In the racing world, we call “heat soak” when your engine detunes due to heat. The super chargers and turbos get heat soaked, than you get lower power. So your best laps are always at the start before you get heat soaked.
@@JimmytheGenius Thanks Jimmy, I love learning about the operational side. I'm thinking about adding cold intakes for my car since the airflow path would be much more direct. As is, the airflow path goes from the grill to the back of the motor over the heads, then back towards the front about 3/4ths the length of the engine (lots of heat going into the air supplied to the turbo which then heats more - then through the intercoolers. Anyway, there's a dude (Splitt Mods) that has a great how-to and he gets more power based on this approach.
Yeah I was speeding home then caught up to a 350z my Stang was already heat soaked she did not take off at all definitely checking out the motor and see what I can add on to the motor to keep it cooler while I drive especially when I’m tryna have fun🤙🏼
Good video Eric - thanks! I do understand heat soak as my summer fun time toy is a boosted Miata, and it runs hot... Being on the opposite end of the garage spectrum (theft prone, urban high rise parkade), I have to pretend I'm cleaning out my trunk, checking tire pressures or whatever else I can do to give my engine 15 minutes to cool off a little with the hood open. The biggest sacrifice to living in the city isn't the smallish dwelling, it's the lack of a private garage. Kudos to all of you out there who made it a priority to have a proper garage - much respect.
You're worrying about the plastic materials in 10-15 years. Some times on hot days I pop open the hood and leave the garage door open with the 6.2L AMG just so the house AC won't have to deal with all that heat 😅
Also I consider the life of the rubber, plastic parts too. Hoses and all that. Really gets hot under the hood in the summer when shutting down. Good vid, thanks
On non modified customer cars, not an issue today. I can remember one customer complaint of "slow crank" on a SAAB 900 back in 1985, that is it. My "junker" a 1994 Lesabre shows no heat soak symptoms even here in the Tucson summer (109F was the high yesterday 7/12/2020) Now on modified cars,heat soak can be a problem.That coked up oil sludge picture made me think of the Toyota oil sludge problem from 20 years ago. Toyota settled a class-action engine-sludge suit in 2007 that covered an estimated 2.5-million Toyota and Lexus vehicles made between 1997 and 2002. In that case, Toyota agreed to repair sludged engines for up to eight years from the time of purchase.
I like to open the hood and connect a battery charger/maintainer. My AGM battery on my Honda Odyssey has a short life because of significant discharge when parked. I turn a fan on and leave the garage door open for a while if possible to get the heat out of the house.
Got a kick out of this, I have the same issue with machinery love / concern. Although, mine is two fold. I park ALL my cars inside to protect them period. In addition, I open hoods (especially on my older classics) to elevate pressure on lifting / pop springs and associated gas lift rods etc. This includes rear hatches as well, and T tops, so rubber seals are not compressed, Simply cover with ultra soft cotton sheets draped over each to minimize potential dust.
I sometimes do the same as you, leaving the hood open when I park in my fairly small garage after a longer trip or if I was running hard. Also even though I've got water cooling going to my turbo, I still let it idle for 10-15 seconds after coming to a stop just to help the center cartridge cool down a little bit better. It's small things like these that ultimately prolong the life of our vehicles. And when you add all these precautions up, it can mean driving your car for a year or more before it really *dies*.
I actually noticed my sister's MK4 Jetta fans staying on when I turn it off. I knew it was to lower engine bay temps, but I thought it was just a VW thing. My 7th gen has never done that though, either way Cool vid!
My dads 92 accord will run the fan even with the key off, until the temp switch reaches its break temp. When I installed electric fans on my old cars I also wired them up such that they bypassed the ignition switch. Letting the temp switch break the ckt when the temp goes down. Its a little awkward to hear the fan running when the car is off and locked, but I feel like I'm helping the heat soak issue.
Heat soak can also mess with electronics too. Materials being hot affects how they conduct electricity. First thing I do with old vehicles is clean up electrodes and grounds and give the engine a good wash. Dust and oil all over your block can be a surprisingly good insulator, i've had weird electric problems go away after a good clean up.
This reminds me of a PROTIP: If you're driving along and see your temperature gauge creeping up, turn your heater to full blast and then pull over at the next safest place. Check for traffic before exiting the vehicle to pop the hood and cool that baby down. The reason for turning on the heater is the heater gets heat from the engine. This can buy you a bit more time to safely exit the racing surface... I mean... the road
Another great video. I picked up an Alpina B7 (2013) recently and the "hot V" configuration with the turbos between the heads in the "V" causes most of the problems with this type of car. I've been opening the hood since I got the car, but I try not to drive it when it's really hot due to the superheating effect on the garage.
Oh my gosh, now I know what that's called, machine sympathy LOL I have that as well and have tried to explain it to my racing friend who didn't. Too cool...thank you! P. S. Steve Miller rocks! Nice reference at the beginning ;)
I've been doing this for years with my 13 F150 Ecoboost. On hot days I'll come home and park in my garage and pop the hood. It's damn hot under there... I do mostly for the sake of all the PLASTIC hoses, tubes, intakes, etc.... I also open my hood after I've towed my #7000 TT and get to my camp site and get it unhitched... I pop the hood and the heat just pours out of it.. I've had some "truck fan boys" come up and say to me.... "Well, I guess your FORD is overheating because you have to open the hood on it".. I say, "No, it's just that it is HOT out and it ran fine and never came close to overheating, but I'd like to get the "heat soak" out from under the hood"... They look at me like I'm from Mars and I just say, "This is just what I do, thanks for your concern.." Mitch
I agree with your assessment of the oil ‘coking’ issue, but I’m sure regular oil changes with modern oils helps to mitigate that issue. My concern with regard to ‘heat soak’ is the affect on the rubber and polymer parts under the hood, i.e., connectors, water and vacuum hoses, and belts... particularly those vehicles that have timing belts. All belts are affected, but the timing belt is more vulnerable because of its shrouded location and contacting all the steel and aluminum gears and pulleys, idler, tensioner, right up against the front of the engine block which are conducting heat away from the engine internals.
i definitely open the hood after a drive. My car has aftermarket fans that are wired to a switch panel (with relays of course) and I let those run after the car is off for some time.
