Drove home from the airport tonight. Outside temps were 55 according to the gauge cluster. It normally does take slightly longer for the car to reach operating temperature, but tonight I drove for about 20 miles (about 20 minutes) and the water temp gague never went over 1/3 off the bottom. Usually during the day it sits 3 clicks below halfway (It was 2 clicks prior to the mods). I was never in traffic and was actually crusing quite quickly around 90 MPH but never really reving the car even into VTEC.

Is this too cold for the engine? Looking for some more A-CL edumacation

 

I'm thinking of getting Mugen Cooling Mods Later....

 

Steve,

I was wondering the same thing. I took this picture last night on the way home. Notice that it's 55 degrees outside. Does your gauge read the same?

 

Looks about the same, mine might have been a tick or a tick and a half lower.


EDIT: I saved your pic and zoomed in on it pretty close and you are 3 ticks below center which is where I usually am. I was about 2 lower than this. Yours looks normal.

 

Mine is doing the same. Normal? Oh well.

 

Allout,

Reset your damn maintenance light!

 

mine is the same as well. Had the cooling mod for two months now.

 

Can you beg, borrow, or steal an OBDII tool (laptop edition) that will display coolant temp?

The intake air temp would be useful as well.

 

Working on purchasing one. Just looking for the best deal. Might get one that works with my Palm with data logging.

If I continue to have the "problem" I'll report back with more results.

 

Don't worry, if it is too low your ECU will yell at you. If it doesn't get warm enough in a certain amount of time, the ECU will throw a code.

 

Mine looks the same as the pic above. However it's still 85 outside. When I was up north in 45 degree weather it was a little lower then that. So I think it's normal.

 

the lord speaks

 

That's looks right about where mine sits and it's been 50 degrees outside.

 

If you looked at the ECT temps with a scan tool you would see that are about 180 F, +/- 5 degrees. The gauge is pretty inaccurate. It doesn't start moving until it is about 145 F. It then gets up to the point in the above picture and then doesn't move much at all when getting up near 205 F, maybe a tick or two.

The gauge is pretty dampened between about 180 F and 210 F as that is a normal operating range.

 

With that inaccurate gauge, it might be useful to get some more temp reading, via ODBII diagnostics, to see just how low the temps are. Granted, the ECU will toss a code if it's just too cold. However, there is one thing that concerns me -- and this probably impacts few members: emission testing. Finally, with our "lame"/"crippled" water temp gauge, it's hard to know if you're sitting really close to "TOO DANG LOW."


I've got to get an emissions test next year (5th year), and it's possible -- I didn't say probably or likely -- that a too-cold water temp from a "marginal" Mugen thermostat could impact a CARB roller test. A nice solid reading without all the damping, table lookups and other "fudging" would be nice (also see side note).

--Side note/hijack--

One of the things that really bugs me -- about the CLS with NAVI -- is Acura not adding a few extra pages of code for menus and interfaces and a few extra wires to allow a data readout mode to query existing engine inputs. How hard could it be to have a "gauge mode" in the NAVI's screen to display various engine parameters like coolant temp, etc, etc? (And, I don't want to add a gauge cluster.)

-- End hijack --

 

LOL - I knew someone would give me crap about that.

 

Emissions are one thing which shouldn't be a problem, but one of those that will need to be seen. I know my GTP with a 160 stat had perfect emissions output btu of course, that was a different car. IMO, it won't be a problem as 20 degrees isn't much. Just my

When I drilled out the stock stat I witnessed the ECU getting tempermental. It seemed that if it didn't hit about 160 F in several minute, it would let you know it was disappointed.

 

Now that would be cool. But I doubt the bean counters actually think of us.

 

yes very cool...however i gaurantee if someone wanted to get slick...like using the screen for a DVD screen...you could hook it to a device that could give you all those readings and also be gauages like a/f and say on a boosted car PSI....may need a lap top to run it but it could be done

 

Interesting Topic, as I have the Mugen planned .

 

don't want to rain on anyones parade, but the cooling mods are a waste of money IMO. as in they give no noticeable gains.

it's cool to say you have mugen parts on your cl though.

 

Eh.. S/C adds alot of heat to the engine. Running a 180 thermostat compared to the stock 220 (??) thermostat can't hurt.

 

no mugen cooling mods here, just red line water wetter

 

Stock is 78 degrees centigrade compared to 68 degrees for the Mugen one. (In Fahrenheit 172.4 vs 154.4) Stock vs. Mugen is 10 degrees C. or 18 degrees F. reduction in thermostat opening.

 

IMO, then an intake is about as useful. The overall gains (or rather limited losses with the cooler temps) are about equal with an intake.

 

Getting close with things like the AVIC-1 from pioneer

 

IMO, an intake would shave time off your 1/4 mile.

where cooling mods would do nothing.

 

So, you don't think that losing about 2 - 3 degrees timing because you are running 20 degrees warmer, heating up while sitting in the staging lanes, would affect your ET?

 

When I had a gmc truck and put a 180 thermostat in it (down from stock 197), the torque converter wouldnt lock in overdrive. Mechanic said it would burn it up if I didnt go back to the higher temp unit. Also, emissions will be higher at lower temps. Things to consider.

 

Not nessesarily. My '97 GTP, also a GM vehicle, ran a 160 stat without any problems and stock like emissions.

 

Friend of mine had a 95 GMC Suburban with a 454 and had a low temp tstat in it practically since it was new, and never had a problem

edit: I'm pretty sure he had a 160deg one too ...

 

only prob would be... oil temp would take additional time to stabilize during warmup cycling in cold climates, leading to unnecessary friction and accellerated wear

 

0W-20 Mobil 1 will offset some of that.

 

in theory, yes that should help ET. but i have the cooling mods in my car and i haven't noticed any gains in ET or trap.

i do believe if you had a stock cl-s at the track, an intake would actually lower ET and raise trap, where the cooling mods wouldn't.

 

Are you sure you looked for them.

I would just about garrantee that if two identical cars were at the track but one was runnign 20 degree cooler ECT. With both launching the same, the one with cooler temps would run better times.

 

i have them installed on my car.


and you may be right, but i haven't heard anyone say that the cooling mods shaved time or raised their trap speed. as a matter of fact, i haven't been able to trap 99 n/a since i installed them.

i would just about guarantee that the car w/ the intake would run quicker and faster than the one w/ cooling mods.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that if the car is cooled down already, they don't make a difference. I would say that they should improve consistancy more than anything if cool down is not always available.

BTW, have you looked at your temps to be sure they are running lower?? I'm not taling about the gauge, you would need to look at the ECT with a scan tool.

 

I have definately noticed that my car takes a little longer to get up to operating temperature this winter with the cooling mods, but nothing that I'm really concerned about. I usually try to start the car like 10 minutes before I have to use it so it can warm up if its been sitting for a while, because I know its not good to run the engine with the oil cold.

but Sunday I'm getting a compustar alarm\remote starter installed so that should solve just about all of that problem