Hey guys, I am going to start doing some product reviews, both past and present. I am on year four of owning this car, and I have spent an egregious amount of money on various products and services for this car, the vast bulk of that money being on products that
I have installed, removed, destroyed in anger, and taken aftermarket parts to the dump just so I could watch them be destroyed. I’ve also purchased products from the majority of suppliers for products for our cars, so if I feel like I need to comment on the supplier I will.
Additionally, if there install instructions or tips that are not included or omitted by the manufacturer, I will try to include them so if you choose to purchase any of these products you can have some additional resources.
My goal is to give some perspective on parts that you may be considering, and to help out this community which has been a fantastic source of resources since I first considered buying my car.
Parts/Products and whether one likes them or not can be highly subjective, so I will try to address both the negative and positive aspects of the parts so you can make your own decision.
Scale of Difficulty of Install
1-10
1-Oil Change
10-Engine Removal and Rebuild
Buildjournal Radiator Duct
Build Quality-8.7/10
Install Difficulty-3
Creativity of Solution-9/10
Stated Purpose-Reduce Operating Temperatures
Requires Reversible Removal of-Aux Fan
Requires Permanent Vehicle Alteration-Yes
Recommended for Daily Driver-No
Recommended for Track Car-Yes
Problems Addressed-The stock cowl, overtime, will “curl” the lower tabs (see illustrative pictures below) causing significant blockages of the oil cooler fins, resulting in decreased cooling efficiency on (and off) track. Cowl has been pictured against white background for illustrative purposes.
Additional Considerations- There is debate over removing the aux fan and whether this results in a deleterious effect to the cooling efficiency of the vehicle. You must have a proper electric fan setup on your stock or aftermarket radiator to run this product.
Installation Considerations- I would recommend the following 1) Place a large amount of duct tape over the drill to set the necessary depth of drilling for peace of mind when drilling out the holes for the nutserts 2) Assemble the product at the desired height (which is adjustable) then remove the product to check for proper location of your supplied insulation/air gap fillers 3) WeTools sells a nutsert tool on Amazon for around $40, which is sufficient to install nutserts 4) You will likely need to purchase a 9mm drill unless you have a metric drill set. 4) You will need to modify the stock plastic bumper screen by removing the side protrusions with a dremel (reinforced cut-off wheel is fine) and add relatively fine radiator mesh to the stock screen to protect your radiator and oil cooler. In the alternative, you could modify your bumper to attach radiator mesh directly. Stock bumper screen with fine black mesh will retain stock look.
Data- AiM Data shows reduction in in engine coolant operating temperature. No spikes, no movement beyond center of needle. Before I installed this product I would get spikes on the track approaching 3/4 of the stock gauge as sessions progressed, resulting in pit-ins and lost track time. No issues with overheating with 7 days of track time this season.
Would I Buy this Product Again-Yes
Overall Score-9.4
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have installed, removed, destroyed in anger, and taken aftermarket parts to the dump just so I could watch them be destroyed. I’ve also purchased products from the majority of suppliers for products for our cars, so if I feel like I need to comment on the supplier I will.
Additionally, if there install instructions or tips that are not included or omitted by the manufacturer, I will try to include them so if you choose to purchase any of these products you can have some additional resources.
My goal is to give some perspective on parts that you may be considering, and to help out this community which has been a fantastic source of resources since I first considered buying my car.
Parts/Products and whether one likes them or not can be highly subjective, so I will try to address both the negative and positive aspects of the parts so you can make your own decision.
Scale of Difficulty of Install
1-10
1-Oil Change
10-Engine Removal and Rebuild
Buildjournal Radiator Duct
Build Quality-8.7/10
Install Difficulty-3
Creativity of Solution-9/10
Stated Purpose-Reduce Operating Temperatures
Requires Reversible Removal of-Aux Fan
Requires Permanent Vehicle Alteration-Yes
Recommended for Daily Driver-No
Recommended for Track Car-Yes
Problems Addressed-The stock cowl, overtime, will “curl” the lower tabs (see illustrative pictures below) causing significant blockages of the oil cooler fins, resulting in decreased cooling efficiency on (and off) track. Cowl has been pictured against white background for illustrative purposes.
Additional Considerations- There is debate over removing the aux fan and whether this results in a deleterious effect to the cooling efficiency of the vehicle. You must have a proper electric fan setup on your stock or aftermarket radiator to run this product.
Installation Considerations- I would recommend the following 1) Place a large amount of duct tape over the drill to set the necessary depth of drilling for peace of mind when drilling out the holes for the nutserts 2) Assemble the product at the desired height (which is adjustable) then remove the product to check for proper location of your supplied insulation/air gap fillers 3) WeTools sells a nutsert tool on Amazon for around $40, which is sufficient to install nutserts 4) You will likely need to purchase a 9mm drill unless you have a metric drill set. 4) You will need to modify the stock plastic bumper screen by removing the side protrusions with a dremel (reinforced cut-off wheel is fine) and add relatively fine radiator mesh to the stock screen to protect your radiator and oil cooler. In the alternative, you could modify your bumper to attach radiator mesh directly. Stock bumper screen with fine black mesh will retain stock look.
Data- AiM Data shows reduction in in engine coolant operating temperature. No spikes, no movement beyond center of needle. Before I installed this product I would get spikes on the track approaching 3/4 of the stock gauge as sessions progressed, resulting in pit-ins and lost track time. No issues with overheating with 7 days of track time this season.
Would I Buy this Product Again-Yes
Overall Score-9.4
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk