3 things I think are necessary for your fist

[aruth55]

SO, from Texas and running a Stage 2 tune with the stock radiator and IC? Please tell me more...I am in the Houston area and really want to avoid replacing the radiator just for a tune.

I think it really depends from car to car for whatever reason. It also depends how hard you drive it, as well as the temperatures you are in and the humidity you are in. I know people who have hybrid turbo setups with stock radiator, no issues. For me personally, it didn’t work out well even with a stock turbo setup. Maybe it has to do with higher engine bay temps from removing heat shields and such. I have my downpipe and exhaust manifold both heat wrapped, and I did not before. I although did have my heat shield on my stock manifold before going to my external wastegate manifold, and still had the issue while on the stock radiator. Our engine bay is very cramped and I think that has to do with the high temps it can see from lack of airflow. Where I live near Chicago, in the summer we can see temps up to 100 degrees with very high humidity so that probably has something to do with it as well, Texas is much more dry heat.


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[Woods247]

LSD first

 

[Dpro]

I will put it simply the stock radiator has plastic end tanks. Coming from the BMW world I have first hand experience with Plastic end tanks detonating at speed. They can and do crack or come apart Plastic was never meant to be a pressure radiator material. While it might work for some to me its a ticking time bomb.
Hence I got an aluminum radiator early one. Once can argue they have not need it temp wise. When your going 75 mph and the end tank decides to let go you will be very surprised.
As far as the intercooler goes ya you can get by with a stock intercooler if your not running autocross and track or canyons or doing lots of pulls. Otherwise its a known weak link as well.

 

[aruth55]

I will put it simply the stock radiator has plastic end tanks. Coming from the BMW world I have first hand experience with Plastic end tanks detonating at speed. They can and do crack or come apart Plastic was never meant to be a pressure radiator material. While it might work for some to me its a ticking time bomb.
Hence I got an aluminum radiator early one. Once can argue they have not need it temp wise. When your going 75 mph and the end tank decides to let go you will be very surprised.
As far as the intercooler goes ya you can get by with a stock intercooler if your not running autocross and track or canyons or doing lots of pulls. Otherwise its a known weak link as well.

I did have a small front end collision with my stock radiator on, could’ve cracked those end tanks and caused my issues? I’ll take a look at it when I get home.


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[aruth55]

LSD first

Haven’t had one so I can’t attest to it personally, but from what I heard you’re 100% right. Slipped my mind when making this list.


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[M-Sport fan]

It also depends how hard you drive it, as well as the temperatures you are in and the humidity you are in.

Actually, the humidity has no bearing on any radiator's ability to transfer the heat of the coolant to the air, or any intercooler's ability to transfer the heat of the charge air to the ambient air.

Unless you are depending on water, or some other evaporative liquid being sprayed on the outside of these heat exchangers to make them efficient, where humidity will become a factor in how quickly/effectively they evaporate, and therefore cool what is being passed through them, relative humidity plays no part in automotive heat exchanging systems.

 

[aruth55]

Actually, the humidity has no bearing on any radiator's ability to transfer the heat of the coolant to the air, or any intercooler's ability to transfer the heat of the charge air to the ambient air.

Unless you are depending on water, or some other evaporative liquid being sprayed on the outside of these heat exchangers to make them efficient, where humidity will become a factor in how quickly/effectively they evaporate, and therefore cool what is being passed through them, relative humidity plays no part in automotive heat exchanging systems.

Ahh I see, good to know, thanks for schooling me on it!


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[gtx3076]

I don't do stages. Both of my tunes are custom, dizzy pushed the tunes as far as he could then backed off when I was just creating heat and no longer saw gains. I have 2 tunes that are too "hot" to run. I know it's not as efficient to be on stock intercooler but I wanted to have it a while before I consider modding it further, it's my daily driver.

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[ronmcdon]

if you already have an accesport maybe use that to monitor temps and determine whether or not to upgrade radiator.

