High Oil Temp = power + throttle response loss?
 

Well today I was cruising around, I came upon these 2 cars driving really really slow. When the road allowed I decided to pass them and it never occured to me what they were doing. They were waiting for the long straight of road to race eachother apparently. Well I was the first to pass them as I did not know. It was a newer looking Honda S2000 and Civic Si and they both gunne dit as soon as I passed them. My question is why the hell was I not able to pull away from the S200 at an insane rate? Both cars were bone stock. No loud exhaust, no intake noise, nothing. Even the dam Civic Si was able to keep up on an uphill area adn the S2000 was still right on my ***.
This was what my Oil Temp looked like about 15 mins after of just easy driving so before it was above 260 degrees. Does the amount of power output decrease durastically?
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...iltemphigh.jpg

And I drove around for a while after this little incident. I was pissed and wanted to see if the Z could at least cool itself down. Well it couldnt and stayed at this mark with very easy driving.
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...dailydrive.jpg

The thing that really pissed me off was the Civic pulled up next to me and the driver said "I was really expecting a lot more out of a modded 370" and the driver of the S2K gave me a thumbs down. lol embarrassing as hell. I wouldnt doubt that the S2K coulda beat me at a drag race from a dig. My 370z is broken or somethng is wrong with it. I cant powershift it because it doesnt like to be powershifted. I cant drive it hard because it will go into limp mode and apparently its a lot easier to do it than I expected. God I don't know what to with the car.

Even if your temp was at 250 you should have been able to pull away from a civic. Sounds like you were in the wrong gear.

:stirthepot:

lol I was in 2nd and was doing about 30 mph and bounced it off the rev limiter. When I went to shift to 3rd I looked in the mirror and the civic still somewhat kept up. I was expecting to completely lose him but I wasnt pulling as strong as I though. When I did this I must have been at 265 degrees or womewhere since it was right after I decided to pass the cars. One of my friends has an 08 C6 coupe and that thing pulls on the Z like you wouldnt believe. But in comparison, the Z and the C6 compared to the Z and the Si, there would be a much larger gap between the the Z and the Si than the vette. Im just confused as too how people notice any gains from the bolt ons on this car. When I started modding my RSX I didnt notice any gains until I K-PRO'd it and even then all I felt was torque. Not sure how much faster it made it top end wise. The last thing I do will be FI LTH and then Ill re dyno it to see if full bolt ons will help as much as I think they will. Im a little disappointed with the Z. It takes turns great but an S2K and civic... not right man. not right.

Maybe your engine did receive some damage from the prior incident. You'll have to go up against another Z or hit the dyno.

Don't you have an oil cooler? If your oil temp hits above 150 I believe it goes into limp mode.

My manual states 280 degrees is when the engine cuts back power.

280?! That seems awfully high. I thought it was 260. Even still, I never get above 220 during normal driving and never over 230 at the track.

Oil cooler ftw...

I don't see anything past 230 with aggressive driving, and I'm not running a cooler yet...

yeah, i've raced quite a few SI's and S2K's at the track, and usually have them both by over a second, sounds like something might be wrong with your car man.

Ok, first off, the S2000's little 4 banger puts out about 240bhp, and the car is about 600lbs lighter then the 370z. That motor is putting out a 120bhp per liter in comparison to ours which is about 89bhp per liter.
Real world test on the S2000 is 0-60 5.7 average, 13.8 1/4 mile. Now, compare that to the Z's numbers and tell me how much do you really think you were going to pull on it?

Also, your assuming they were stock, how do you really know, could of had a mellow exhaust and a tune, who knows, but even a stock S2000 will give you a run for the money. Heck my Mini Cooper Turbo sounds pretty stock, but with the tune I have and the mild cat back, intake, etc. it has surprised more then a few Vette's, Mustangs, etc. putting out 200fwhp and it's only 2500lbs :-)
Damm near as quick as the 370z.

Anyway, don't feel bad, there is nothing wrong with your car, you just didn't know what you were up against :tup:

On a side note, my Z, without a doubt, runs a little slugish when the oil temp hits 220, I can definitely notice the difference in responsiveness on a hot day compared to when the temps are in the 180 range. Only fix for that is an aftermarket oil cooler, which is something I will definitely be purchasing in the future.

I owned an S2k for a good while as one of my first tuner cars, while the horsepower was decent, theres only so much 162 ft/lbs will do for you. Mine actually dyno'ed at 173whp and 117 ft./lbs on a dynojet, broke my heart really. Truth be told, given its history, the S2k is a solid track car, but he should have pulled quite a bit. I'm a weekend warrior at the drags here, usually race one ever other week, and like i stated before, theres usually 1-1.2 second ET difference. Keep in mind that he also has the FI exhaust and G3's.

Well at 280F, the ECU would limit the revs. Even if limiter didn't start to reduce your rev's yet, at 260F, there could still be some moderate power loss just from the engine being very hot.

Remember that at 100MPH, 1 second is about 150 feet...


But to the OP, you lost because you weren't on a drag strip and your Z knows....

Unfortunatel the S2K was stock because I know the kid who drives it. The only reason I say WTF to why I didn't pull on it was because once I did get full bolts and tune on my RSX I could keep up with S2K's easy. I really think there might be something wrong with my Z after the oil cooler exploded. When I start it up and let the temp get to 180 every gear pulls pretty solid above 3500 rpms. I am not expecting any huge gains off the G3's and FI cat back together but asking for at least 25 rwhp would make a difference in trap speeds. Im tempted to dyno the Z right now before I get my LTH installed but id rather find out once I get them. Either way, I know what I saw and I saw me attmept to pass a Civic Si and S2000 and once I got near the S2K he gunned it and I already was in the top of 2nd and once I shifted into 3rd I slowly, slowly pulled ahead. It was so slow that I was considering breaking and just going back into the lane behind both cars. The S2K doesnt even trap 100 mph. Like someone said earlier at that rate of speed 1mph is a huge difference. Even ET of .1 seconds is a difference in distance. So if I was going by the power to weight ratio, the Z with my mods wins over the S2K. Embarassing moment for me.