Keeping Your Cool

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Published on Friday, 20 January 2012 02:15

If you're like us and you love your track days then you'll probably know how important it is to keep both yourself and your car cool. If you're cool, you don't lose your concentration which not only leads to slow lap times, but can also lead to something much more serious, a crash! If your car is cool, your car will run fine. If it gets too hot that can equal disaster. I read recently about an R34 GTR. It was making good horsepower, had all the right gear to make it go fast but lacked in the cooling department. The result was oil temps of 135°C and some spun big end bearings and a nice rebuild...

An often overlooked upgrade is an oil cooler and radiator. Even if you car is standard it wasn't designed to do lap after lap after lap, unless it's a specially designed racing variant. While we had my brothers Renault Clio Sport R26 F1 (yes that's the full name) out at Wakefield it only took a couple of sessions for the gearbox light to come on so even in these track specials cooling is really important.

To keep it brief, when your oil gets hot it becomes more viscous. When it becomes too hot the oil itself starts to break down and instead of protecting it allows metal to metal contact which equals wear which equals more heat which then leads to failure. That's why it's always a good idea to change your oil before and after a track day. It will be the best $100 you ever spend, regardless of whether your oil has been super heated or not.

We've been working with Earls to start getting oil cooler kits for a wide range of vehicles. It started because I couldn't find anything decent for my VW Polo. Although PWR could make up something custom for me I didn't want to spend a fortune - as this is my every day car and the plan has always been to build a track only car - that's the one we'll spend more on! So together with Earls we'll be supplying kits not only for the Japanese makes, but Australian and European too. 

The best bit is the prices. These kits are the best on the market. Forget the cheap Chinese stuff you see on Ebay. Trust me you don't want to skimp on an oil cooler and fittings. Earls meets quality standards. Cheap Chinese stuff doesn't and you may well end up with more metal from what's inside your Chinese fittings and cooler, than if you left them off in the first place. Earls prices on these kits are usually between $700 - $1200 but we'll be doing them starting from under $500.

Keep your engine safe, get yourself an oil cooler.