Is overcooling a Ferrari a bad thing?

Your car has a thermostat, it will open when the car needs cooling and close when it doesnt.....

 

The larger radiators will act as an insurance policy against overheating although the 348s have great cooling as they are. If you change the original units remember that the 348s have two different sized units RH is smaller the LH unit. Regards, Vern

 

Maybe he means the raditators will have an extra core, hence 40% extra cooling capabilities over standard. It doesnt mean that it will start to overcool your car automatically. They will be thicker than standard rads. He cant make it 40% larger in height and width. It wont fit back in there then. I honestly reckon that the bigger the radiator the better. Why not have an extra core in there? The car wont be overcooled as the thermostat will still open and close and control the cooling system ect.... Larger rads benefit if you have a car which is overheating(not in your case though). The most wear in an engine happens on start up, when the engine is dead cold. Getting larger radiators, even if it cooled the car a little more, wouldnt have that cold start engine wear effect. So its your call, but if you could get rads that cool 40% more, go for it.

 

I agree...It is impossible to "overcool" an engine as long as the thermostat is in there and functioning properly!

 

That is correct.

 

Nice one Sy, let us know how you get on. Are these all alloy units?

The guys above are spot on. There is a lot of good info posted around but also some well dodgy stuff sometimes - the 'ruining your engine by fitting a more efficient radiator' comments fall into one of these catagories..

 

But isn't the 348 cooling about as efficient as it needs to be? adding another core is more weight, tubing/flow, and slightly increases the complexity for any future owner.

After hanging out in 100F+ traffic jams for hours on end with my 348 last month, and no cooling problems, I'm not sure I see the point.

 

I agree that the standard system is well up to the job if in reasonable condidtion, but if we can source more efficient, lighter and possibly cheaper alternatives to the stock parts it's no bad thing. How would 'tubing' and 'complexity' be increased by this??

 

It may add a little weight, not much though. Very minimal. If they are alloy ones, then even better. There is no complexity to doing this for future owners. The cooling system may take a little extra coolant. Not much extra though. No problems with adding bigger rads. Stress less friend.

 

One thing that may be worth considering, though it would take a serious engineer to figure out if it really would matter. While its true the t-stat opens and closes, allowing cooled coolant to enter the engine while expelling heated coolant out to the radiators, I do believe you could overcool the heated coolant, thereby bring coolant into the hot engine that is much cooler than it may like. You certainly do not want to shock the engine with dramatic temp fluctuations, as it could crack something if it were extreme enough. I guess if a 348 has stock cooling capacity to handle 100+ heat in rush hour traffic without getting hot it has to be a darn good system.

 

Sorry to say Paul, but no chance of that ever happening mate.
Not in the real world anyways.

 

This thermal shock is most likely on very cold days, when the thermostat first opens. The head gasket is most vulnerable to this. The GM "iron duke" 2.5 liter 4 banger had this problem for years in the 1970's and 1980's.

You'll notice most thermostats have a tiny hole in them. This helps warm the coolant in the radiator before the thermostat opens and thus lessen the shock when the ice cold coolant flows into the hot engine. As for the replacement radiator, that extra 40% size may indeed be a problem in very cold climates, but maybe not.

Ken

 

Well, big trucks have covers over the radiators they can zip or snap open and closed to varying degrees to keep the engine from overcooling, some Internationals come with louvers in the grill that open and close thermostatically. The engine needs to be run at operating temperture, and if the radiator is too efficient it will always be running to cold. Some cars have thermostatically controlled oil coolers for the same reason, and there are threads on the 308 about blocking the oil cooler on cold days so the engine will warm up. This is why you see cardboard in front of radiators when its -20F, and even then some cars will run cold and never put out any heat.

 

I was talking to the Australian rep that sells Wynn's products, around 2 years ago. He said he flys all over the world selling/preaching his products. He told me once, in 1996, in Antartica, they were there testing there Wynn's coolant anti-freeze products. They had 2 4WD Toyota L/C wagons, one had only water in the radiator, the other had Wynn's anti-freeze coolant and water in the radiator. They started both 4WD's and let them warm up. Once they got close to operating temp, the thermostats opened up, very similar in time. The L/C with the anti-freeze coolant was fine. The L/C with only water......around 20secs after the thermostat opened, cracked the cylinder head clean in half, then the engine stopped naturally. He showed me the pics. Amazing. The head was completely split perfectly in half, which seemed like they used a knife to do it. Never seen anything like it. That is an extreme case, in extreme weather. Were we live and drive our Ferrari's, the water/coolant temp shock, I think would not be a worry at all.

 

Ive seen all that. They do that to get the trucks/buses up to operating tempreture asap. As I said earlier, the most engine wear happens when the engine is cold. You would like the engine to reach normal operating temp asap. Thats the point of the thermostat to get the water in the engine up to normal operating temp asap. The fans normally turn on when the thermostat opens and lets the hot water into the rads to cool. You can never overcool with larger rads. They will be just be quicker and more efficient at cooling the water in them before the water re-enters the engine. It would never get to the point where the water gets so cooled/cold, that it will cause you to have that engine temp shock that you mentioned before.

 

Other than ensuring that your engine does not run too hot, cold is also not good (as was mentioned).

Most important item is probably the oil temp, so you really want to stay with 180degrees if possible. (just like its not-recommended to run the car harder until its warmed-up).

Depending on your ECU intellegence, cooler (or too cold) may also try to lean out the car.............. but, always the more important for me is the oil temps. (and if you have the proper thermostat your golden!!)

 

I would tend to agree that there won't be a problem with a Ferrari, but when you replace the stock radiator, you're going beyond the design specs so one never knows. And some of us drive our cars year round; I've had my Europa out in 6 degrees F. The car was fine but my feet froze solid in just a few minutes!


Ken

 

-14 degrees C! Brave man Ken. That is true also Ken. Over the years, I have played around with alot of radiators/overheating issues ect... 100% of the time, a larger rad always cures the overheating prob. Fitting a larger rad to a car that isnt overheating, never seemed to create an overcooling issue. Not that I came across any. Doing all the checks after we fitted them, it would seem that they were more effcient in cooling the engine, thats about all. Never had any issues from any customers after they were fitted to their cars. The only reason we would fit them, as Angelis mentioned, an aftermarket company offers the same rad, cheaper and either had more cores, or a little larger, some were even just designed a little better for the same price as the stock rads. Its like a hidden insurance for the cooling system as Vern also mentioned.

 

I believe one of the radiators on 348's is also an oil cooler if memory serves. If this is so, a larger one may prevent oil from reaching normal temps. Something worth double checking anyway.

Dave