The problem with opening the hood when you get home is you wear out the hood latch and release cable and eventually break it. Ask me how I know about that :)
My friend who tunes Subarus taught me that heat soak makes things difficult when tuning on a hot summer day because the engine heats up the intercooler and aluminum intake, which are both on top of the engine in Subarus, which raises intake temperatures, increases knock, etc. Sometimes I drive a car he's road tuning and we avoid stopping to prevent heat soak from interfering.
i had a heat soak issue with my build. The MAT sensor was right before the throttle body, coincidentally very close to the radiator. After a long drive, the sensor would take in this heat soak and read higher than normal temps at idle, causing it to lean out. I had to move it down right after the intercooler to fix this issue
Hood risers? Maybe? I just park in garage, pop the hood, turn on a fan on medium speed and hang out in the garage. I'm already in the garage for hours after work so it's cooled down by the time I go inside the house.
In the 03 Chevy Cavalier I had for my first car the fans would keep running after I shut the car off, until either the temperature was below a set point (can’t remember what temp that was) or the timer maxed out (witch was something like 20 minutes I think..) Now I daily an 03 Silverado witch was not the same unfortunately because from the factory it came with a mechanical fan. But I really liked the idea of fans running after I shut the vehicle off IF it is over a certain temperature, and I was also interested in the idea of having electric fans in general because I do haul often and things can get a little toasty if I’m really pushing it when it’s hot outside. So after a couple years of owning this truck I swapped in a larger factory radiator and factory dual electric fans, from a newer model HD truck so they bolted right up. After a little tuning the fans are now controlled by the factory ecu and I also programmed them to run after the truck is shut off, IF the coolant temperature in the block is over 210 degrees. (Since I have dual battery’s that are not connected to one another when the truck is off I did not set a timer, they will just run until either the coolant temperature in the block drops below 180 degrees, or theoretically until the main battery dies but I doubt it would ever get THAT hot though to where the battery would die before the engine was cool enough)
Eric, it might make for a very interesting video to graph your IAT sensor on a drive starting with a cold engine. Then make a stop for a few minutes to allow heat soak to take effect on the intake manifold etc. Then go for another drive and keep graphing. I was super surprised to see my IAT temps jump from 100 to 145 after running into the grocery store.
Was having a heat soak issue with my 1997 Geo Metro. It wouldn't crank after I parked it until the engine cooled off enough to do so. I just removed the thermostat to see if it helps in the future. Fingers crossed.
A few months ago I got a 2020 Supra. Something I noticed right away was how amazingly fast the engine came up to normal operating temperature, in probably half the time of any other car I've had. With a bit of investigation I discovered that BMW, with whom the car was jointly developed, has done a lot of work on actually retaining heat after the engine is shut off. I think they call it heat encapsulation. The purpose is to minimize warmup time and thus maximize mpg.
I completely understand everything about heat soak, but it hasn’t affected my car as much, mainly because I live in Canada, where it’s cold 6 months out of the year. In these summer months, they may be an enemy, but in the winter months, they aren’t as much, since they dissipate more quickly during the winter time.
when you drive the engine temperature is lower (below fan start ..at thermostat temperature) if the fan start it's because you waited to long the engine got even hotter that the fan had to start
moreause I think what he meant to say was that he turned off the vehicle and put the key back to ‘on’ without starting the engine. It enables the sensors to kick the fans on while the engine is off. This does help a lot on my 1998 LS400
@@moreause it all depends on HOW you drive... 😏 lol for me if I park and the fans are not on, I'll just shut it off and leave it. If the fans ARE on, I leave the engine running until they shut off. Sometimes though I do shut the engine off and then put the key in the on position to run the fans for a minute and blow air over everything.
@@Finesse460 Those are beefy engines, gotta keep them cool! I have an 01 GS300, those 2JZ love to get nice and toasty. If I drive it hard fans immediately turn on if i slow down and there's no more air flow lol
Jaguar Rover tech here. Been seeing a lot of vehicles come in here to our dealership in the fine mid July Atlanta heat with leaking evap seals to breather hoses or purge valves. Particularly on early 2010 jag sedans. And as anyone knows that works on jag or rovers, they LOVE brittle plastic material for hoses. The smoke tester has been worked to death since early june. I've replaced 3 evap canister purge valves and 2 full throttle breather hoses just this week. And Its not even thursday yet
I don’t necessarily raise the hood when I get somewhere. But what I have done particularly when the kids were little, if they were asleep. I’d leave it running with the AC on. I’m in the southern climate. There are times we run our AC at Christmas. But I digress, if we were parked and I had to run the car with the AC on, I would often raise the hood just to let the heat out. It tends to keep rubber components happier and the alternator and starter. Numerous occasions I had people ask me if I was having car trouble, “no I’m preventing them” ✌️
Oh my god!!! That's what I am for all these years and I just didn't know what to call it.. English is my second language,, "mechanical sympathy " yes that is definitely me ..I just thought I was weird...I put a computer fan near the fuel injector and I have a on off switch inside my jeep.
Outside air is moving faster at driving speeds, = lower air pressure outside = hot air from engine will be pulled out at driving speeds. Also hot air rises. I pull out the winter rubber seals for the summer.
I first became aware of heat soak, when I'd park a older Camaro with the starter directly under the right exhaust manifold.. It would seize up the starter till it cooled. I sorta fixed it with heat shields and other insulation, but I do get the idea. My old Turbo Corvair spider, would cook the oil in the bearing bushing once it "Spooled down. A good reason to run synthetics in newer turbo cars. Something else I wanted to ask you is " What do you think about leak down test and could yo do a video on it and how it can not only spot engine wear but indicate where it's coming from".. Blown head gasket, rings,valves/intake or exhaust. Just a thought. Your old pal Sela....Stay relatively dirty.
Supercharged and turbocharged engines are especially vulnerable to coking. In my case, the only "boosted" engines that I own are in my 5 semi tractors. I've had each one fitted with a pre-lube system to circulate oil through the engine and turbo before a cold start, as well as after shut down. My drivers know that they will face my wrath if they don't use them! As far as heat soak, I'm a simple man. All of my personal vehicles, especially the ones with small block Chevys and headers, have heat shields over the starters!
