I have an OBD2 port bluetooth module (ELM 327) that I use to beam information to my Torque Pro app on my Android S3.

Has anyone else noticed that we have quite a high sitting temperature while sitting Idle? And slightly bad while actually in motion?

It's currently 26 Celsius outside here today, been running data logging all day and when I stopped the car to go over the logs my intake air temps (Stock TC2 Intake BTW) shot up to over 82 Degrees Celsius! Thats insane, also the Engine Coolant temps keep rising to 95C then the fans auto turn on, drops to 90C and the fans turn off.

Besides that, the intake air temps while moving are 5C higher then ambient as well. Looking to see if I can get that down. Cheap free power, the cooler the air the more the engine advances the timing. Also leads to more efficient fuel use during Idle.

Took out the Fog light area plastics, and doing another heat soak test right now to see if I can get these down.

 

I am around 205 F during idle, its pretty warm here. That is 96 C. I'm not sure what is considered high.

 

As long as the engine doesn't go over its 95Cish (when the fans kick on) then everything should be fine. But I'm looking to get all the tiny efficiency tweaks in to make it even better.

During todays test the Idle intake air temps got up to 82C (it's 22C out today).

Poking around under the hood I found a way to give a slight cowl induction effect to our stock hoods.



I plan to dremel out a portion of the plastics on the right side in order to give hot air a more direct escape. Going around the supporting areas obviously, only cutting the interior Aesthetics and not touching the stuff seen from the outside. Free ninja mod.

 

interesting. will sticky this if you find an excellent solution. i'm interested to know the effect of removing the fog light cover (or replacing with a mesh grill) has some benefits

 

I try to do things with as much data backing as possible. Unfortunately with the fluctuation of outside temps, I might only see a slight difference. (I wish I owned my own garage) I've re-installed the Fog housing for now and will be cutting into the cover in about an hour when I finally get a dremel in my hands.

On a side note, I'd like to add some more sound proofing to the floor & rear spare tire well in the trunk, cut down a bit on road noise. With the RS 8.0's slight lowering & body kit it traps in a lot of noise under the car. Can anyone point me in the direct of some quality sound proofing materials?

 

Also, I should mention that during the heat soak, at 80C, the timing advance had dropped to a mere 7 Degrees. During moving operation at 31C Intake temps in 27C outside weather yesterday my Timing advance was 39-41 Degrees. Big difference.

 

Thats the nature of this car.. lowered or not, its noisy. I completely sound deadened the car and reduced a lot of it. Not all the way, but as good as im going to get with the effort/money i wanted to spend.

 

You could try hood spacers used them on my 2010 tc to help keep the temps down for my s/c and it did lower it at idle and driving measured the temps to make sure only thing is you got to like the raised hood look.

 

Before I got my nice Mesh grill made by Figure Engineering. I cut out the recessed area from the fog light things with a Dremel tool. So they look stock, but air can flow. I did not do a good job, but i'll post pics. I did not take any temperature measurements though. It was just for my cold air intake.

 

I really wonder how much benefit a cold air would be with this issue. there really isn't much airflow under the hood....

 

Been cutting holes, taking measurements. Have 3 more tests to run tomorrow before i do full write up, current results are positive/promising. Very minor though. Its all about the very minor.

 

Also Carbinefreak, i was thinking about that, this is an issue that would plague n/a, turbo'd, & s/c'd scion tc2's. At this point ANY cooling aid would be beneficial.

 

I've got an injen cai. And my scan gauge last night said mid to high 80's idling for normal periods, and driving I was at 67 degrees, when it was 64 degrees out. All Fahrenheit btw

 

That's a decent drop, I'm like ~10-15F above ambient when rolling with the stock air box and filter

 

Can you please take a picture of where your intake grabs air from?? I have a hunch that it is still from the fender still open to the engine bay. Effectively not making it a "Cold Air Intake" at all.
When rolling yes. Temps climb quickly while stopped at light's/ idling.

 

I started by pulling off the two lower windshield plastics, (Remove wipers to do so, 1 Bolt each, pull straight out from car hard). The windshield rubber seal is held on by these lil white clips. Stretch the rubber 1/2" to pull it off of them.



There is a lower steel lip that helps to supply pressure to the plastics against the underside of the hood.



To be continued.. out of time.

 

Ya ill try and put pics up tonight after work. Btw the only way for a true cai is to have the filter outside of the car, but its cooler than where the stock inlet is. From what I've read on the forum is that it's either takeda or aem that has the lowest filter location. Unfortunately there are not any intake systems like k20 civics, and g35's for the tc... Even though I wouldn't want my filter that exposed to rain or snow. Also your spot on about temp climbing at idle. I ended up idling for 10-15 mins an the temp read 170 Fahrenheit, but at your average stop light my car won't exceed 90 degrees. My water temp is a constant 181 at normal running, so my intake temp was 11 degrees cooler without being in motion. I'd say that it's not too shabby for a metal pipe being right next to the motor

 

Completely agree with you, it's not bad at all, but as I said earlier I'm looking to improve on the stock systems (however minorly). After I finish with this body mod project I plan to insulate the intake tubing straight to the TB and measure the results..

 

Continuing on:

This sheet metal lip is also important in that it shields/seperates the cabin air intake (lower passenger side of the windshield) from taking in hot engine air and/or any leaking fluids/gases smells.

So when I cut into the plastic I measured to ensure I didn't go too deep.



I also only cut into the right half of the panelling, also to prevent any engine bay heat/fumes from trailing into the cabin intake. You could cut farther left if you wanted but this is an issue you would have to deal with.



Also you can't cut out the far right side because there are support clips in the way. It is also over the shock mounts anyways, wouldn't be of much effect even if you did. You can see the two round bumbs where the clips are in the pic:

 

Mind the (Now useful) Gap:



Afterwards I did another heat soak (let car idle for 15 minutes) @ 24 degrees C outside. These were the results:



I accidently cleared the page results (pressed home button by accident on phone) but the temps seemed to rise slower than before. Timing advance hovered around 11.5 to 13 degrees, blipped up to 15 for the screenshot but that wasn't the norm. The coolant was still hitting 95C turning the fans on then dropping to 90C. The big change though was my intake temps never rose above 77 C instead of the 82C it was before. You can feel the heat rising out from underneath.

****WARNING: Doing this WILL (However slightly) increase the engine noise when standing outside near the car. You CANNOT hear a difference from inside the vehicle.*****

*All of this was performed with the lower fog light plastic IN PLACE. Planned to test this afterwards.*

I taped back over the holes with electrical tape, did another small heak soak, temps seemed to rise faster, planned to do actual timed tests to see for sure. Weather took a ____, started pouring rain and dropped to 11C ambient and so couldn't do a proper comparative test yesterday. This morning my ELM 327 bluetooth module broke, processor fried, I'm amazed it lasted 2, 1/2 years. New one on order before I can do another test.