Speciale water temperature - how hot is too hot?

I apologize in advance if this is common knowledge, but I don't know the answer. I searched the owner's manual and I couldn't find what I was looking for.

It was hot today about 98 degrees F, and I was driving fairly hard through the mountains. I noticed my water temperature was about 210 - 215 F. I'm curious if this is "normal" and how hot is too hot?

I checked the radiator and the coolant level was full. I could hear the radiator fans running when I stopped.

Thank you.

 

That is fine. Cars run hotter these days for emission reasons. My old 2004 Porsche GT3 would hang at 180 degrees F...My recent 2015 GT3 ran up to 215-220 F.

 

Thank you. Glad to know 215 degrees is not excessive.

 

My 13 spider on a 110F day through the canyons aggressive driving reached ted under 210, even on stop n go situations never pegged 210, fans come in around 195 bring it down to 185.
I honestly can't comment on the Speciale, it's possibly a hotter running car, but I think 215 is a little high. When the fans came on did it drop?

 

I couldn't hear the fans while driving so I don't know when they were on or off. When I came to a stop I could hear the fans. While driving the temperature seemed to move between 210 and 215.

 

Honestly I don't know how Speciales run, maybe someone else will chime in, but as a rule of thumb, if you pull over and the fans are able to bring the coolant temp down to 185, it's doing it's job.

 

I'll go for another run tomorrow, and I'll watch the temperature more closely. How quickly would you expect the fans to cool things down to 185 from 215?

 

prob 3-4min at idle, temps drop n the fans stop. Also see where your oil temp is when you're running at 210-215.

 

A recent track day with ambient temperature of 39C (102F), the water temps reached a peak of 102C (215F) and Oil temps are higher at 106C (223F) consistently whilst pushing its limits lap after lap but both subsequently cooled down to 90C (194F) during the cool down lap for brakes and engine before entering pits.

Numbers were taken from an AIM SOLO DL meter receiving all data from the ECU via the OBDII port.

 

Most gas vehicles nowadays will top out around 235-45 before they go into limp mode or similar. If you see that, start to worry.

 

There's a red line on the gauge which I think begins at 250 deg - isn't that a clue ?

And that's without looking out for the overheat idiot light

 

When you look at the engine data, you will see the advance start backing off (advance) at around 105C, and gradually continue to back off until around 115C and plummets from there. The ECU map uses water temp, oil temp and ambient air temp among other variables. You'll get all sorts of warnings by then.

Running hard on a "hot" day (85-90F ambient) my engine tends to sit at 95C and oil around 99

So, to some degree (pun intended), engines run weaker in hot conditions to start with, the Ferraris back themselves down noticeably when they are out of the optimum window.

One "maintenance item" people can consider if tracking is to make sure the radiator and various oil coolers are blown out and cleaned. Changing radiators is an annual maintenance item on the Challenge cars - won't kill you if you don't, but it helps with cooling efficiency.

 

Are you trying to answer my question, or are you just being a jackass?

 

I'm pointing out that there are two obvious systems to tell you your car is not too hot

 

I was just about to posit the same question and found this thread... My water temps after stop and go traffic in 100 degree weather today were btw 210-215. When I started driving, as expected cooled down. I kind of remember this from driving last summer. Can anyone comment if they have experienced the same?

 

Dealer says not to worry until the needle gets into the red.

 

Speciales seem to be running higher coolant temps than the 458, I noticed mine gets up to 210 in stop n go traffic as well.

 

210 is as high as mine gets and thats in Dallas 105 degree temperatures.

 

Mine goes on tiny click over 210 for a little... Not quite to the next bar. It was close to 105 on the black asphalt today.

 

My Speciale runs at 210-220F when it's hot outside say 100F in the mountains around 7,500 to 8,500 feet. But when I'm at the beach on a hot day my water temperature runs lower 190-200F (probably because no elevation changes at the beach).

Also, my butt dyno estimates I'm down at least 100HP in the mountains. When I go back to the beach that extra 100+ HP really makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. LOL

 

Imho the temps Rick is reporting are normal: if the ext. temp is warm
and that you are running through twisty canyons roads, as opposed to straighter
roads like freeways or tracks, it means that not so much air is flowing through
the car and that engine is more often than not in the high rev range if one is
driving spiritedly, which make H2O temps high.

Fwiw when H2O temps get too high I back off running the engine hard and they get
back to normal, btw I always run 100% 100-101aki fuel so mine gets hot too

Don't worry all is normal: enjoy the car!
xoxoxo

 

Rick,

Fwiw I just checked: I let my Italia with 100-101aki run
215F H2O temp at its hottest, usually if I see her going over 215F
I take it easy and let her cool off to about 190-195F; on the fwy
with no traffic and steady stream of high speed air she gets down to
175F but usually hovers around 180F.

All in all I would say that her average operating temp is 190F - 200F
so I would not worry about seeing the slightly higher temps under the
conditions you mentioned.

Fyi my car's fans kick in at about 200F; the others scream ecstatically as
they hear me drive by

best

 

I just wasn't sensitive to the idea that elevation changes on hot summer days makes the engine work harder and run hotter
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Cool! Did you get the 4WD option?

 

My Speciale runs hotter (about 10F+) at high altitudes (7,000-8,000 feet) than it does at sea level even when the outside ambient air temperature is the same (let's say 90F).

I've been looking around for an explanation. There seems to be several things that come into play, but there's one thing in particular that caught my eye.

I've summarized a bit of what I found:

Hotter ambient air temps and higher altitudes result in less RAM air pressure, and this in turn results in less volume flow through the radiator. At 6,000 ft, for example, the pressure is reduced by about 20% from its sea level value.

In addition, RAM air pressure is proportional to MPH^2. I think this means that at 35 MPH the RAM air pressure is reduced X4 from what it would be at 70 MPH. This seems significant. It might explain why my Speciale runs so much hotter around town at altitude than it does when I'm driving around Laguna Beach.

If I'm understanding all of this correctly, it seems that the radiators on cars (or so it seems) may have been optimized for sea level and not high altitudes.

Do you think this would explain why my Speciale runs about 10F hotter at altitude compared to sea level? Maybe someone with a technical background can shed some light on this subject??