30 replies to this topic

[Steve Scheifler]

Yea, I'd forgotten that you had established the trim was a no-no because it was said to have been added to rather than part of the screen. So that would need to be removed. I'm 50/50 on the punched metal material, I might be able to argue that successfully given the lack of definition in the rules. But I believe that given the new tape rules, the screen definition should have been simplified so these and your custom screens are acceptable. In which case this discussion need not be pointless.

[Bench Racer]

Jim, has Steve ever viewed your flapper radiator?

[Jim Drago]

Not sure on flapper radiator.. We finally conformed and just started running thermostats. They broke us. I have to admit, it has been way easier

and Steve.. at some point, it is just not worth the hassle. Order the wire mesh in stainless and call it a day. You don't want that type of grille screen in a 1.6 anyway as it is the worse option for cooling.

Jim

[Steve Scheifler]

What fun would that be??

Without a thermostat the 1.6 will still over-cool on a cool or cold day, and it seemed sufficient even on hot days. But, it will have to go for now.

Now that tape can be applied to the screen you can remove the thermostat again, or have you decided just to trust that they will work and do a better job of keeping temps in the sweet spot?

[Jim Drago]

while not the popular opinion.. The Buras 1.6 car performed best at 165 deegress if we could keep it there and far richer than most would believe.

[Steve Scheifler]

Hmmm... dyno or observed on track?
One possibility is that reduced heating of air as it passed through the cooler radiator and across the plastic intake plumbing meant cooler intake air, and that certainly would improve power. From where were you pulling water temp?

[Jim Drago]

track, not dyno. We could get better numbers leaning it out and running warmer on dyno, but best performance on track was as listed above. We welded a bung in T stat housing
Jim

[Steve Scheifler]

Interesting, thanks! So from that I speculate that it was largely due to lower intake air temps more than water/engine temps as such. Since most intake air came through the radiator, dropping it's temp by 25 degrees or more brobably translated to nearly that for IAT. And that cooler denser air needs more fuel. With the turn indicator delete and wrapped intake tube the benefits of a cooler water temp may be diminished. In general, (very general) I believe that all else being equal a warmer block produces better efficiency due to less heat (energy) loss through heat transfer. But almost no real life situation follows the simplest theoretical model.

[Jim Drago]

Interesting, thanks! So from that I speculate that it was largely due to lower intake air temps more than water/engine temps as such. Since most intake air came through the radiator, dropping it's temp by 25 degrees or more brobably translated to nearly that for IAT. And that cooler denser air needs more fuel. With the turn indicator delete and wrapped intake tube the benefits of a cooler water temp may be diminished. In general, (very general) I believe that all else being equal a warmer block produces better efficiency due to less heat (energy) loss through heat transfer. But almost no real life situation follows the simplest theoretical model.

I would tend to agree.. Just reporting what we did/found in 2012

[surlynkid]

Mesh is very clearly defined by size of the wire and the void space in any good engineering handbook. Use pure engineering definitions instead of 0.125" which doesn't really define much. This numbers sits between 6 and 7 mesh. Those are technical engineering design dimensions. 6 is a little bigger than 0.125" and 7 is a little smaller. The rules could simply state 6 mesh and all the folks trying to bob and weave around wordsmithing the rules would have nowhere to go. 6 mesh wire screen can be ordered from McMaster Carr all day long.

[Bench Racer]

Right away yer taking all the Bob and Weaver's good intent  out of this discussion.