Project: Mothra

Originally Posted by Baker-Jackson Nissan

For all you oil temperature guys, this just appeared on the Project Mothra blog:

Warm reception, despite cold weather.

On Saturday night Mothra was at Planet Zero's monthly lot meet for a sneak preview. Although the weather (38 degrees) kept the lot fairly empty there were a lot of questions asked about the Z. Hopefully, as the weather starts to warm up, there will be a bigger audience at these shows. People seemed to be impressed with the direction that we are taking and are looking forward to seeing what's in store over the next few weeks. On Saturday morning the oil cooler and a Stillen intake were installed, while we wait for the Top Secret Cold air intake. This "double-take" on the intake is a little labor intensive, but we wanted to get some numbers with the benchmark Stillen setup for comparison with the Top Secret one. Again, the guys over at www.the370z.com have engaged in quite a debate about oil coolers and track-bound cars, as well as healthy discussions about intake designs. This should answer a lot of questions in one or two fell swoops.

We have noticed a drastic change in oil temperature since the install. Before, the oil temp under moderate throttle and acceleration would climb to 224 degrees. Now, with moderate driving, the temp will not rise above 167 degrees. Under hard acceleration and throttle conditions, before, the engine temp would rise to 238 degrees. Now, under those same driving conditions, the temp will not rise above 187 degrees. With normal driving the oil temp will barely register over 140 degrees. Keep in mind that these number were taken in 40-45 degree weather -- noticeably cooler than in days past. But regardless, there is a drastic improvement. Smoky should have one fine platform to work his magic. Now, if we could just get the Amuse body kit here before he lands...Stay tuned.


We hear the AMUSE body kit is in-flight right now from Japan. Pics will go up when available.

Originally Posted by Endgame

I assume the TS intakes will be similar to the Amuse intakes that appear to be more a short ram intake with no heat sheilds. At least, that is how the G37s look. That said, I would be very interested to see how they perform as they will be sucking in a bunch of hot air with the hood closed....

Originally Posted by Mike@Blackline

the ambient air temperature in an engine bay when youre driving is about the same as the standing air temperature outside the car for most vehicles, just a thought

Originally Posted by Modshack

That would be nice, but my findings (on another motor) don't quite indicate that... Different set-up but many similarities. This is an Audi TT with the temps measured at the mouth of the CAI inlet.

hot differential: No extra front ventilation
cold differential: ventilation similar to my Fang Vents run to the CAI inlet
Trim: Removing the rear gasket between the hood and firewall to promote airflow through there..

35 minute Test run from start, through a little traffic, some country roads, then traffic and 5 minutes idle in the driveway. These are the temperature differentials from Ambient (70 degrees on the day of the tests). Temperature dattalogger sampling once per minute.

The fact that we can only get IAT's down to within 7-10 degrees of ambient on the 370, no matter what the intake or feed system, would indicate that heat in the engine bay is a factor, even underway...You just have to deal with it as the IAT sensor does..Remember, the engine is running ap 180-190 degrees (Coolant system regulated) Not all that heat is expelled at speed..

Pull that rubber trim off to promote ventilation through the rear of the engine bay results in some nice temp improvements as you can see!

Originally Posted by dalparadise

Interesting. Can you show me what trim piece you are talking about?

Originally Posted by Modshack

Pic below... The base of the windshield is a high pressure area...removing the gasket allows air to be drawn into the engine bay. You won't see a decrease in actual engine temps, but you will in engine BAY temps, which is good. I've measured this on several cars (Audi TT and Corvette)and found about 18 degrees to be the difference. I need to do it on the Z. here's the Audi chart:




Remove these to let some air in! If you really want to ventilate, pull the plastic cover over the strut bar bolts at the firewall