Its hot here in California. Like in the 100's on some days. Well I raced a (basically) stock LS1. (99 Z28) A friend from work. With my posi being fried (new SLP Torsen unit in soon) I knew he was going to jump on me. But I was still expecting to pull on him when I acheived traction.

I run 110mph traps and he has done a best of 106mph. But it was hot out and we were putting around town going to our racing spot. Well my charger heats up, my intake heats up, my intercooler isnt getting cooler not going at any speed; so we raced and my car felt slow as hell. He pulled me slightly. Thats not good.

Well I raced my other friend today. He's got a 00 SS. Well we both got on it after the u turn out from our work and I pulled him nice and hard. It was cooler out today and my car was still heating up. He runs 106 traps too. I have NEVER seen a car respond to cool or hot air like my car does. Is this normal with cars with similer setups? Or is there something I am doing wrong?

I bet I was running 103mph trap equivelant when racing the Z28 and in the cold winter when I race at the track with dry ice on my intercooler I can pull 112mph. Thats a HUGE diferance!

 

I believe that every 10 degrees hotter the intake charge
equates to a 1hp loss assuming you are not getting any knock retard and that would be alot of HP.
Hotter the air the less air and much more likely to detonate.

 

But thats for a regular N/A engine setup. With something like what I'm running does it exaggerate the effect?

 

Absolutely!
Forcing and preasurizing air causes heat (reasoning behind intercooler) to cool the forced air thus allowing you to run more timing and gain power.
when you are at the track cold motor=cold air charge and no
knock retard or heat loss.
A blown motor need reduced timing usually over a naturally asperated. what does your scan tool say?

 

Trevor,

Consider me brain dead today as I'm not following this conversation.

Well my charger heats up....

Do you mean physically to the touch? That the blower itself gets so hot that you cannot touch it?

....my intake heats up....

The intake (plenum?) itself or the air temps inside it?

....my intercooler isnt getting cooler not going at any speed....

Do you mean the delta in air temps before and after the IC?

Or is any of this related to engine coolant temperature? Thanks for clarifying.

 

Well on a hot day and sitting in traffic my blower seems to get very hot to the touch. So hot you cannot touch it with your hand.

The whole intake will get hot to the touch too. This is usually when my coolant temps get to 220 degrees.

The intercooler is air to air. So If I'm not getting any air to go through it, (like sitting in stop and go traffic) then it gets hotter from the hot air from the charger going through it. On the freeway it would of course get cooler and cool the intake charge.

I am getting a few more knock counts on my scan tool when its hot. But not too much as long as I can keep that intercooler cool.

In fact, one time at the track I sat in line when our staging lane was supposed to go and my whole setup got so hot that when I finally went down the track I had lots of audible pinging.

 

If you get audible pinging you are losing lots of HP unless of course you bypassed the knock sensor,But if you didnt and should not you are losing atleast 6 degrees timing.
So not only do you lost lots of power from the knock retard but also from the heat soak.
Are you running a 160 deg. thermostat - you probably should.
as well as a secondary and/or manual fan switch.

 

Already have a 160 thermo, and both fans are manually switched at the relays.

I'm just wondering how much power I'm losing when its hot. Because it seems like its a WHOLE lot more then most cars.

In the winter my car is a MONSTER. In the summer its a little puppy dog.

But i guess heat also doesnt really effect LS1's as much because of the composite intake right?