My Davies Craig electric water pump controller allows some adjustment for engine temperature.
With the temp controller set to the minimum setting I am ticking over at 75 degrees which sounds a little on the cold side, although the ecu switches the rad fan on at about 80 degrees.

So...

1. What is the ideal temp to aim for under normal conditions?

2. What temp should the rad fan kick in?

[Edited on 30-12-06 by RazMan]

Too cool may cause problems with emissions? and possibly accelarate engine wear although you may get more power with a lower temperature . Denser air etc . Might be an idea to set it a bit higher and adjust the cooling fan cut in temperature a bit as well ?

Aha - apparently 99 degrees is ideal. It's all about running the oil hot enough to boil the inevitable water content away.

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=33863

Looks like I will be turning the wick up a bit then Troble is I now need to get into the ecu map to make the rad fan kick in a bit higher too or the pump and fan will fight each other.

99 seems a little high. Most car engines I've seen run at 88-90ºC, although there pros and cons to going both higher and lower than this. Lower should give extra power, at the cost of accelerated wear. Whilst hotter should give better economy but less power, and possibly prolonged life.

I doubt lower temps would give extra power air density wise as its only the air going into the inlets, which barely has time to be warmed up by the engine. Its the ambient temps that will have effect (if any) on power.

Mine runs at 93. Fan on at 99 and off at 95. If you have an Emerald ECU I can help with the settings for fan on/off.

Thanks zetec but I am using the MBE. I have the software to make the changes - funny thing is that the fan always kicked in at 90 until I had the engine remapped so I guess that they must have accidentally changed a setting somewhere.

I will set the pump controller to 90 and the fan to 95(on) 92(off) - seems like a good starting point At least until I get the car on the road anyway.

99 degrees No way!

82 thermostat
85 running temp
fan on at 95 and off at 90 degrees.

oil a little below 100degrees.

that's about it for a good temp household.

75 is far to cold

grtz Thomas