cloud9 said:Great question Dean. I noticed we must have a 192 stat so my car runs between 188-200 just driving around. One of my biggest gripes with the GT500 was the overheating issue. I ran around 220 all morning. In the afternoon, it got up to 88 degrees ambient (hot for early April!) and temps started to rise. I started hitting mid-230s and eventually over 240 and drew a warning and shut it down. Well I started analyzing my driving and realized I was running way too high RPMs because of the different transmission ratios on the Boss. I typically drove this track in 4th on hte GT500, hitting 5th in the long front straight, and down to 3rd in Turn 15 heading into that straight. I had been running the Boss mostly in 3rd going to 4th in 2nd and 3rd longest straights and 5th in the longest one. That also left me just at the rev limiter in the 4th and 5th longest straights. There wasn't enough time to benefit from upshifting there.Dean#4AI said:Hey Gary, sounds like you had a great time. I can't wait till I get out on track. ;D
What kind of coolant temps did you get? The reason I ask is that my temps are much higher than I thought they would be and that's not even under track conditions.
Well, 4th gear is 1:1 in the GT500 and 3rd gear is 1.69 in the Boss, so I was running effectively two gears down from the GT500! With 5th being 1:1 in the Boss, that wouldn't work since it doesn't have the low end torque like the GT500. So, I let it run in the paddock and the temps came down to 192, but the reservoir was still almost at the top, well above the top of the cold fill line. I went back out and ran 4th (going to 5th in the long straight and 3rd in 15), and temps stayed right around 220. The reservoir was back down to the cold fill line right after exiting thre track. Best of all, I dropped my lap time by over 1 full second. ;D There's just a learning curve with a new car.
Hmmm, not liking this at all. I agree that higher RPMs will cause higher water and oil temps, but I would have thought that the Boss cooling would take care of it. Some of the appeal of the Boss engine is the increased power at higher RPMs which is where I would want to drive it at when on track. You need to be able to drive where the power is. I'm sure the Grand Am teams are not short shifting to keep coolant temps down.
It will be interesting to see if others have this problem. ???