| luxury of 90 minutes between
runs, and that it's tough for a sportsman racer to keep
the engine cool during round-robin eliminations. That's
just another reason to have an effective cooling system
and to refrain from putting unnecessary heat in the
engine by warming it up. Once the water temperature
reaches a certain point, the cooling system can be
overwhelmed. It's like sitting in a traffic jam and
watching the needle on your street car's temperature
gauge steadily climb. When it reaches the critical
point, the cooling system loses its ability to control
the temperature. The result is a toasted engine. |
I've watched racers warm up
their engines and then turn off the electric pump and
fan to keep heat in the motor. My advice is to leave the
pump and fan running to pull heat out of the cylinder
heads, which need to be cool. You won't pull much heat
out of the oil because it's sitting in the sump of the
oil pan. My recommendations to sportsman racers on
surviving the long, hot summer are to use synthetic oil
and run your engine as cool as you can. |