There's a pretty steep hill I need to go up to get to my house, and I always have my foot in it pretty good going up it. As I get to the top, I let off the gas and try to coast as long as I can to get everything cooled off before I kill the engine once parked. I'll let it idle for a minute before I shut it down, too, on super-hot days. I run Amsoil in most of my vehicles, so I don't worry too much about internal heat. Things would have to be burning hot to coke up Amsoil Signature Series oil. My Silverado is past the point of me caring too much about it - been a lemon since even before it rolled off the showroom floor! At 102k miles now, so I figure I've got 30k more miles before the engine fails, either from a stuck AFM lifter, broken valve springs, walked cam bearings, or any number of the other failures this engine suffers. I definitely won't go above and beyond to keep heat out of it. The replacement engine will get better care than this one. If I had an engine like the Fairmont, I most certainly would open the hood! That's a giant aluminum bank account right there. 😁😜
Drive a fair amount. Get home. Turn the engine off. Pop the hood. Grab a seat. And listen to the exhaust manifolds crackling as it cools down. *pure bliss* Aside from that, heat soak is a very real problem with my '64 dodge. After driving for a while, then shutting it off to go buy sumthin at walmart, come back start the engine and it stalls as the carb got "overcooked" by the heat soak.
Toyota landcruiser 75 series 1HZ 4.2 diesel with a denco turbo 10 psi boost with a turbo compensating injector pump ..... they can defeat the cooling system during high load slow driving ie 4wd in sand fully loaded, everything gets too hot and with a flir you can see the hole engine bay is the same temp. But I now run 3 thermo fans that can run after shut down with 1 between the radiator and the condenser and the 2 one pulling from the back of the rad and the the 3rd is on the inter-cooler drawing air in from the bonnet, also there is a Davies Craig Water Pump set up with this config I can keep the engine under 100 deg c and the intake manifold at 30 deg c.
any one with a garage can install a fan on the floor that you drive over it facing the engine bay , that works for 15 minutes and shut off by it self after you park your car to cool down your engine , no need to open the hood or even turn on and off the fan . great idea .
Since I park outside, on hot days, I try to park in the shade whenever I can. Or, in a way that the sun is facing the REAR of the vehicle instead of the front.
Huge problem on Jeep XJs... heat soak messes with the fuel injectors and if you have been driving, turn it off and then back on within a few minutes, the engine runs rough and throws codes. Some guys install relays to keep the cooling fans running. Probably a smart idea...
Its way to hot here in az if you lift the hood the Engine while its off will gain heat 120 degrees here i dont have a garage i have several drive ways so there ways in the sun
That mechanical sympathy thing, thats definately what i do lol. I cant bring myself to beat my vehicles no matter how new or how old and crappy they are, i dont even like having them rev high
I definitely do the same leave the garbage door open, have a few beers & think about god only knows what. Maybe watch ETCG1. Winter I do the same but keep the garage door closed because it's free heat for my garage.
Had a 1978 Ford Fairmont 3.3 inline six that if you didn't pop the hood after driving it especial;u pm a jpt dau ot wpi;d jeat spal amd be bad empigj tp bpo; tje gas pit pf tje Carb! Making it hard to start when returning and trying to start it!
My Audi has a system where it uses an electric radiator fan and an electric pump that turn on to circulate coolant through the turbos after shutdown. Only kicks on if its a certain temperature after shutdown.
I have a fan running on low speed blowing near the car 24/7 to keep air circulating in the garage. And I have the same problem as you when pushing the car. I worry a lot about things breaking. The good thing is that means my cars tend to last a very long time. Bad thing is I normally run the engine in low rpm and don't enjoy the car like other people who rev their car on a regular basis.
I had an old Mercedes that would run hot after getting off the highway on my way home after work in the summer. Eventually I started popping the hood once I got to my block to get extra airflow in and as soon as I got home I’d leave the hood up and go in and unpack all my stuff and head back out later to close it. Now in my Miata I open the hood every time I finish driving hard or for a long time whenever it’s hot out. I’ll also leave the key in the run position until the cooling fan turns off and then I’ll close everything up.
I only bother worrying if I've been driving the car hard. Then I'll give it a minute or two to idle if I didn't give it a few minutes of gentle driving before parking. Cooled oil and coolant can do way more for cooling a block than any amount of Texas air.
Honda definitely didn't plan for heat soak on some J series cars Friends got a 2000 Accord V6 that has some combination of struggling with city stop and go traffic, and winter/summer blend gas w/ethanol that makes it vapor lock something fierce for about 6 months out of the year. And no, the TSB with a new PCM and Fuel pressure regulator doesn't fix it :(
That's unfortunate. Given that generation, I'd recommend removing the intake and cleaning the EGR passages and also the intake while you're at it. They tended to carbon up more than later model J series did. ua-cam.com/video/HRp6RWZ1egM/v-deo.html
In the ‘little Italians’ that I have drive I notice that my n/aspirated engine in high heat ( not very often I the UK😂) it does seem to appear the car feels o the odd occasion a bit ‘drunk ‘ or slightly laggy during high external temperatures despite everything working as it should. I may give this a go and see if there’s any merit in it. 😎🙏🏾
Keep engine clean. Repair any fluid seepage/leaks that attract dirt & gunk buildup; all that acts as an insulator, holding in damaging heat. High-temp ceramic paint helps to dissipate heat, think of a coffee mug. Fuel in the injectors & rails can also boil, depositing varnish over time, just as Eric mentioned oil coking.
Look into your ceramics theory, mugs are ceramic because they DON'T transfer heat. Ever try to hold a glass cup of tea? There are other benefits to these paints. Corrosion and thermal stability, keeping your EGTs UP is crucial for turbo and catalytic operation. If you don't have those then you are reducing the temperature gradient across exhaust valves, heads, and flanges.
I've been doing the same thing for years. I occasionally open the hood of the Vette after driving. Usually open the hood of the Camaro, rarely open the hood of the Crown Vic, and almost always open the hood of the BMW to dissipate heat and prevent heat soak. BMW parts are plastic and expensive to replace and it runs very hot with a 219 °F thermostat, all aluminum block. The Vette runs really cool with a 160 °F thermostat and cast-iron block, but those wires and rubber hoses are pretty brittle after 27 years of age. Camaro runs pretty normal with a 195 °F lots of plastic parts with aluminum engine under that hood. The P71 served years as a patrol car and is pretty robust with extra cooling capabilities, so it can take a hit.
I usually let my car idle for about 5 minutes after a long drive. Turn off the AC and most electric consumers that puts a load on the engine. It's not the most efficient way to cool the engine, but at least it circulates the oil while it cools down a little.
