So with the recent 40+ weather us in the south east of Australia has experienced over the last 4 days. I've noticed how my Z is up in the mid 90's as an average and has reached as high as 99 deg! (Stationary with aircon on). When I get a free run It slowly drops to around 87 deg (aircon off). This is my first summer with the ECUTalk showing me actual stats of what's going on....no wonder manufacturers fit in an almost functionless temp guage! They would freak out if they saw what's going on!!! So what does your Z do on a hot day? Not sure if TT's and NA's are different but that was my NA I was talking about. Plus so I know and others....how hot is too hot? When should I be worried?
My NA sits at around 83°c on a normal day and around 85-90°c on a hot day depending if im in traffic or not hottest ive had it doing burn outs on the spot around 97°c and I freaked out..... im sure thats not hot but just never had it that hot and I didnt want to risk breaking it
During normal temp days ie high 20s, the car usually sits at the mid to high 70s with normal driving. A few weeks ago when the temps were around 35 here i did some spirited driving. Temps averaged around 79 degs during normal driving and 84 and 86 after each WOT run. Max I hit was an 88 and that was once towards the end of the drive. When I got home I parked the car out in the sun while I washed Lisa's car. When done, I started the zed back up and the temp was 91 but very quickly went down to 85 after the car sat for 5 to 10 seconds. Only noticed because the ecu talk alarm beeped as I have it set to go off at 90. A day before the above run I picked my car up after it had the cooling system including the radiator flushed out and new water and coolant put in. Car is a 1993 NA Automatic.
Very interesting Erik! Same car basically but totally different temps! I'm running around easy as on a 35 deg day and ill be say around 88 and it'll rise if slowly going about city traffic.
Yeah, on that 35 deg day when stuck at the lights for a while the temps would climb to temps I saw after a WOT run.
Well if its sitting at 83C when the air temp is normally at 20 C Then on a 40-45 C day its going to run at least 10-15 degrees c hotter. The thermostat will open right up and increase water flow to minimize temp But its all as expected. 100C is not the end of the earth.
Agree with Tekky. On a 40 degree day in traffic I've seen 105. But that's when I get paranoid and either find some cool air or switch off. This past week running temps have been up to 95 instead of the 82 during winter.
remembering that the system should be under pressure, this increases the boiling point so 100c isnt the boiling point of the water in the cooling system. mine sits around 80 year in year out (i mean for the month its been back on the road) but i was just thinking today how much my Z is loving this hot weather. it starts better and is just running great without needing to completely warm up, with great response. as carbon lifeforms, we think of 40c as a hot temperature because we are made of sensative weak skin and muscle, but for a car that was forged from furnaces of thousands of degrees and used to running at temperatures of 80+ its not the hardest thing in the world for the car to handle an extra 10c over normal operating conditions. might be time to flush the cooling system and rethink your choice of coolant if you think its getting too high and make sure you don't have a leak somewhere causing loss of pressure in the system.
This is all making me feel better The fact I can see what's going on is almost a bad thing because its making me paranoid! I feel bad driving around in these temps But Wayno you definitely nailed it in the "what we think is hot" vs "what an engine thinks is hot". I'm sitting there baking thinking my engines about to pop too!!! The car is running real nice at the moment too in the hotter climate. In winter I usually have to wait till around 83 deg (my usual running temp) to feel like its running smooth and it's ready for action.
Remember the average zed owner doesn't know they're running warner until they're above 105. I find think hitting 90s on Ecutalk is a big deal under certain conditions. People talking about running mid 70s have either a dicky sensor or a socket thermostat
84 on a normal day. recently 90s and each time I travel mt dandenong and its over 25 degrees I will hit around 103. cam keep an eye on your auto temperature also, that would be running hot on days like these if ur using the stock cooler last saturday I heard the thermal fan for the first time (doing its job :zlove when I was doing a run up to warburton - on the high RPM.
