As alot of you know. I finally took the six out for a semi-actual a/x this last weekend. The weather was 85 - 90 degrees with warm winds blowing at 30 - 50 mph.

I made four 2 mile runs and even sat idling between runs and my oil temp never got above 210.

I have a 2.7 conversion with RS pistons, Solex cam, with right at 10 to 1 compression running premium pump gas.

Am I lucky or is this the norm? When is an external cooler needed?

Your gauge is broken

it cant hurt. use a t stat...

and yes... you will find you need one when at button willow in june....

I think the quick and dirty answer is that you need them when your HP exceeds something like 170.

I have a stock 3.2 and have yet to go over 210. No extra cooler. I havent seen any air temps past 80 up here yet, so time will tell.

But like Aaron said it cant hurt.

My personal experience is you will need one if you track the car.


KT

Gee, where have I heard that before?

I haven't seen 85-90 yet. Most of the time I wonder when it's gonna warm up. Thing hasn't hit 200 yet. It has a cooler mounted in the back with fans but I haven't turned it on yet. 2.7 motor with 3.2 oil pump.

Yeah when I drove it in traffic the other day it didn't warm up to 180 for 15 minutes.

Street or autocross use is very different from driving at 5000-7000 rpm's for 20-30 minutes. Especially when it's >90F outside.

I'm already over 200...

you will find yourself running hot at buttonwillow.....