will make a tremendous difference to cooling. Race Louvers vents made a fantastic difference in my '16, totally solved engine heat issues. You gotta get the hot air out so the incoming air can get in. Then get a cooler on the trans, especially if you've got an MT82.
 
JDee said:
Don't need to change out the hood, just install a good set of louvers up there. It will make a tremendous difference to cooling. Race Louvers vents made a fantastic difference in my '16, totally solved engine heat issues. You gotta get the hot air out so the incoming air can get in. Then get a cooler on the trans, especially if you've got an MT82.
Click to expand...
The dark horse comes with the ford performance trans cooler pre-installed, and I think it’s okay so far. It’s also got the tremec trans, which is spectacular.

I’m not sure what I would do re: hood vents; the 24s come with a vent in the hood already, though they are small. There are a few vent replacements on the market that look like they breathe better and would be a simple solution, but I guess it’s hard to decide which route to go without hard data on temperature differences.
 
w00tcamp said:
The dark horse comes with the ford performance trans cooler pre-installed, and I think it’s okay so far. It’s also got the tremec trans, which is spectacular.

I’m not sure what I would do re: hood vents; the 24s come with a vent in the hood already, though they are small. There are a few vent replacements on the market that look like they breathe better and would be a simple solution, but I guess it’s hard to decide which route to go without hard data on temperature differences.
Click to expand...
Can confirm...the mishimoto coolant overflow tank did absolutely jack nothing to my temps on the Power Tank 2016 V6 track car/weekend car. I only got it because I developed cracks in my stock overflow tank (stupid plastic bulbs...).
I would prefer a CSF or something else radiator to the Mishimoto one...but I can't deny I will be buying their transmission oil cooler as it is a direct plug and play with proven benefits. 6r80 auto trans here. Will be buying soon after this next track day, as I will also get a drain and fill on my 57k mile trans oil.
 
Get your holesaw out and open up the fan shroud as much as you can. There is some guidance in the DHR tech bulletin (you can find on here by searching). Swiss cheese that thing!
 
DHR Tech Bulletin returns nothing in the search bar. Does cutting these holes allow more air through at high speed? Conversely, for those of us who drive our Mustangs on the street, will cutting such holes affect cooling when sitting in traffic on the interstate during a nasty evening commute in 95° weather?
 
So, on my Dark Horse, the driver side front lower grill thing is open, with an oil cooler down there, in front of the tire.

On the passenger side, the grill thing is for show, blocked off (like a non-performance package GT is on both sides). I was wondering whether it is possible to use the grill area, open it, for some sort of supplemental cooling.
 
Is anybody aware of an off the shelf option for a radiator that is better at cooling than the stock Dark Horse radiator?

I know the Dark Horse R cars are all running some aftermarket dual pass radiator, but it does not appear to be a readily available option. Do any such options exist?
 
For those who do not, for whatever reason, which to install the Setrab 960 oil cooler, and do not already have an oil cooler, there is the Ford upgrade.

Install video.

 
Junkyard Dog said:
Is anybody aware of an off the shelf option for a radiator that is better at cooling than the stock Dark Horse radiator?

I know the Dark Horse R cars are all running some aftermarket dual pass radiator, but it does not appear to be a readily available option. Do any such options exist?
Click to expand...
Neither Kenny Brown nor Fluidyne make a triple pass radiator for the S650 yet. They do each make an S550, so maybe if you hit them up they will address this potential market, since there are three, almost four years of production now.
 
S650 automatic transmission, Performance Package and Dark Horse.

The parts diagram . . .

1787928559938.png

7H322 at the top is a thermostat.

7A095B, down at the bottom, is a heat exchanger with hot engine coolant warming the transmission fluid. It sits underneath the transmission, about under the torque converter. You can see it if you climb under your car. It looks like a long rectangular chunk of aluminum.

7A095A, far left side of the picture, is a cooler that bolts in front of the radiator but behind the air conditioning condenser. You can't really see it without disassembling some things.
 
Last edited:
The 7H322 part, up toward the top of the picture, is an automatic transmission cooler control valve. I believe it does basically the same thing as the Improved Racing inline oil thermostat. Here is what it looks like:

1787851914553.png

1787851934456.png
 
@Rodpwnz has an S550 but has basically cured his hot automatic transmission fluid temperature.

One thing he added was an Improved Racing thermostat leading to an aftermarket cooler in front of the car.

He wrote, "I believe I linked the main FSM page, where you can then click a button to customize and choose the inner thermostat temp. Based on the thermostat temp you choose, the part number will change, hence FSM-165 for 165F, and FSM-145 for 145F."
1787892716129.png



He also wrote:

Yes, exactly - in my video I go over most of the components, but I do not know exactly how fluid flows in the coolant heat exchanger B. I'm guessing trans fluid comes out from the transmission, flows through the heat exchanger, then re-enters the line going towards the external thermostat. The heat exchanger B essentially replaces a section of the purple cooler lines going out from the transmission. We can see the parallel purple cooler lines for the reverse flow of fluid back to the transmission along side the heat exhanger B in the diagram.

What I really have no idea about is what happens once the fluid hits that external thermostat in the NON-PP cars? Is there a U-pipe that sends the fluid back the other way through the reverse direction cooler lines?

Either way, if you want to improve your 10r80 cooling, I wouldn't mess with the exhanger B, or that side of the cooler lines. I would find out what attachment point is used on the OEM external thermostat, and then use an adapter to replace the OEM thermostat with an aftermarket one set to a slightly lower temp, and then fabricate custom cooler lines from there to a new cooler and location of your choosing.

The interesting part of the S650 trans cooler setup is that you are tied to the radiator cooling capacity and coolant temps. I believe the OEM radiator uses a 190F thermostat so even with an external 165F thermostat and big trans cooler, you are to some(unknown) degree tied to the coolant heat and thermostat on the coolant side. If you wanted to truly keep temps lower on the trans and in part remove the transmission heat load from the radiator, you would have to decouple them completely. There are others that sell AN adapter fittings for the 10r80 transmission housing so you could fab new lines straight from the transmission itself and get rid of all OEM transmission cooler lines, but now you have to figure out what to do with the radiator tubing that was going to and from that heat exchanger B.
Click to expand...
 
@flyhalf also cured his automatic transmission heat issues, but, again, he is in an S550.

Link:
trackmustangsonline.com

S550 - ITALIAN STANG BUILD :2018 MUSTANG PP1 10 SPEED Build Thread

If no one else is interested - I am. Got a kit car coming that sure would be sweet with a good 4 speedI am, I'm just looking at various options and at the moment don't have any cash to spend anyway. All my left over bucks went to an ABS braking system and a new rear brake kit. Running both...
trackmustangsonline.com trackmustangsonline.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

TheTed
Hood Venting Options for Cooling
2
Replies
27
Views
7K
TheTed
TheTed
robbgoesracing
Engine cooling questions
2
Replies
29
Views
3K
xr7
xr7
Apex Wheels
Cortex Racing
Late Model Restoration
Middleton Motorsports
Modular Motorsports Racing
Optimum Performance
SouthFloridaParts.com
Vorshlag Motorsports
Autoblip
Hooked on Driving
Mustang Geek
SCCA CAM Challenge

Latest posts

Latest lap times

All Upcoming Events

Buy TMO Apparel

Buy TMO Apparel

TMO Vendor Posts

Top