If ive been driving hard then id take a minute of not driving so hard and actually follow tge limit as to cool it down or park it and let it idle a bit before killing it
Weird yeah I do this too on my vehicles , like my 85 gmc s15 2.8 carbureted it's been awful hot here 90s and up and when I drive it and get back home I usually will open the hood and let her cool down cause it gets hot when I turn key off . Like my 87 Chevrolet celebrity eurosport 2.8 multi-port fuel injection it hot soaks bad I noticed yesterday , got home turned it off and the temp hit over 220 and was thinking man that's hot and i guess that's normal but yeah I do the hood thing too lol
I think mechanical empathy is all in a person's head and has no effect on the engine, any more than ambient winter temperature affects a car's performance. Your car doesn't care if it's zero degrees, it will start or it won't. Internal temp is 200 degrees, the car engine doesn't care, it's made of steel. Sorta like when you give your dog "fresh" water, he'll drink from a mud hole just as quick. He doesn'r care.
@@bentnickel7487 Mechanical empathy/sympathy doesn't affect the engine, it affects how you drive. If you're attuned to the mechanicals, you're more aware of if part are getting overly stressed, or too hot, or starting to make just a little bit of a new noise, when a less sympathetic driver will keep their foot down and go a little faster, then wonder why they didn't finish the race when the engine looks like a yard sale on the back straight. Jack Brabham won a number of Grand Prix races because he was also his car's designer and builder - so he could feel when things weren't quite right during a race and adapt his driving accordingly so he'd get to the finish line.
Hi Eric, Where I live is usually really hot and I also open the hood and put a floor fan facing the radiator. Even if the car is shut down if you can cool the water in the radiator it will cicle, slowly but it will because the “heat convection” effect. Some german cars a more effective system to allow the car to cool properly after shutdown, where the radiator fan keeps on for few minutes after the car is shut down. My father and I where able to recreate this system on my old ‘94 Civic. Basically you need to give direct power to one of the relay prongs in order to activate the circuit of the fan and water temp. What you want is keep the circuit alive after key shut down, the fan will spin until the temp is lowered and the fun will shut itself.
I do that too. Park the car in the driveway , pop the hood and let it cool before pulling it in the garage an hour later. I do that mostly in the summer. In the winter I do the same but in the garage and use that heat to heat the garage.
Synthetic for the win! I honestly don’t understand why so many people still use conventional. Synthetic is SO much better especially these days, definitely worth the couple extra bucks it cost over conventional.
i wondered about how tight they make cars nowadays trying to cram as much under a smaller space under the hood so they have to insulate the car battery from engine compartment .also put all these plastic covers on bottom of engine and top of engine why? are these covers serving a purpose for airflow under car or water splashing up onto engine from road? do you think it hurts anything to leave them off ?
I figured you’re opening the hoods on cars in the shop because you’re a mechanic and you don’t really enjoy working on a hot engine. Nothing worse than touching a hot header and getting a nasty burn on your hand
Before OEM's got heavy into turbos and learned how to make the engines live "turbo timers" were all the rage with aftermarket turbo kits. They would keep the engine running for several minutes after you turned off the key to keep the oil circulating while the engine cooled down.
Big engine + tiny chassis + over sized radiator. My diesel doesn’t even turn the fan on. Not even going through Death Valley @ 115f. I do worry about my turbo. But I have a variable turbo with semi-manual control. So when I’m a mile or so from home I set my turbo to “wide open” In the hopes that heat flows out
Thanks for the Space Cowboy part, Eric. I really need a humor pick up today. You are not alone on the "mechanical sympathy" element either. I treat rental cars well, so you can imagine...
Hey Eric, have you ever considered an electric water pump in one of your custom engines? These are pretty new on new cars, but made to run for a bit longer after the engine shuts off.
They work great for the track, but not driving on the street as coolant flow does not match engine RPM like a mechanical pump does. My cars are made for the street, not the track.
I drive my cars into the pool when I get home.
In the racing world, we call “heat soak” when your engine detunes due to heat. The super chargers and turbos get heat soaked, than you get lower power. So your best laps are always at the start before you get heat soaked.
I can feel the detuning effect you describe as the weather gets hot.
yeah i thought from the title thats exactly what Eric would talk about
@@raptorcybersecurity it's based on intake air temps, as it soaks, the computer will pull timing to reduce knock, which reduces power
@@JimmytheGenius Thanks Jimmy, I love learning about the operational side. I'm thinking about adding cold intakes for my car since the airflow path would be much more direct. As is, the airflow path goes from the grill to the back of the motor over the heads, then back towards the front about 3/4ths the length of the engine (lots of heat going into the air supplied to the turbo which then heats more - then through the intercoolers. Anyway, there's a dude (Splitt Mods) that has a great how-to and he gets more power based on this approach.
@@raptorcybersecurity Also the air less dense and therefore less oxygenated so that will have an effect too
I like to pop the hood when I get home. Then I can smoke my pipe and ponder the engine’s condition.
Yeah I was speeding home then caught up to a 350z my Stang was already heat soaked she did not take off at all definitely checking out the motor and see what I can add on to the motor to keep it cooler while I drive especially when I’m tryna have fun🤙🏼
Just popped my hood smoking a bleezy looking at what can I add it’s full bolt ons GT you recommend any thing
Good video Eric - thanks!
I do understand heat soak as my summer fun time toy is a boosted Miata, and it runs hot...
Being on the opposite end of the garage spectrum (theft prone, urban high rise parkade), I have to pretend I'm cleaning out my trunk, checking tire pressures or whatever else I can do to give my engine 15 minutes to cool off a little with the hood open.
The biggest sacrifice to living in the city isn't the smallish dwelling, it's the lack of a private garage.
Kudos to all of you out there who made it a priority to have a proper garage - much respect.
You're worrying about the plastic materials in 10-15 years. Some times on hot days I pop open the hood and leave the garage door open with the 6.2L AMG just so the house AC won't have to deal with all that heat 😅
Also I consider the life of the rubber, plastic parts too. Hoses and all that. Really gets hot under the hood in the summer when shutting down. Good vid, thanks
I do this in the middle of a travel at summer, when i stop for a coffee i pop-up the hood for some minutes to help the engine ''relief'' a bit.