 

[M-Sport fan]

I don't do stages.

Yeah, I never really got the whole 'stage' thing either.

 

[skold]

Yeah, I never really got the whole 'stage' thing either.

I guess it becomes meaningless over time as it is different per tuner (Cobb, Dizzy, etc.) but within a certain tuner, it can have meaning. I figured Dizzy Stage 2 is a pretty specific thing so I was going off of that but yeah, probably more misleading than worthwhile.

 

[skold]

I think it really depends from car to car for whatever reason. It also depends how hard you drive it, as well as the temperatures you are in and the humidity you are in.... Texas is much more dry heat.


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Yeah, too many variables I think. Definitely good insight though. That's one of the biggest values of a COBB AP, with the ability to monitor, IMO.

FWIW - Texas is a big state and depending on where you live, there will be dry heat or VERY HUMID heat like in the Houston Metro area. One commonality though is the heat!

 

[gtx3076]

It gets pretty humid in Dallas too, not as bad as near the gulf. But 110*, crawling in traffic with the A/C on, I've never overheated. Car does get sluggish though.

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[aruth55]

It gets pretty humid in Dallas too, not as bad as near the gulf. But 110*, crawling in traffic with the A/C on, I've never overheated. Car does get sluggish though.

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Honestly then I must have damaged mine somehow when I got in the small front end collision, only had body damage though, so I never knew, and upon examining the radiator it self there is no damage, who knows though.


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[aruth55]

Went ahead and ordered the thermostatic oil cooler yesterday from mishimoto, will let you know how it effects temps. Coolant and oil usually sit around 175-190 degrees right now with just the radiator kit during regular driving.


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[ronmcdon]

if you dont want to spend aa much, the FS WERKS unit I think is around $250 give or take. Not sure an oil cooler would be beneficial outside of tracking your car. I have one only because I do hpde events.

 

[aruth55]

if you dont want to spend aa much, the FS WERKS unit I think is around $250 give or take. Not sure an oil cooler would be beneficial outside of tracking your car. I have one only because I do hpde events.

The plan eventually is to auto cross and then build up to true track days when I gain some experience, after this my next mod will be a whoosh hybrid, which I will get welded to stay EWG. Then an LSD after a few auto cross days. I saw those but they’re out of stock :/


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[albertucsb]

All of this rings true except one can get the Mountune its cheaper in price and its a quality built radiator and more than does the job. I have a Mountune on my car and I am in SoCal which gets pretty damn hot.
I also do not think the Mishimoto is the best flowing core. The Mountune is a triple pass cross flow made by CSF its a very high quality radiator and would not hesitate to say its better made than the Mishimoto and yes I have experience and knowledge of Mishimoto with other vehicles.

Dpro - did you do the install yourself for the Mountune radiator? This is a great thread and thumbs up for everyone contributing. My first major mods will be supporting components to ensure reliability and seems like the consensus is that more boost = after market radiator in addition to the IC. Cheers,

 

[FiSTY]

If you get snow... smaller wheels, appropriate tires, rubber mats. Only "must have" for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it bone stock otherwise for years. It's a very fun car out of the box.

 

[ronmcdon]

this is just me, but Id say just go out

The plan eventually is to auto cross and then build up to true track days when I gain some experience, after this my next mod will be a whoosh hybrid, which I will get welded to stay EWG. Then an LSD after a few auto cross days. I saw those but they’re out of stock :/


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I decided to go with reliability mods, engine and brake cooling as well as LSD, 16x8 wheels and better tires first. Have not tracked the car without those parts. Then did track days to learn the car and kept getting suspension parts while I'm at it.

If I had to do it all over again would have skipped the suspension mods and just go at track days. I'm sure upgrading the turbo is fun and all, but I think doing so will increase costs of running the car at the track. one of the cons of the fiesta is it's not too expensive to track. Was surprised how little I spent on gas and even the cost are tires of notably lower.

I am also curious if it'd be easier to learn to drive the car well with less power.