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Temp of P/S fluid?

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Old Aug 29, 2011 | 11:15 AM
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Default Temp of P/S fluid?

So, with the guidance from this site I changed my upper rad hose to the '98 style (no p/s cooler in it!) and installed a Hayden cooler utilizing the stock hose and one supplied in the cooler kit (btw thanks to all posters in the recent thread regarding this mod, it was easier due to the pics/advice etc!). My question is with the hot (to the touch) aliminum cooler after a relaxing highway drive of 15min or so. I thought that it would feel cool or at least touchable due to the air movement. After idling and adjusting the coolant level which was about 15 or more minutes, that cooler was very hot also. It seems that the pump forces the fluid at such pressure regardless of speed and load that it is too hot to touch. It makes me wonder if I need a larger cooler, change its' location etc? I'm going to buy a probe to get real temp reading today and report back. Anyone else do an actual temp reading of their fluid? According to the web, p/s fluid is designed to operate @ 110-125C (230F) and up to 160C (300+F) maximum and typically boils at 450F. My problem is that I did not do a before temp test to compare, I just dove in! Any insight would be appreciated, guys!
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Old Aug 30, 2011 | 07:59 AM
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You are correct. The pump is compressing fluid all the time and keeping the system up to pressure.

You gotta get a thermometer and measure the temps. If you are at 190*F, you are better than a car with a stock cooler. If you are below 170*F, you are doing pretty good.
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Old Aug 30, 2011 | 09:25 AM
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^^Thanks for the reply, my request was kinda out there! Well, I bought an infrared thermometer and did some investigating. I could only drive the car aroud the block a little bit aggressively with lots of revs swerving etc in my neighbourhood for obvious reasons and... the cooler was HOT to the touch and measured around 50C, the outlet (pressure) line out of the pump was around 90C and the fluid in the reservoir was around 70-80C. I've got to switch around the cooler lines so that the return-to-pump hose is in the airstream rather than the way I have it now. So far, the fluid is cooler than I thought considering how the cooler feels(!) so I suspect the P/S fluid is cooler than stock temp as wssix99 stated! More fiddling to do, I'll update after a proper highway flog.
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Old Aug 30, 2011 | 11:24 AM
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Originally Posted by pewter2002
^^Thanks for the reply, my request was kinda out there! Well, I bought an infrared thermometer and did some investigating. I could only drive the car aroud the block a little bit aggressively with lots of revs swerving etc in my neighbourhood for obvious reasons and... the cooler was HOT to the touch and measured around 50C, the outlet (pressure) line out of the pump was around 90C and the fluid in the reservoir was around 70-80C. I've got to switch around the cooler lines so that the return-to-pump hose is in the airstream rather than the way I have it now. So far, the fluid is cooler than I thought considering how the cooler feels(!) so I suspect the P/S fluid is cooler than stock temp as wssix99 stated! More fiddling to do, I'll update after a proper highway flog.
My cooler is always warm to the touch........it'll get hot if I do allot of stop and go traffic on a hot *** day.....but never is actually HOT where I cannot touch it.

I think having it constantly getting slammed with ram air is the key......

.
Attached Thumbnails Temp of P/S fluid?-dsc01789.jpg   Temp of P/S fluid?-dsc01786.jpg  
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Old Aug 30, 2011 | 12:03 PM
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^^The cooler I have is literally HALF the size of yours and you have a slot in your air dam, so you're getting 2x the cooling of my setup! I'm in the experimental stage right now, I think you've got the max amount of cooling with your setup. I want to see where I'm at temp wise and max my setup before getting a larger cooler, relocating mine or cutting anything. I remember your post from the other thread and studied your setup before startiing anything - thanks for jumping in here too!
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Old Aug 30, 2011 | 01:09 PM
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Originally Posted by pewter2002
^^The cooler I have is literally HALF the size of yours and you have a slot in your air dam, so you're getting 2x the cooling of my setup! I'm in the experimental stage right now, I think you've got the max amount of cooling with your setup. I want to see where I'm at temp wise and max my setup before getting a larger cooler, relocating mine or cutting anything. I remember your post from the other thread and studied your setup before startiing anything - thanks for jumping in here too!
Sure. That stuff pumps pretty fast through the entire system.....so if the cooler is too small the fluid just flys through it and has no time to cool.

.
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