[sg335]

Who has monitored coolant temps? Why is there no guage! could some of the shut downs / limp home mode mentioned elsewhere in this forum be due to high coolant temps of 260-300 degrees? What is the car calibrated at to shut down power for coolant temps?

[NPDAN]

I think once the car hit's the 300 mark it goes limp...

[jmonier]

Shut down starts at 300 for oil temp and 240 for coolant temp.

[zenmaster]

No coolant temp guage, no boost gauge. Why?

[sg335]

240 seems low for a cut off point on the radiator fluid. does anyone know the factory spec?

[RMRC]

Originally Posted by sg335

240 seems low for a cut off point on the radiator fluid. does anyone know the factory spec?

I think jmonier is right. jmonier - where did you find this number? Is it verified? I spoke to the owner of Bavarian-Tuning yesterday and he confirmed that 240-250 is the upper limit before damage is done. Take a look at this coolant temp chart from this 335i at big Willow. Car goes limp at 240 (16 mins on chart). I included an RPM chart for reference to how hard the car was being driven - basically not exceeding 6k. Oil temp was 285-290 at the time it went limp.

sg335 - I know you've seen these charts, just posting to inform others.

[jon@themshop]

Download this E90 Engine management
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...8&d=1165592709

And look at pages 50 and 51

[BoostedInPhx]

Go check out this thread http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38856 which is posted as a sticky in the beginning of this forum. Read all 4 documents and you will have your answers. This is BMW documentation covering the new engines and their systems. If you read closely the description of the heat management it will become obvious why there is not water temperature gauge. The engine management varies the water temperature based on the operating condition. Under cool temps and light loads it trys to raise the temperature to make it more efficient. Under the three other oprating modes it tries to keep the engine progressively cooler. If you were to see this on a temperture gauge you would think it was broken since running hard normally raises the temperature and easy driving usually lowers it. There are also charts showing the temperature for the oil and water that the limp mode starts decreasing power output until it is down to 10%. I hope this helps. This has all been covered in other threads.

[RMRC]

Originally Posted by jon@themshop

Download this E90 Engine management
http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...8&d=1165592709

And look at pages 50 and 51

Thanks. This substantiates the charts above. Power reduction begins at 242.6 degrees F. Under driving school conditions this car is need of greater coolant cooling capacity. The car in the charts has the oil cooler.

[Shawn_speed]

Originally Posted by BoostedInPhx

Go check out this thread http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38856 which is posted as a sticky in the beginning of this forum. Read all 4 documents and you will have your answers. This is BMW documentation covering the new engines and their systems. If you read closely the description of the heat management it will become obvious why there is not water temperature gauge. The engine management varies the water temperature based on the operating condition. Under cool temps and light loads it trys to raise the temperature to make it more efficient. Under the three other oprating modes it tries to keep the engine progressively cooler. If you were to see this on a temperture gauge you would think it was broken since running hard normally raises the temperature and easy driving usually lowers it. There are also charts showing the temperature for the oil and water that the limp mode starts decreasing power output until it is down to 10%. I hope this helps. This has all been covered in other threads.

Boosted:

Boosted:

It has been a while since I read those documents and I got a little different take on it than you did.

I thought it said that the management system “watches” the driver’s behavior and varies the engine head’s temperature not the coolants.

I am guessing as you suggest that this will affect the oil and coolant temps. I am also guessing the reason you are bringing for not having a coolant gage has already caused quite a bit of unnecessary consternation and confusion. New owners used to idiot lights and Ford gages that never move see the oil temp. coming up slowly in cool weather (because the system bypasses the cooler during warm up) and see the temp varying between 210 and 255(A temp I achieved blowing up I 17 past Black Canyon City with RPM over 4000 and A/C @73 with Ambient temp at 115) and assume there is a problem with the engine when all it is doing is varying the head’s temp.

Tracking the car and Autos without the cooler is a different kettle of Sashimi all together.

Shawn
Phoenix

[sg335]

Thanks for the references. So how do we get a larger radiator for the car, or can we make a seperate and secondary radiator to fit above the IC or enlarge the holding/overflow tank? Maybe Fluidyne wants to make one.

[sg335]

Interesting reading. So page 49 lists Oil temp as follows in Degrees F:
302 is start of component protection. 312 is yellow warning light. 321 is red emergency light. Looks like "End @ 90%" is limp home mode at 315 degrees. These numbers are higher than what others are experiencing limp home mode which is below 300 degrees. Page 50 lists coolant temp as follows in Degrees F: 242 is start of component protection. 248 is yellow warning light. 257 is emergency light. Looks like "End @ 90%" is limp home mode at 255 degrees.

What software did you track those numbers with at Willow Springs?

[jon@themshop]

Originally Posted by sg335

Thanks for the references. So how do we get a larger radiator for the car, or can we make a seperate and secondary radiator to fit above the IC or enlarge the holding/overflow tank? Maybe Fluidyne wants to make one.

Someone has to send their BMW to a company that makes all aluminum radiators to test fit and go on from there. It probably can't be any taller because the intercooler is directly below it. If it has to be the same size then the end tanks can be all aluminum. It can also be a 3 core design assuming the stock radiator is a 2 core design.

Fluidyne makes good radiators but they're expensive and not really used in the BMW community. Zionsville Autosport might be able to come up with something since they have several all aluminum radiator applications.

[RMRC]

Originally Posted by sg335

What software did you track those numbers with at Willow Springs?

We plugged a Davis Automotive CarChip ($149 at Midway Automotive) into my OBD II port to record the data. This would also explain why I didn't see a yellow warning light in my instrument display (engine management cut power before it got to 248). Every time my car hit 242 it just went into limp home mode, drastically cut power and held revs to ~4k max. There was no gradual decline in power but rather a massive cut in power just like in the MotorTrend video of the manual at The Streets of Willow.