Might be a thread on this but I can't find one. I live in the Texas heat where even in the shade your eyeballs melt. We all know how much heat these turbo's produce. Combined with the sun here, my hood area gets extremely hot. Any ideas on how to keep the engine bay cool? Not sure what a good heat shield would be, but im not only trying to keep the hood cool but also the engine bay. Any idea? Thanks.

 

Open up the hood scoop for air flow while moving, (somewhat helps with venting while stationary as well). That, combined with the "scoop saver" thing and maybe even a better turbo heat shield should keep you good. Past that you could always do the cheap trick of lifting the rear of the hood a little. These engine bays do get quite hot but other than a melted hood scoop you shouldn't worry about any damage.

 

I removed the grill from the hood scoop on my 2007 R56. It makes a huge difference in cooling the engine bay, especially when parked. The few holes in the OEM grill just didn't allow enough airflow. I've gone from melting hood scoops to having one that never really gets hot anymore.

If removing the grill completely is too much, you might consider replacing with one of the ones by mini fini.

 

The issue with removing the grille is that it supports the thinner part of the scoop somewhat. If heat has already affected your scoop, doing that will only allow it to sag more.

I personally noticed on my 2007 that the hood scoop started to warp(I didn't research it until AFTER it happened as I obviously didn't know this was an issue), and decided to carefully drill out holes in the factory grille to keep structural integrity but allow air flow. Scoop seems to be a bit cooler now, though the damage is already done. The good thing is, even though I made my drill holes evenly placed, I wouldn't love the look of it on display, but the scoop honey comb design is deep enough and far enough into the scoop, unless you're staring straight on with a light, you can't see a single bit of modification.

 

I've found that running the car in Sport mode makes a huge change in the amount of underhood heat when parked... I'm talking oil temps going from 230 down to 190.. And coolant temps from 220 down to 180... This seems to have a huge effect on the level of heat by the turbo..

 

I removed my scoop grill to drill out the blanks, I liked how it looked with no grill and just put the grill on a shelf, a five minute mod.! lol

The scoop has been removed for about a year and the engine bay is still bug and dirt free.

The scoop is also supported by the hood, so any support it might get from the grill isn't needed.

I also wrapped the hot side of my turbo with an insulating blanket.

http://www.waymotorworks.com/wmw-turbo-heat-shield.html

Even on a hot day, my hood feels cool now.

Dave

 

I've seen this mentioned quite a few times, and I want to get to the bottom of it. On my 2007, this effect definitely does not occur. Changing to sport mode has no effect on the engine temp (as monitored through the obdII port).

So the question:
1) Is this a change that was made with the N18 engine?
2) Is this a change that happened with an ECU update (e.g. something that would be changed if I had the dealership update my software)?
3) Is it possible that you are just driving more aggressively in sport mode? I believe I may (?) have observed that mine will lower the temp with more agressive driving, whether I'm in sport mode or not (but I'm not positive about this finding).

Thanks.

 

It could be a 2013 thing. My car is only a week old.. so I don't have older data to go by.. but the numbers ring true.. I thought it was a fluke, so I swapped out my ScanGauge for a generic OBDII scanner.. and I got the same ECT values.

Its not my driving, I press the SPORT button going down the road and within 2 minutes my ECT drops from 222 to 184 deg F... oil temps also start to drop (more slowly..).. and if I stop at idle for long enough they even out to about 186.. with A/C on... My car has less than 600 miles on it.. so I'm not beating on it at all.. (not past 4,500 RPM anyhow..)

 

It does indeed seem like a 2013 change. In older models, running the car hard enough opens up the secondary thermostat but other than that they run at 105-110 C.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice.
Yea thats what im thinking about doing. I'm just worried about bugs, dirt water etc. If You say yours worked out well though i might try it . I have drilled on the insert but but im not completely satisfied. Also has Anyone tried the titanium turbo heat shield sold on minimania? If so is it good?

 

I wonder if this will have an effect on fuel economy... The '13 behaviour in Sport mode that is.

The only reason I ever saw a difference in fuel economy had more to do with who was in the car with me than mode the car was in!

Does the secondary thermostat open at all when not in Sport mode on the '13s?
E

 

Man people really stick it to MINI owners. I feel like I'm back in the BMW enthusiast realm trying to buy parts. $175 for a turbo blanket because it's specific to your car for ease of install? Yikes. I'll save some coin and get one that doesn't have a couple MINI-specific fasteners.

 

I have a 2013 Roadster S. It runs about 218 degrees, when put into sport mode drops to 185 degrees. I have a Scangauge II and can just be cruising and watch this happen all the time. My car has a two stage thermostat.

 

It must be 2013 specific? I have a 2012 MCS with the N18 running an Aeroforce scan gauge and sport mode does not alter my engine's operating temperature.

BUT, I have noticed that if I turn on the Air conditioning, it will drop to 192-194, but only if the fan switch is on high. (No automatic climate control). It does not do this with the fan on low, low-medium, or high- medium.

 

Most likely from running the cooling fan on high to shed heat from the A/C condenser..

 

Possibly, but if the secondary thermostat doesn't open then would more airflow affect the temperature? I did verify on my '12 S that the A/C on max fan dropped the water temp from 105-110 C (according to the JCW gauge) to 90-95 C. Then the cabin was loud and I was cold.

I'm guessing the secondary thermostat is computer controlled so we can't force it to open by spoofing high fan speed?

Only thing I can see running cooler in sport mode ('13 models) is you get a little more power with a little less mpg since running at the high temps is for 'efficiency' (higher mpg) at the expense of power.

 

It's not from running that fan, the secondary thermostat is most definitely opening, because the temperature immediately drops as soon as you go to high fan speed.

I've also noticed that if you are driving around in sport mode at, lets say 217-220F coolant temp and then go WOT to give it the beans, the temperature drops, indicating that the secondary thermostat is opening as well.

 

Just learned that 1guru2 has a '13 JCW hardtop and his engine runs 90-95 C (via JCW gauges) all the time, sport mode or not.

 

FYI, Got my coolant temp sensor replaced under recall (2012 s hardtop) and now my car runs a couple degrees C cooler both on and off the secondary thermostat per the JCW gauge.

 

this looks interesting. Might be the best of both worlds. Will keep larger items out of the engine bay and allow maximum air flow.
http://www.minifini.com/ShopDetail.aspx?id=60