On non modified customer cars, not an issue today. I can remember one customer complaint of "slow crank" on a SAAB 900 back in 1985, that is it. My "junker" a 1994 Lesabre shows no heat soak symptoms even here in the Tucson summer (109F was the high yesterday 7/12/2020) Now on modified cars,heat soak can be a problem.That coked up oil sludge picture made me think of the Toyota oil sludge problem from 20 years ago.
Toyota settled a class-action engine-sludge suit in 2007 that covered an estimated 2.5-million Toyota and Lexus vehicles made between 1997 and 2002. In that case, Toyota agreed to repair sludged engines for up to eight years from the time of purchase.
I love the way you think. Still babying my 96 Integra I bought new.
I like to open the hood and connect a battery charger/maintainer. My AGM battery on my Honda Odyssey has a short life because of significant discharge when parked. I turn a fan on and leave the garage door open for a while if possible to get the heat out of the house.
What kind of accessories are causing the parasitic draw on the battery when parked? Active sensor alarm, sound system?
Got a kick out of this, I have the same issue with machinery love / concern. Although, mine is two fold. I park ALL my cars inside to protect them period. In addition, I open hoods (especially on my older classics) to elevate pressure on lifting / pop springs and associated gas lift rods etc. This includes rear hatches as well, and T tops, so rubber seals are not compressed, Simply cover with ultra soft cotton sheets draped over each to minimize potential dust.
I'm used to people reffing to heat soak as loosing power on a hot day, usually, in a car with an aftermarket intake.
Also known as the car cowboy, hell yeah brother, you're on the Eric The CarGuy UA-cam channel!
Eric what a beautiful background 2 beautiful integras.
I sometimes do the same as you, leaving the hood open when I park in my fairly small garage after a longer trip or if I was running hard. Also even though I've got water cooling going to my turbo, I still let it idle for 10-15 seconds after coming to a stop just to help the center cartridge cool down a little bit better. It's small things like these that ultimately prolong the life of our vehicles. And when you add all these precautions up, it can mean driving your car for a year or more before it really *dies*.
We do same with turbo engines on piston engine airplanes. Let the engine release the heat, specially in the summer. Why not?
Having my headers ceramic coated made a huge difference in heat soak. Much lower temperatures now.
Here's a reverse. My grandpa(born 1897)when he was roofing would put a blanket on the engine of his truck in winter to keep it warm.
I actually noticed my sister's MK4 Jetta fans staying on when I turn it off. I knew it was to lower engine bay temps, but I thought it was just a VW thing. My 7th gen has never done that though, either way Cool vid!
My dads 92 accord will run the fan even with the key off, until the temp switch reaches its break temp. When I installed electric fans on my old cars I also wired them up such that they bypassed the ignition switch. Letting the temp switch break the ckt when the temp goes down. Its a little awkward to hear the fan running when the car is off and locked, but I feel like I'm helping the heat soak issue.
Heat soak can also mess with electronics too. Materials being hot affects how they conduct electricity. First thing I do with old vehicles is clean up electrodes and grounds and give the engine a good wash. Dust and oil all over your block can be a surprisingly good insulator, i've had weird electric problems go away after a good clean up.
This reminds me of a PROTIP:
If you're driving along and see your temperature gauge creeping up, turn your heater to full blast and then pull over at the next safest place. Check for traffic before exiting the vehicle to pop the hood and cool that baby down.
The reason for turning on the heater is the heater gets heat from the engine. This can buy you a bit more time to safely exit the racing surface... I mean... the road
Another great video. I picked up an Alpina B7 (2013) recently and the "hot V" configuration with the turbos between the heads in the "V" causes most of the problems with this type of car. I've been opening the hood since I got the car, but I try not to drive it when it's really hot due to the superheating effect on the garage.
"Something in the back of my mind is saying, 'Eric, you're going to have to fix this, don't break it.'..."
PREACH, Brother. Preach on...
Love your work and videos!
Can't forget the 🎂😊
I also really like the videos where you explain a specific topic, keep up the great work👍👍
Oh my gosh, now I know what that's called, machine sympathy LOL I have that as well and have tried to explain it to my racing friend who didn't. Too cool...thank you! P. S. Steve Miller rocks! Nice reference at the beginning ;)
I've been doing this for years with my 13 F150 Ecoboost. On hot days I'll come home and park in my garage and pop the hood. It's damn hot under there... I do mostly for the sake of all the PLASTIC hoses, tubes, intakes, etc....
I also open my hood after I've towed my #7000 TT and get to my camp site and get it unhitched... I pop the hood and the heat just pours out of it.. I've had some "truck fan boys" come up and say to me.... "Well, I guess your FORD is overheating because you have to open the hood on it".. I say, "No, it's just that it is HOT out and it ran fine and never came close to overheating, but I'd like to get the "heat soak" out from under the hood"... They look at me like I'm from Mars and I just say, "This is just what I do, thanks for your concern.." Mitch
Thank you Eric I always love watching your videos I am from South Africa
Hello South Africa!
I agree with your assessment of the oil ‘coking’ issue, but I’m sure regular oil changes with modern oils helps to mitigate that issue. My concern with regard to ‘heat soak’ is the affect on the rubber and polymer parts under the hood, i.e., connectors, water and vacuum hoses, and belts... particularly those vehicles that have timing belts. All belts are affected, but the timing belt is more vulnerable because of its shrouded location and contacting all the steel and aluminum gears and pulleys, idler, tensioner, right up against the front of the engine block which are conducting heat away from the engine internals.
i definitely open the hood after a drive. My car has aftermarket fans that are wired to a switch panel (with relays of course) and I let those run after the car is off for some time.
The problem with opening the hood when you get home is you wear out the hood latch and release cable and eventually break it. Ask me how I know about that :)
I'm so glad i don't have to deal with heatsoak in a prius. Well i do but not to the boiling water extremes (like in a regilar car).
My friend who tunes Subarus taught me that heat soak makes things difficult when tuning on a hot summer day because the engine heats up the intercooler and aluminum intake, which are both on top of the engine in Subarus, which raises intake temperatures, increases knock, etc. Sometimes I drive a car he's road tuning and we avoid stopping to prevent heat soak from interfering.
Heat soak is what happens here in Florida when you step outside. 😜
Edit to add: at 2:43 I call it mechanical empathy. Same concept. I have it too.
