Cooling the engine

The heat increase is caused by compressing the air. This is how AC works although they use a refrigerant with a much higher heat density than air.

Most normal non racing cars that are superchargers need no special care. The compression at 15 psi or so is not enough to do much.

But you should do as you feel and your manual indicates you should.

Best

Lee

 

I know as a physician, that what sounds to be a good hypothesis turns out to be untrue when tested. Never the less, since owning my 360 I have always lifted the engine cover and had a floor fan in garage to "blow" heat away from car/motor. I figure the less time the rubber parts and paint spend at high temps the better. Probably more fiction than fact. I feel better about doing it as I have maintained this practice on 430, Italia, and now spider.
Having said that, check out the February issue of Car and Driver magazine. See page 18 for article entitled: Abuse of Power. If Ferrari does half of what Ford does we have little to worry about. Then again, Ferrari makes headers that last less time than my last birthday cake!
Best

 

You can also buy a "Turbo Timer" and have it installed. Google it.

I'm not sure if it is 100% necessary on newer cars. If you modified your turbo car , or is running high boost, you might consider it.

Or if you drive real hard, the last couple of miles go easy.

 

With no disrespect to the OP. I hear this a lot. Octane is an equation to determine what octane the car needs to not ping. It is compared to a standard like heptane or toluene or something like those. The only way to get more power from an engine with higher octane is to increase the compression ratio.

I know people who buy airplane gas because of the higher octane. They are just throwing money away unless they change the engine. The only possible benefit to airplane gas is if you live at a very high elevation. You will not get vapor lock. The airplane gases are designed that way because if you get vapor lock in an airplane and you lose your engine it could be dangerous

I believe modern cars if you use lower octane than recommended change the timing automatically so the engine is not damaged. The engine produces less power but is protected.

Best

Lee

 

Cooldown doesn't matter on naturally aspirated cars and these cars run the hottest when sitting idling and not moving. On a hot day I noticed the temps rising when sitting at a traffic light, but never when actually driving.

 

+1. Not sure how beneficial leaving the car sitting and idling before turning it off is for engine cooldown. I know when starting the engine and idling that the temperature can go up dramatically. I asked my Ferrari master technician about popping the rear hood to let the engine cool after a drive and he said this was unnecessary.

 

According to the manual book, you have to wait for the temperature to be at least 65-70 degree then you can drive over 3,000 rpm. Before that, you need to drive below 3k to warm up the engine.
And you shouldn't let the engine on (idle) to cold down the car. Turn it off immediately. Even F1 cars with 100% performance orientation are being turned off immediately.

 

I'm confused...or maybe I don't understand correctly. Wouldn't a rich running engine run cooler? Unless these engines are operating on the lean side of peak?

Can an engine guru explain that to me??

 

Dear Wit,
After a long drive home today, I ran this little experiment.

Instead of shutting of the engine I let her idle and watched the left screen which was set to display the temperature of the radiator and oil.

After a few minutes, the needle on the radiator temp moved lower. And then the oil temp also moved lower.

So if you are patient and want to be sure that the engine has cooled off, you can let the car idle and watch the temps.

 

This is an old thread but a current observation.

Does anyone know why this is, other than an experienced technician saying to do so?

In auto vs manual, do the ECUs cycle the radiator cooling fans differently?

 

I usually drive it after 2 minutes, as I don't like to let the engine idle for too long.

As for after a drive? If it's a cruise, I just turn it off at let it be. If it's a spirited drive, it's a bit of the same thing really. I don't come barreling down my driveway or the small roads around my property at 60 mph so there will always be few minutes after a spirited drive to let everything even out temp wise.

Now here's something I've been told by a few independent sources that has a ton of knowledge in metalurgy. Do not let it cool off too fast i.e open the engine compartment at but a fan next to it. What happens is that the inside and the outside of the metals, will cool off at different rates. When the engine parts warm up, it's not really a problem as the outside of the metal expands slowly and the core of the metal can "keep up". However, when you cool the metal down rapidly, the outer layer, or the "skin" if you like, will shrink rapidly, which causes small stress cracks on the surface. This is something that has been known in the gas turbine/jet engine industry for years, as cooling very hot parts like combusters, turbine blades and turbine guide vanes down rapidly will cause cracks and blade failures.

The more evenly the components can expand and contract the better.

 

Are you referring to a 458 (no need) or 488, which begs the question regarding the need to allow turbo's to cool down. I have not kept up with technology well enough to know if the turbo's of today are similar to those of the past which did require allowing oil to circulate out of turbo or fry them. Best

 

Chris Harris asked this very question when he did his Geneva show video on the 488 in 2015. He was told point blank, "No need to let sit at idle for cool down.". Generally speaking, this is what just about any manufacture says now. I'm not aware of any of the current turbo models, whether being it a high performance sports car or a VW TSI where cool down is recommended.

 

I was asking about a "turbocharger", not supercharger. Best

 

Incidentally, I was asking about todays turbocharger, not supercharger. Best

 

Still, no one has answered the question about "today's" turbochargers. I have owned several late model Supercharged cars and no need to cool down. Best