limits before i need to consider a rebuild?

garetgax · Post by **garetgax** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:04 am

oil temp gets up towards the 105 degree mark before i come in. I'm not sure if im pushing it staying out as long as that or if Im being too cautious.

Water temp on the stock gauge seems fine and never really moves from its normal position once its got there from cold.

TBH on the switch from the apexi I'd rather not move if I can. The flexibility of having a map that means I can use 97 ron fuel and one for track is a big sell. As a bonus i would like to be able to have a neutral map so i can re-cat the car for m.o.t's as its a pain every year.

The oil cooler is situated in front of the rad. The rad is standard at the moment. Didnt know whether going for a better rad would improve things or not.

The other reason for the switch was the intermittent ( only happened once) issue where the car wouldnt hold revs. Only happened once (we thought it was a re-occurence of the leak which soaked the previous apexi (it wasnt as everything was bonedry after a hosepipe test) but it cleared up the following day (when it was dry) so weve assumed its a bit of wiring from the maff or the maff itself.

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duncan · Post by **duncan** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:10 am

105 is not high

Gerry H · Post by **Gerry H** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:35 am

Where's the oil temp sensor positioned?

Mine's in the port over No.3 and 105C there is nothing IMO. I've run with temps of 125C. Over that and I tend to ease off but have seen 135C if I'm about to catch someone :twisted:

Hopefully you're using a good quality fully synthetic oil?

Stock water temp guage isn't too good. Your Apexi hand commander will display real time and peak water temp. You should use it, there's so much info that's available for the commander to display. I really miss having it stuck on the dash.

The Apexi will also display sensor inputs so it could have helped diagnose the 'MAF' fault.

Standard rad is good so long as it's clean inside. Flushing through would tell you a lot about the state of the cooling system from any muck that comes out.

Datalogit can be had from NZ for 2-300 quid and is very nice. It'll data log with a graph that's easy to read. You can plug in your laptop and upload your map for whatever circumstance. The only limiting factor is switching maps with whatever is in the fuel tank, but you'll have that problem with any ecu.

You really need to think about what benefits YOU will gain from replacing things like ecus. Unless you're doing something cutting edge, do you really need cutting edge technology that'll be superceded by cutting edge technology in a year or so? A good example is Simtek/Solaris. What's next?

IMO, spend your ecu money on driver training. It's portable.

I'm not suggesting you need training but you know what I mean

Gerry H · Post by **Gerry H** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:39 am

duncan wrote:105 is not high

And they don't come much more cutting edge than Duncan :notworthy:

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:40 am

Garet, I think it's fair to say you may be over-thinking things, that you have a perfectly serviceable and powerful car that can provide you a lot of scope to improve your track driving from the position where you are now. I'd suggest you ditch the idea of spending on the ECU and spend it on actually getting out on track instead. Just my opinion.

Gerry H · Post by **Gerry H** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:48 am

You beat me to it Tommy.

Come and do the track night in June. You can see other Imprezas and chat to plenty of people who can advise from experience.

And have a blast

garetgax · Post by **garetgax** » Fri May 22, 2009 10:17 am

am I being too cautious on the oil temp then? The advice from TSL etc had been dont stray above the 105 mark as thats where i'll risk of damage etc. If i can run "safely" at higher temps great. Just need to know when to come in etc if it isnt 105.
On the over thinking side of things your right (tommy remember it is shell's car though and if i bend it I think I'll be sleeping in the greenhouse for a while

)

Ive near enough thrown the replacement ecu idea out of the window which does allow me to get a spare set of alloys and move the airfilter etc instead. Thisd means I can do a few extra events this year (one of which means I can go to elvington on sunday now :lol: )

I'm new to all this so please bear with me guys.

garetgax · Post by **garetgax** » Fri May 22, 2009 10:59 am

Gerry cant make the june event as I will be in wales all day at a customers site,so wont get back in time :x .

Gerry H · Post by **Gerry H** » Fri May 22, 2009 1:11 pm

On the oil temp issue. Where is the sensor or sender? Above No.3 cylinder 105C is not a problem whereas, in the sump, it's quite high.

Shame you can't make June.

Andy916 · Post by **Andy916** » Fri May 22, 2009 2:57 pm

Wise words from Uncle G :-D

Baffled sump and/or Cosworth plate. Depends on tyre choice I suspect. Back in t'olden days it was asserted the Impreza was very resistant to oil surge. Lord of the Ring JohnF did quick lap after lap without apparent problem. Now, with good suspension, driver and 888 Toyos, the timeattack guys are seeing surge for sure. Paul at Zen recommends both baffled sump and Cosworth plate, but maybe the (cheaper) plate on its own would suffice depending on tyres.

Graham - you mentioned Defis. Instead of spending 400+ on them, you could spend 100 on Prosports - Defi copies, from Nick at gaugeplace or Danny at Xyberauto. I did that and spent some of what I saved on an Innovate permanent wideband and gauge.

Datalogit - I got mine direct from NZ last yr (well, via a pal in NZ actually). Having it permanently in the glovebox saves time each time the mapper needs to plug-in, and allows you to datalog and diagnose problems. For example mine was recently mapped by Paul at Zen; bit later I had an intermittent problem which Paul was able to remotely diagnose based on my logging :

http://s383.photobucket.com/albums/oo27 ... =det65.jpg

Shame you can't make Snet.

Andy