I have a couple of inexpensive fans I use when I park in the garage. 1 facing the engine bay and the other points out the garage window.
i like that “mechanical sympathy” lolz here in Arizona we have hear soak in june -September. (100F at night)
John Smith I live in the CA high desert, my ‘95 Jeep ZJ hates this climate in the summer! Seems to do great in our winter though. 😂
I live in Phoenix, Arizona the IAT on my 03 sonata was 165F.
@@justinmorey2139 That's insane lol
Arizona is harsh my guy! But love it there!
we have heat soak year round fym lol.
I'll start my car and it's already at operating temp... other places have cold starts, we have hot starts
i had a heat soak issue with my build. The MAT sensor was right before the throttle body, coincidentally very close to the radiator. After a long drive, the sensor would take in this heat soak and read higher than normal temps at idle, causing it to lean out. I had to move it down right after the intercooler to fix this issue
Hood risers? Maybe? I just park in garage, pop the hood, turn on a fan on medium speed and hang out in the garage. I'm already in the garage for hours after work so it's cooled down by the time I go inside the house.
In the 03 Chevy Cavalier I had for my first car the fans would keep running after I shut the car off, until either the temperature was below a set point (can’t remember what temp that was) or the timer maxed out (witch was something like 20 minutes I think..) Now I daily an 03 Silverado witch was not the same unfortunately because from the factory it came with a mechanical fan. But I really liked the idea of fans running after I shut the vehicle off IF it is over a certain temperature, and I was also interested in the idea of having electric fans in general because I do haul often and things can get a little toasty if I’m really pushing it when it’s hot outside. So after a couple years of owning this truck I swapped in a larger factory radiator and factory dual electric fans, from a newer model HD truck so they bolted right up. After a little tuning the fans are now controlled by the factory ecu and I also programmed them to run after the truck is shut off, IF the coolant temperature in the block is over 210 degrees. (Since I have dual battery’s that are not connected to one another when the truck is off I did not set a timer, they will just run until either the coolant temperature in the block drops below 180 degrees, or theoretically until the main battery dies but I doubt it would ever get THAT hot though to where the battery would die before the engine was cool enough)
Eric, it might make for a very interesting video to graph your IAT sensor on a drive starting with a cold engine. Then make a stop for a few minutes to allow heat soak to take effect on the intake manifold etc. Then go for another drive and keep graphing. I was super surprised to see my IAT temps jump from 100 to 145 after running into the grocery store.
Was having a heat soak issue with my 1997 Geo Metro. It wouldn't crank after I parked it until the engine cooled off enough to do so.
I just removed the thermostat to see if it helps in the future. Fingers crossed.
A few months ago I got a 2020 Supra. Something I noticed right away was how amazingly fast the engine came up to normal operating temperature, in probably half the time of any other car I've had. With a bit of investigation I discovered that BMW, with whom the car was jointly developed, has done a lot of work on actually retaining heat after the engine is shut off. I think they call it heat encapsulation. The purpose is to minimize warmup time and thus maximize mpg.
I completely understand everything about heat soak, but it hasn’t affected my car as much, mainly because I live in Canada, where it’s cold 6 months out of the year. In these summer months, they may be an enemy, but in the winter months, they aren’t as much, since they dissipate more quickly during the winter time.
3:32 I actually do that hehe. I open my hood and just sit in the car on my phone for a while before going home
I usually just wait for the fans to stop running when I park, if I can.
when you drive the engine temperature is lower (below fan start ..at thermostat temperature)
if the fan start it's because you waited to long the engine got even hotter that the fan had to start
moreause I think what he meant to say was that he turned off the vehicle and put the key back to ‘on’ without starting the engine. It enables the sensors to kick the fans on while the engine is off. This does help a lot on my 1998 LS400
@@moreause it all depends on HOW you drive... 😏 lol for me if I park and the fans are not on, I'll just shut it off and leave it. If the fans ARE on, I leave the engine running until they shut off. Sometimes though I do shut the engine off and then put the key in the on position to run the fans for a minute and blow air over everything.
@@Finesse460 Those are beefy engines, gotta keep them cool! I have an 01 GS300, those 2JZ love to get nice and toasty. If I drive it hard fans immediately turn on if i slow down and there's no more air flow lol
Jaguar Rover tech here. Been seeing a lot of vehicles come in here to our dealership in the fine mid July Atlanta heat with leaking evap seals to breather hoses or purge valves. Particularly on early 2010 jag sedans. And as anyone knows that works on jag or rovers, they LOVE brittle plastic material for hoses. The smoke tester has been worked to death since early june.
I've replaced 3 evap canister purge valves and 2 full throttle breather hoses just this week. And Its not even thursday yet
I do that when I have to work on the car right after I just drove it
I don’t necessarily raise the hood when I get somewhere. But what I have done particularly when the kids were little, if they were asleep. I’d leave it running with the AC on. I’m in the southern climate. There are times we run our AC at Christmas. But I digress, if we were parked and I had to run the car with the AC on, I would often raise the hood just to let the heat out. It tends to keep rubber components happier and the alternator and starter. Numerous occasions I had people ask me if I was having car trouble, “no I’m preventing them” ✌️
Oh my god!!! That's what I am for all these years and I just didn't know what to call it.. English is my second language,, "mechanical sympathy " yes that is definitely me ..I just thought I was weird...I put a computer fan near the fuel injector and I have a on off switch inside my jeep.
Outside air is moving faster at driving speeds, = lower air pressure outside = hot air from engine will be pulled out at driving speeds. Also hot air rises. I pull out the winter rubber seals for the summer.
I first became aware of heat soak, when I'd park a older Camaro with the starter directly under the right exhaust manifold.. It would seize up the starter till it cooled. I sorta fixed it with heat shields and other insulation, but I do get the idea. My old Turbo Corvair spider, would cook the oil in the bearing bushing once it "Spooled down.
A good reason to run synthetics in newer turbo cars.
Something else I wanted to ask you is " What do you think about leak down test and could yo do a video on it and how it can not only spot engine wear but indicate where it's coming from".. Blown head gasket, rings,valves/intake or exhaust. Just a thought. Your old pal Sela....Stay relatively dirty.
Supercharged and turbocharged engines are especially vulnerable to coking. In my case, the only "boosted" engines that I own are in my 5 semi tractors. I've had each one fitted with a pre-lube system to circulate oil through the engine and turbo before a cold start, as well as after shut down. My drivers know that they will face my wrath if they don't use them! As far as heat soak, I'm a simple man. All of my personal vehicles, especially the ones with small block Chevys and headers, have heat shields over the starters!
