I have an ultragauge that I use to monitory air intake temps, boost psi, and coolant temp. I am having a strange thing happen. On my way to work I go up and over a rather large mountain. The grade is 7% and its about 3 miles long. When I go up the hill, the engine temp degrees actually go down instead of going up as I would have suspected seeing that there is more of a load placed on the engine to maintain speed up a steep grade for that amount of distance. Is it even possible for the temp of the engine to decrease while accelerating up a steep incline? When I started up the hill, I was at 220 degrees F...the temp gauge dropped to 190 degrees as I accelerated up the hill. The other gauges seemed to be working according to the driving conditions. Boost went up as I increased my speed up the hill, air intake temperature increased as well.

 

Not sure about the Ultragauge, but my Scan Gauge II shows the same behavior.

I think the Mini is actually working harder, so the system is circulating coolant faster (?), making the temperature drop. Just a guess...

 

Cool, thank you for the info! Oh, and nice car you have there!

 

our minis are unique in many ways, one of them is the cooling system

there is no mechanical thermostat, there is a servo controlled thermostat

when the ECU sees a high load (ie going up a steep, long hill or WOT), it commands the servo to open (or open more) and the coolant temp actually goes down

under "normal" conditions, the temp is maintained higher for better emissions control and maybe better fuel mileage

scott

 

Thank you as well for the information!

 

I did not know that. Thanks for the info!!