Most of the time the car is driven casually it hangs around the 77 mark while hitting over 80 every now and then. As soon as the driving changes to a harder one, it gets to mid to high 80s. Thermostat is OEM, was only replaced less than 20k ago (4 years ago), hope it hasnt stuffed up since then. Brand new fan clutch. Flushed system. New coolant. Sensor should be fine. Car was looked over a few weeks ago.
Aftermarket thermostat? At 77* a stock one would be al but closed. Or maybe some discrepancy between where the sensor is located and the thermostat.
Whichever one came in the Caz 100k service kit back in the day. Pretty sure it was a Nissan one. Ill have Karl check it when it's in next. Edit: these are the only pics of my 100k service. None have the thermostat in them but I'm pretty sure it is a nissan one. http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285336&highlight=Complete
aftermarket thermostat here. sits @ 78 pretty much all the time. 44 deg heatwave in vic, i saw 84 the other day.
Not sure how hot i get due to stock temp guage, but i wouldnt panic about getting to 100?. Your coolant wont boil until about 125?, depending on the radiator cap and coolant you use. Pressurised system and all that technical stuff.
Yeah due to my SAW kit I have an aftermarket oil cooler up front. I'm running in Auto mode to save on heat. I have modified the shifter/temp guage that come with the kit and mounted it up in my stock gauge cluster, just below and in between the RPM'S and Speedo. Looks kinda OEM apart from the colour of the digits which are blue lol But back on topic, that gauge starts to flash a H symbol when it reaches 100 deg I believe. The guage doesn't show the actual temp which is stupid..,but I know it's reaching those temps in 40 deg days in auto mode and no sprited driving. I'm going to fit up a temporary temp guage that shows me actual figures to monitor what it's actually fluctuating around. Then ill consult my Auto guy. Thing is though, I'm not too stressed as the Auto seems very happy. Shifts as usual and doesn't do any funny business. Just like the ECUTalk showing me the engine Temp and making me stress, I have a little H symbol flashing at me but who here with an Auto monitors their Trans temps?? Or runs a separate cooler? I bet they hit 100 deg temps in blistering day! And don't even know!
This makes for interesting reading, especially since most who have posted are using some kind of guage other than stock idiot thing that reads something or better. Id be interested to know what cooling system changes have been made to the various cars along with the temp findings. Be interesting to see if any of this funky aftermarket stuff was actually being of any benefit. FWIW, my guage sits at 79Deg mostly, hits about 82/84 after a hard slog and 86 in slowtraffic with AC on on a hot day. Highest i ever saw it was a bit over 90deg on a 40deg day idling for in excess of 40 minutes with AC on flat stick. Oil temp touched a bit over 125DegC tho and took quite some time to drop after. Bone stock cooling system. (Ebay repro ally core/plastic tank 2 core radiator) E
Mechanical Specs 1993 (Don't think anything cooling system or engine wise changed from the earlier models) OEM Automatic OEM NA Engine OEM NA Radiator OEM tune OEM exhaust Aftermarket Abflug Type 4 front bar (has a much bigger mouth than the stock bar so less restricted than OEM) GFB Light weight pulleys Servicing 100k Service done 18k kms ago, currently on 75k kms (includes new Nissan water pump and thermostat) Plenum pull and unnecessary water hoses pulled and necessary ones replaced 18k kms ago Brand new NA fan clutch Usually sits around the 77 deg mark during normal driving
My ECUtalk Temp data... So on ECUtalk, on normal driving with normal weather my car sits on 83 degree's. With the aircon on, it will be somewhere between 83-86 depending on driving conditions. On a warm day (30 degree +), without aircon, and car in motion, temp will be about 84 degree's. With aircon on, and in motion, about the same. If stuck in traffic on these hot days, with the aircon on, I've seen it reach 96 degree's. As for 40+ degree heat, I dont know, as I wont drive the Zed when its that hot. Thats what the daily is for. I do have an aftermarket radiator, a koyo 56mm single pass. I have also modified the ECU program so the aux fan comes on earlier and under different conditions compared to a stock ECU. Cheers