There's a pretty steep hill I need to go up to get to my house, and I always have my foot in it pretty good going up it. As I get to the top, I let off the gas and try to coast as long as I can to get everything cooled off before I kill the engine once parked. I'll let it idle for a minute before I shut it down, too, on super-hot days. I run Amsoil in most of my vehicles, so I don't worry too much about internal heat. Things would have to be burning hot to coke up Amsoil Signature Series oil. My Silverado is past the point of me caring too much about it - been a lemon since even before it rolled off the showroom floor! At 102k miles now, so I figure I've got 30k more miles before the engine fails, either from a stuck AFM lifter, broken valve springs, walked cam bearings, or any number of the other failures this engine suffers. I definitely won't go above and beyond to keep heat out of it. The replacement engine will get better care than this one.
If I had an engine like the Fairmont, I most certainly would open the hood! That's a giant aluminum bank account right there. 😁😜
Drive a fair amount.
Get home.
Turn the engine off.
Pop the hood.
Grab a seat.
And listen to the exhaust manifolds crackling as it cools down.
*pure bliss*
Aside from that, heat soak is a very real problem with my '64 dodge. After driving for a while, then shutting it off to go buy sumthin at walmart, come back start the engine and it stalls as the carb got "overcooked" by the heat soak.
Toyota landcruiser 75 series 1HZ 4.2 diesel with a denco turbo 10 psi boost with a turbo compensating injector pump ..... they can defeat the cooling system during high load slow driving ie 4wd in sand fully loaded, everything gets too hot and with a flir you can see the hole engine bay is the same temp.
But I now run 3 thermo fans that can run after shut down with 1 between the radiator and the condenser and the 2 one pulling from the back of the rad and the the 3rd is on the inter-cooler drawing air in from the bonnet, also there is a Davies Craig Water Pump set up with this config I can keep the engine under 100 deg c and the intake manifold at 30 deg c.
any one with a garage can install a fan on the floor that you drive over it facing the engine bay , that works for 15 minutes and shut off by it self after you park your car to cool down your engine , no need to open the hood or even turn on and off the fan . great idea .
Since I park outside, on hot days, I try to park in the shade whenever I can. Or, in a way that the sun is facing the REAR of the vehicle instead of the front.
Huge problem on Jeep XJs... heat soak messes with the fuel injectors and if you have been driving, turn it off and then back on within a few minutes, the engine runs rough and throws codes. Some guys install relays to keep the cooling fans running. Probably a smart idea...
Its way to hot here in az if you lift the hood the Engine while its off will gain heat 120 degrees here i dont have a garage i have several drive ways so there ways in the sun
It's when you're as cool as Eric, you're so cool you can soak up the heat.
Facts.
That mechanical sympathy thing, thats definately what i do lol. I cant bring myself to beat my vehicles no matter how new or how old and crappy they are, i dont even like having them rev high
I definitely do the same leave the garbage door open, have a few beers & think about god only knows what. Maybe watch ETCG1. Winter I do the same but keep the garage door closed because it's free heat for my garage.
Had a 1978 Ford Fairmont 3.3 inline six that if you didn't pop the hood after driving it especial;u pm a jpt dau ot wpi;d jeat spal amd be bad empigj tp bpo; tje gas pit pf tje Carb! Making it hard to start when returning and trying to start it!
My Audi has a system where it uses an electric radiator fan and an electric pump that turn on to circulate coolant through the turbos after shutdown. Only kicks on if its a certain temperature after shutdown.
I have a fan running on low speed blowing near the car 24/7 to keep air circulating in the garage.
And I have the same problem as you when pushing the car. I worry a lot about things breaking. The good thing is that means my cars tend to last a very long time. Bad thing is I normally run the engine in low rpm and don't enjoy the car like other people who rev their car on a regular basis.
I had an old Mercedes that would run hot after getting off the highway on my way home after work in the summer. Eventually I started popping the hood once I got to my block to get extra airflow in and as soon as I got home I’d leave the hood up and go in and unpack all my stuff and head back out later to close it. Now in my Miata I open the hood every time I finish driving hard or for a long time whenever it’s hot out. I’ll also leave the key in the run position until the cooling fan turns off and then I’ll close everything up.
Heat soak = subaru sti with the ej257. Lots of owners replace the top mount with a front mount intercooler . The Mitsubishi evolution was ahead
I only bother worrying if I've been driving the car hard. Then I'll give it a minute or two to idle if I didn't give it a few minutes of gentle driving before parking.
Cooled oil and coolant can do way more for cooling a block than any amount of Texas air.
Honda definitely didn't plan for heat soak on some J series cars
Friends got a 2000 Accord V6 that has some combination of struggling with city stop and go traffic, and winter/summer blend gas w/ethanol that makes it vapor lock something fierce for about 6 months out of the year.
And no, the TSB with a new PCM and Fuel pressure regulator doesn't fix it :(
That's unfortunate. Given that generation, I'd recommend removing the intake and cleaning the EGR passages and also the intake while you're at it. They tended to carbon up more than later model J series did. ua-cam.com/video/HRp6RWZ1egM/v-deo.html
During summer months I always open the hood to let the heat dissipate when I park my car at home...
In the ‘little Italians’ that I have drive I notice that my n/aspirated engine in high heat ( not very often I the UK😂) it does seem to appear the car feels o the odd occasion a bit ‘drunk ‘ or slightly laggy during high external temperatures despite everything working as it should. I may give this a go and see if there’s any merit in it. 😎🙏🏾
Keep engine clean. Repair any fluid seepage/leaks
that attract dirt & gunk buildup; all that acts as an insulator,
holding in damaging heat.
High-temp ceramic paint helps to dissipate heat, think
of a coffee mug.
Fuel in the injectors & rails can also boil, depositing varnish
over time, just as Eric mentioned oil coking.
Look into your ceramics theory, mugs are ceramic because they DON'T transfer heat. Ever try to hold a glass cup of tea? There are other benefits to these paints. Corrosion and thermal stability, keeping your EGTs UP is crucial for turbo and catalytic operation. If you don't have those then you are reducing the temperature gradient across exhaust valves, heads, and flanges.
