mx5cartalk.com

gentleman,

i'm in the midst of coming up with a suitable gauge set up for my road registered track car - a 2003 NB, & would like to know what's considered normal ranges & not safe ranges or alert/limit (by mazda or other racing standards) operating temps & pressures for the below noted:

1. oil pressure
2. water temp
3. oil temp

knowing the above operating ranges & limits will then determine what gauges would work, at this point im looking at the defi advanced BF series which come with warning tones configuration. the car (engine) is pretty much stock, besides aftermarket headers & full exhaust, koyo rad, and may run an oil cooler when installing the gauges. I usually get in a good 5-10 hot laps at wakefield each session before backing off.

cheers,
Jas.

Based on my setup I have two types of warnings, dash and ECU. Dash can be ignored the ECU ones cannot be ignored...

For the dash:
Oil Pressure Alarm
up to 5,000 RPM below 20 PSI
Above 5,000 below 40 PSI

Oil Temp Alarm above 115°C

Water Temp Alarm above 105°C

Never had a temperature alarm yet. Get the occasional (very short) oil pressure warning when doing a lift off from full throttle, never when in a corner.

ECU - if a condition is met for more than 2.5 seconds the 'limp mode' will activate
Oil Pressure - below 20 PSI AND TPS is above 5%
Water Temp - above 110°C
Oil Temp - above 120°C
Fuel Pressure - below 30 PSI and above 55 PSI AND TPS is above 20%
EGT - above 800°C
Flex fuel sensor - if fault detected (losses power to sensor)

To date the ECU has gone into 'limp' twice, both occasions due to fuel pressure.

Unless you really want Defi gauges (which I get the appeal) I would also look at a digital display, AIM, Racepack/Haltech, or even the CDL Motec.

With no logging you can get one pretty dam cheap, and even the base logging isn't to bad.

The price might difference between the dash and the gauges might be quite close, and you get a whole lot more functionality/future proofing.

But to come back to what you actually asked,

Water temp - mine sits at 79 - 84 on track
Oil - pretty sure this sits at around 100, only jut got that sensor working again.

79 - 84 water temp on track? Not forced induction I assume?

What radiator? Any ducting etc?

I'm sitting on 96 - 101, but that's turbocharged with a 52mm eBay radiator and some dodgy af homemade ducting

- Not forced induction
- Running e85,
- The front was completely ducted (to about 2/3rds of the core)
- Mishomoto 52mm? radiator with a millon bent fins
- and some big ass holes cut in the bonnet with gurneys
- coolant reroute

There is always the chance that the temp gauge isn't cal'd correctly, but I'm pretty sure it is.