Running hot at the track?

[M Rob]

When I was up at Thuderhil it was HOT out. Temp was aroung 105F and I noticed that the car was running hot during the longer 25+min sessions. Anyone else seeing hot temps? Frayed, NV? Any one have any tips on an oil cooler?

[badmonkey]

I was at T'hill end of June, well over 100 degrees. The needle did clock right of the "normal" mark in the afternoon sessions, after 5 or 6 laps. Given that the "normal" 12:00 mark has a wide, wide, wide temp range, I pulled into the pits after a couple of laps with the temp gauge over "normal", did a slow lap around the pit, temp came right back down to "normal". Went back out and shifted at slightly lower rpm, and backed off my pace a little. Temps were fine.

An oil cooler may help some, but when it's 100+ degrees, and you're running WOT for 25 minutes, the car is going to react. I've found the beemer to be damn near bulletproof. Wouldn't worry about it.


///badmonkey

[frayed]

I don't have gauges, but NV does. Maybe he'll chime in.

But, I've driven the car hard on 4 100+ track days (temps upwards of 120 on the track). Needle stayed at 12:00 FWIW.

My brakes, on the other hand, did not fare so well.

[///M3 2 NV]

I was at the track with Jeff and the temperature was 100+ with the track at least 120+ degrees.

My oil temperature ran @ 240 degrees. I'm running BMW 5w30 synthetic. From my understanding that temperature is fine, on the street it can hit 220 degrees here in Texas. My water temperature was pretty steady @ 12:00. I have Water Wetter added.

I had also installed the Bimmerworld Brake Cooling kit before this last weekend and my brakes did great. I have the BMW floating rotors, Porterfield R4 pads and Super Blue fluid. Jeff has the same brake setup without the cooling and had a lot more pad wear and may have boiled his fluid. He was getting a mushy brake pedal.

All in all, I would say my car was running fine at these extreme conditions.

[Kos-motate139]

I've gone to a mix of less than 20% antifreeze + watter wetter and the rest water -- cooling isn't a problem on the hottest days yet. 'Course the engine's smaller but the temp gauge does seem to be less digtal than the M3's.

Somehow I've managed to keep some life in my HPS pads with stock solid (!) rotors on the ti, 3 track days & counting. Light is good.