I've been doing the same thing for years. I occasionally open the hood of the Vette after driving. Usually open the hood of the Camaro, rarely open the hood of the Crown Vic, and almost always open the hood of the BMW to dissipate heat and prevent heat soak.
BMW parts are plastic and expensive to replace and it runs very hot with a 219 °F thermostat, all aluminum block. The Vette runs really cool with a 160 °F thermostat and cast-iron block, but those wires and rubber hoses are pretty brittle after 27 years of age. Camaro runs pretty normal with a 195 °F lots of plastic parts with aluminum engine under that hood. The P71 served years as a patrol car and is pretty robust with extra cooling capabilities, so it can take a hit.
When traveling, I always open the hood when I stop for a potty stop, coffee stop, or for any other reason I may need to take a break.
my current car a 01 VW has an electric water pump that will run after it shut down probably similar to the honda fan design.
I usually let my car idle for about 5 minutes after a long drive. Turn off the AC and most electric consumers that puts a load on the engine.
It's not the most efficient way to cool the engine, but at least it circulates the oil while it cools down a little.
how i deal with it? drive it in the lake. lol
If ive been driving hard then id take a minute of not driving so hard and actually follow tge limit as to cool it down or park it and let it idle a bit before killing it
Dont cars with electric water pumps also run the water pump now for a short time after shutdown to help pull the heat faster
Weird yeah I do this too on my vehicles , like my 85 gmc s15 2.8 carbureted it's been awful hot here 90s and up and when I drive it and get back home I usually will open the hood and let her cool down cause it gets hot when I turn key off .
Like my 87 Chevrolet celebrity eurosport 2.8 multi-port fuel injection it hot soaks bad I noticed yesterday , got home turned it off and the temp hit over 220 and was thinking man that's hot and i guess that's normal but yeah I do the hood thing too lol
Defiantly during pitstops and after the race we run the radiator fan with the car off. And pop the hood off of pitlane.
oil cokeing ,, that's why you change your oil every 4000 miles.. Or less
My truck is a tool. We got a deal,it don't love me,I don't love it. I do service it however.
one of the worst things you can do to your car is to shut it off right away after a long drive , let it idle and cool down before you shut it off .
Mechanical empathy/sympathy - what makes your cars last.
I think mechanical empathy is all in a person's head and has no effect on the engine, any more than ambient winter temperature affects a car's performance. Your car doesn't care if it's zero degrees, it will start or it won't. Internal temp is 200 degrees, the car engine doesn't care, it's made of steel. Sorta like when you give your dog "fresh" water, he'll drink from a mud hole just as quick. He doesn'r care.
@@bentnickel7487 Mechanical empathy is why I won't by a rental car that's been driven by people who don't care.
@@bentnickel7487 Mechanical empathy/sympathy doesn't affect the engine, it affects how you drive. If you're attuned to the mechanicals, you're more aware of if part are getting overly stressed, or too hot, or starting to make just a little bit of a new noise, when a less sympathetic driver will keep their foot down and go a little faster, then wonder why they didn't finish the race when the engine looks like a yard sale on the back straight. Jack Brabham won a number of Grand Prix races because he was also his car's designer and builder - so he could feel when things weren't quite right during a race and adapt his driving accordingly so he'd get to the finish line.
I always let my wrx "cool down" by idling for an extra minute or so. I definitely have similar mechanical sympathetic thoughts lol
Hi Eric,
Where I live is usually really hot and I also open the hood and put a floor fan facing the radiator. Even if the car is shut down if you can cool the water in the radiator it will cicle, slowly but it will because the “heat convection” effect.
Some german cars a more effective system to allow the car to cool properly after shutdown, where the radiator fan keeps on for few minutes after the car is shut down.
My father and I where able to recreate this system on my old ‘94 Civic.
Basically you need to give direct power to one of the relay prongs in order to activate the circuit of the fan and water temp.
What you want is keep the circuit alive after key shut down, the fan will spin until the temp is lowered and the fun will shut itself.
I do that too. Park the car in the driveway , pop the hood and let it cool before pulling it in the garage an hour later. I do that mostly in the summer. In the winter I do the same but in the garage and use that heat to heat the garage.
I live in Florida. I open my hood on all my vehicles every time I take them out, not counting when it's cold, which is rare.
use fully synthetic oil and dont worry about heat soak.
Synthetic for the win! I honestly don’t understand why so many people still use conventional. Synthetic is SO much better especially these days, definitely worth the couple extra bucks it cost over conventional.
My accord runs the fan when I get home and turn it off I've always liked that about it
See you, space cowboy.
i wondered about how tight they make cars nowadays trying to cram as much under a smaller space under the hood so they have to insulate the car battery from engine compartment .also put all these plastic covers on bottom of engine and top of engine why? are these covers serving a purpose for airflow under car or water splashing up onto engine from road? do you think it hurts anything to leave them off ?
I figured you’re opening the hoods on cars in the shop because you’re a mechanic and you don’t really enjoy working on a hot engine. Nothing worse than touching a hot header and getting a nasty burn on your hand
Before OEM's got heavy into turbos and learned how to make the engines live "turbo timers" were all the rage with aftermarket turbo kits. They would keep the engine running for several minutes after you turned off the key to keep the oil circulating while the engine cooled down.
Big engine
+ tiny chassis
+ over sized radiator.
My diesel doesn’t even turn the fan on. Not even going through Death Valley @ 115f.
I do worry about my turbo.
But I have a variable turbo with semi-manual control.
So when I’m a mile or so from home I set my turbo to “wide open”
In the hopes that heat flows out
Thanks for the Space Cowboy part, Eric. I really need a humor pick up today.
You are not alone on the "mechanical sympathy" element either. I treat rental cars well, so you can imagine...
You're a good dude :)
I've heard of heat soak, but I never knew what it was. Supposedly it's a common problem with my car...
Is this another reason to ditch the STUPID BEAUTY COVER .
It's not just for beauty. It keeps the water away as well
Hey Eric, have you ever considered an electric water pump in one of your custom engines? These are pretty new on new cars, but made to run for a bit longer after the engine shuts off.
They work great for the track, but not driving on the street as coolant flow does not match engine RPM like a mechanical pump does. My cars are made for the street, not the track.
@@ETCG1 Ah yes, that makes sense. Thanks!
DAMN Eric.!! You’re sick as me.!!! LOL.!!!!