Worried about cooling in lightly modded base GT for casual track days

[paulm1]

Are there any must-do mods to ensure that the cooling system can keep up?

Thanks!

I have a base "21 GT spd, tracked 3 times last summer. Never had a problem with CHT's, was hitting approx 220F shifting approx 7000. Had issues with brakes & shift lockout. Swap your fluid to DOT 5.1 or better. Install brake cooling, forget the belly pan swap, you can get a kit with ducts for less money than that. It will require you to trim the dust shields though. Also get some track pads for the front, leave the rears, they don't do much anyway. For the shift lockout, I swapped a stainless braided clutch line, installed a shifter bracket (FTB racing), and the brake fluid swap helped too. Remember, your clutch fluid is the brake fluid. This helped the shifting a lot but you still will not be able to no lift shift.

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[BlackandBlue]

Keeping the A/C on will keep the fans on high. Don’t run A/C on cool though since it makes condensation. Also run the heater if temps start to creep.

The heater core in these cars dissipate a lot of heat if you can bear it.

 

[MRGTX]

I appreciate all of this info, guys! I feel like I've done a lot of catching up on modern car stuff since I started this thread. I have been hip deep in carburetors, manual steering, non-assisted brakes, 15" rubber, leaf springs and torsion bars for quite a while.

One thing that I just learned (probably obvious to you guys) is that 5.1 is glycol based rather than silicone so it IS an option (as @paulm1) suggested. I had written that off without reading enough about it. Very cool. I already have the PP belly pan and PP2 splitter so I assume I have benefit of some improved cooling. I'll look into pads and fluid asap.

After looking into aftermarket hood venting, I have decided that I'm just not hardcore enough to saw up my hood...but it does look like there's a huge amount of room for improvement with the stock hood vents. Has anyone just opened up the hole in backing plates? the little 2 square inch oval-ish opening probably does almost nothing but the top side of the vent actually has a lot more area than this that is covered with honeycomb mesh. Any downsides to this? Would this change mean that the car is no longer suitable to being rained on?

I assume that pulling the hood insulation would also be a requirement...I just hope that doesn't accelerate the famous Ford aluminum rot problem.

 

[paulm1]

You can open up your front grille quite a bit too. A dremel and a steady hand, basically open up the honeycomb thats filled in. It lowered my IAT's by 3 or 4 degrees just clearing out what was in front of the intake snorkel.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Has anyone just opened up the hole in backing plates? the little 2 square inch oval-ish opening probably does almost nothing but the top side of the vent actually has a lot more area than this that is covered with honeycomb mesh. Any downsides to this? Would this change mean that the car is no longer suitable to being rained on?

I assume that pulling the hood insulation would also be a requirement...I just hope that doesn't accelerate the famous Ford aluminum rot problem.

Think about it as running a marathon with a snorkel. Opening up those holes would be like poking some holes in the snorkel. Mathematically, it's better, but ... not by a lot. Especially with the insulation and honeycomb vent things back on, the plastic underside of them has half covered if you take the screws off and pull them.

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