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Car Forum / Mazda / Mazda Miata / July 2005normal miata coolant operating temperature?
Can someone tell me what is the normal safe coolant temperature range for the miata? Thanks! Pat > Can someone tell me what is the normal safe coolant temperature range > for the miata? Approx. 185F to 206F. --- Lanny Chambers '94C, St. Louis http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html >>Can someone tell me what is the normal safe coolant temperature range >>for the miata? [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > '94C, St. Louis > http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html Cool, I finally hooked up the Tec3 computer again and it does show the coolant temperature, along with just about anything else you can imagine that the engine is doing. When my gauge is reading 3/4 of the way to hot, (halfway between the middle point and the upper end), which had me worried, the temp is showing at 199F on the computer. BTW, the temp reading when the gauge was at the halfway point was only 7 degrees F cooler, (193F), than when it reaches the 3/4 point. I guess I have been worrying about nothing, the car is running fine. Thanks! Pat >>> Can someone tell me what is the normal safe coolant temperature range >>> for the miata? [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > > Pat Err, make that 6 degrees F cooler. pat Pat, The "best" temp is 212.5 F for the "best" power. ( same for oil temp, if you can keep it there !) When I was racing stockcars, we ran the water coils thru the oil pan and then a "controled" cooler on the oil to get it to stay at that temp. NOW, as far a "street car", 190 to 200 is about as good as you can hope to hold. IF you "boost" the engine, then all of those temps are too high. ( you will produce too much heat for the combustion chamber just from that.) One of the reasons for your pressure cap on the rad. is so you can get the heat without boil-off. Bruce RED '91 > When I was racing stockcars, we ran > the water coils thru the oil pan and then a "controled" cooler on the > oil to get it to stay at that temp. Many Miata owners don't know that their cars have something similar from the factory. Coolant circulates through a heat exchanger in the oil filter mounting boss. Since the water heats more quickly than the oil in a cold engine, it helps bring the oil up to temperature sooner. And it also stabilizes the oil temp in a hot engine. But calling it an "oil cooler" isn't strictly accurate. The object isn't to keep everything as cool as possible; every engine is designed to operate in a specific temperature range, as Bruce says, and for longevity the goal is to get there quickly and stay there. --- Lanny Chambers '94C, St. Louis http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html > Many Miata owners don't know that their cars have something similar from > the factory. Coolant circulates through a heat exchanger in the oil [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > '94C, St. Louis > http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html So does this mean that my car should actually be running more efficiently at the current higher temperatures than when it was colder outside and was not getting above 93 degrees F? Or would this be offset by the increased air intake temperatures during the hotter weather? The car does have a large intercooler, FWIW. Pat > So does this mean that my car should actually be running more > efficiently at the current higher temperatures than when it was colder > outside and was not getting above 93 degrees F? Don't confuse coolant temps with intake temps. Cool intake air is always good, but engine internals are designed to run within a specific range, so metal-to-metal clearances will be optimal. Cooling systems are engineered to maintain the correct coolant temp across any ambient temperatures the car will see. --- Lanny Chambers '94C, St. Louis http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html > Don't confuse coolant temps with intake temps. Cool intake air is always > good, but engine internals are designed to run within a specific range, [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > '94C, St. Louis > http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html Ok, that makes sense to me. Thanks again for your explanation. I took the car out yesterday and ran it hard, then came back and checked everything and it was all ok. I guess I will either have to live with the gauge reaching the 3/4 mark as the normal operating temperature or else have it recalibrated. Pat > Pat, The "best" temp is 212.5 F for the "best" power. ( same for oil > temp, if you can keep it there !) When I was racing stockcars, we ran [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Bruce RED '91 Bruce, what do you mean by "boost" the engine? This is a street car,(barely), runs on normal premium gas, etc., but it is running 9 pounds of boost with a turbo and I was going to increase that to 11 or 12 to play around with it a little. FWIW, this car has a '99 head on a '94 block and has had the coolant system rerouted to exit at the rear of the head. It also has an almost-new FM aluminim radiator in it, as well as no A/C, so I was surprised to see it running what appeared to be hot. Seeing your figure of 212.5 F makes me feel better, I don't think that the car ever got quite that high even when it was 104 degrees F out and I was idling in the sun at a long light. The car's cooling system was working better than my body's that day, heatstroke was approaching quickly. ;-) Thanks, as always, your advice is much appreciated! Pat |
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