So I have been dealing with cooling issues, hottest days with a/c on up to 220*. Initially it was worse but a dead fan motor and no foam around the radiator were fixed and the situation has improved. What I noticed when diagnosing the fan motor, was lots more hot air is blowing out of the fans when I did not have the full air box and battery box in place. This could only mean the hot air is blowing at me when looking over the hood, and out somewhere else when all the plastic is normally in place.

thought about an air intake for no other reason than cleaning up the engine bay to make other things readily accessible. Aem type seems the only viable option, but I was concerned the design would block air coming into the radiator. Looking at all the factory plastic on the hot side of the radiator, is it possible this intake style would facilitate air flow through the radiator?

Could replacing the factor air box and cutting down the batter box, open up and improve air flow through the radiator?

 

I don't see this making a difference. With the hood closed underhood air exits via low pressure areas (at speed) behind the front wheels and via the gills vents. Whether the trays are there or not shouldn't matter since pressure is doing the work, not the fans (in fact they're off at speed). Unless you have hood vents, there's no reason to give air more ways to go up.

If you're hitting high temperatures at a standstill for some reason, something is broken, but it sounds like you've fixed your fans already. You could get a thicker, higher performance rad to shed heat more effectively if it's still a problem.

The AEM also doesn't materially block airflow to the rad, you're piling up more than enough air in the front high pressure zone to cool the engine at speed. Said another way, there hasn't been any evidence that cars with AEM style intakes have better or worse cooling than stock configurations.
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AEM intake paired with hood vent has shown significant cooling improvement on my previous car.
AEM without hood vent, a little bit.

 

Fans turn off at speed? Was not aware of that... anyway, yeah I have no evidence, just wondering if the removal of the plastic above the fan would help. I am still looking to clean up the engine bay so there is more room to work. As long as a cai does not hurt cooling, I still may go that route.

However, not sure I like the look of the 2 feet of tube in the middle of the engine bay.

 

I see some gains by using this basically free mod.
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-aft...-ideas-123434/
Paired with my AEM.

 

Great tip, thanks.

I will give it a try.

 

I´ve been suffering with hot temps for quite a while. I bought the car in winter, when summer came OMG. 2 laps on a 1mile track and I was at 230 F / 110C.
ambient summer temps here are easily above 35 C / 95F.
So what I found/did:
Got a ODB bluetooth reader.
Intake temps were too high put to 77C /170 F
1) Previous service had left open de intake filter box on the bottom, so intake was getting hot radiator air... You cannot see it unless you open it completely.
Once that was fixed it helped a lot.
2) radiator leak. -- > new rad foam foam foam all around it.
3) mishimoto thermostat to open sooner, helped a lot. they are cheap, but installation was a pain in the *** with rusted thermostat housing and impossibly stuck bolts
4) best was "safety flash" reducing fan triggers significantly. I am now on 82C / 180F for level1 and 88 C /190 F for level 2, increased car speed fan switch from 10km/h to 25

Now ECT stands around 180-190 F on normal and spirited driving or stand still traffic.
On track overheats only after 10 laps of pure redline and lowish speeds (still great improvement though). The big difference is when you go to pit lane fans and new rad drop the temps in 30-60seconds.

I want to be able to run safely 20 laps. So I bought a hood from a junkyard and opening massive grills on it above/behind the rad. Also removing battery but hesitant about a Cold air intake since the common knowledge seems to be you loose power. Although I rather drop a couple HP and be able to red line for ever.
Also bought new 3 to 1 exhaust header I think that is keeping a lot of heat inside the engine. (I am NA)

Subscribed and available to share my experience!

 

AEM or MS will not make you lose power if correctly installed and it does improve cooling when paired with hood vent.

 

If you're overheating on track, especially slow speed, and you've done the little things, it might be time to grow more heat exchanger surface and upgrade the rad to a CSF or similar.

 

Thanks Loki and SC. I have made progress. I hope these last mods do the trick. I am also considering leaving the fans on for that specific track since it’s a very short bendy one (40s lap).
for now street/road is perfect, almost cold I post results when done

 

thanks for sharing your experience.

I have done a bunch of "little things" but judging where I am with only spirted driving, I fear I ill not have enough cooling for a track day. My guess is I will end up with an aftermarket radiator and fans. My next step is a flash to see if turning the fans on early helps.

What did you use for a "safety flash"?

 

I used Versatuner (expensive license) which seems to be good enough for basic tweaks like these and some AFR, timing but not so sure about detailed tuning. I will start with fine tuning when cooling is sorted out.
Overall it has a nice logger and its quite intuitive. Depending on what a shop would charge for doing this I do recommend to buy tuner SW. It gives you the freedom to do it as many times as you want and if a little bit more power, fuel economy, increased oil injection is on your plans, may definitely be worth it.

 

@apex1 Found a hood, working on vents design: