Who here drive their m42 on the track?? Overheat much?

[e9nine]

As the question states..who here drives their m42 on the track? I don't mean auto-x I mean track as in a race track where you're basically in 3rd and 4th gear with the throttle pegged.

I was experiencing some VERY HIGH oil and water temperatures last time around and I am trying to see if this is specific to my car or m42s in general.

As far as research goes - I have contacted one other person who races an e30m42 in SCCA IT and he has had cooling issue as well.

I have an e30m3 cluster and the oil temperature was waaay high and around 270deg with  :eek: the water temp gauge reading between 3/4 and red. I had the heater on to help cool the car down and at times I just took it easy to let the car cool down as well.

VPD has an oil cooler solution but it's $$$ http://www.victoryproductdesign.com/cooler_kit.htm

My temp plan now is to get a temp gauge for the cyl head along with an oil pressure gauge as well. I might just take out my thermostat next time around as well.

[silverblades181]

I've tracked mine at a driving school with the BMW Club of Quebec. It was a small track and it was pretty cool outside so I never experienced any cooling problems. I was in 2nd between 4k to 6k all the time except in the straights I was in 3rd. We did 3 sessions of 20 minutes or so. Anyway I'm taking it to Sanair on the 22nd...I'll see if I get any issues.

[StreetSpec_iS]

hmmm, mine seemd to be ok, even in the heat. early summer, 28ish deg C (air temp), seemed fine.

[e9nine]

Yeah small short tracks like Little Taladega are not an issue. Road Atlanta is a totally different case though. I'll look into a coolant system flush along with water wetter next time around and let you guys know how it went

[nickmpower]

i'd look at the water pump or t stat. the faster you go, the more air moves through the rad

[D. Clay]

You can get one of the filter lines through the pressure sending unit hole and put a "T" in the line for the sending unit. Not sure where on the housing you would need to go for the other one. Hopefully someone has done this or knows the exact routing through the filter housing and where the best place to drill and tap for the other line that preserves presssure form the pump into the motor. Maybe need a tig welded bung on top of the filter housing.

[e9nine]

Water pump and t.stat are about 8 months old. I just bled the system a tad and I'll see how it behaves during tomorrow's auto-x. I'll get the system flushed before the next DE and rig a switch to trigger the high speed on the aux fan.

[e9nine]

You can get one of the filter lines through the pressure sending unit hole and put a "T" in the line for the sending unit. Not sure where on the housing you would need to go for the other one. Hopefully someone has done this or knows the exact routing through the filter housing and where the best place to drill and tap for the other line that preserves presssure form the pump into the motor. Maybe need a tig welded bung on top of the filter housing.

What are you suggesting here? An oil pressure gauge location?

[D. Clay]

A place to run the lines to an oil cooler from. An alternative to buying a pricey adapter and cooler. Car-part.com has one M3 oil cooler for $150. There are a lot of others available for $50-$100 and sup hi-tech stuff for $200 up.
Volvo has oil coolers on a lot of models that are really cheap in salvage yards.
We used to run a restrictor in the thermostat housing to slow the flow. Strangely it would overheat without it because the pump cavitated.

[2002maniac]

Mine does overheat at auto-x's if i leave it idling between runs but it has always been fine on the track.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed though since I have a track day next weekend and utah in july can get pretty hot.  We'll see.

[StreetSpec_iS]

is it possible to retrofit the 325i cooler?

[bavarian3]

Do the m42s not have oil coolers?

[M42boy]

I didn't notice any outrageous temp problems when I was driving my cousin's M44 318Ti at Barber in 100 degree weather a few months ago.  Then again, Barber is a "fairly" short track (no real long straights)...  

It will be interested to see how my car behaves at Road A.  I thought it odd that our cars don't have an oil cooler, but I guess in normal day in and day out driving, it's not neccessary.

[Katz Tsubai]

Dang, another thing I'll have to address before I take mine to the tracks
It gets HOT at Willow Springs and Buttonwillow this time of the year.

Not really relevant, but my M10-powered car has never had an issue at the tracks (other than a stock Miata with a passenger blows its doors off in straight).

[e9nine]

Mike - Our cars didnt' come with oil coolers :mad:

I am thinking of swapping radiators or getting a new one. I'll do that as the first line of approach. I went to an auto-x today and on the way back home with the a/c on the temp and oil gauges were as follows...


As I speak to more people with m42s...its seems this issue is specific to some of us so it could be anything but it's definitely not a cause for panic :eek: so ladies and germs...if you don't have any cooling issues...drive on