But the bad thing is that power and speed become relative.

After ripping up the streets during cold/cool months at high boost levels, it's a bit of a let-down having to run lower boost during the summer and not getting as much HP as normal because of hot temps... ...which the turbo only increases.

Knowing the potential of your ride and then suddenly having the ***** snipped off for several months (in terms of what you're used to... ...the whole 'relative' thing) is a bit of a crusher. You were sticking it to 'Vettes and now you're hard-pressed to knock off that Mustang GT next to you. Keep in mind that you never forget how much money you've put into your car, regardless of any weather-related variances in power.

Don't get me wrong. I love forced induction. I'm a turbo nut and have been for about 20 years. But things are different when you live in an extremely hot area. When you only realize the full extent of you power increase for only 3-4 months of the year, you begin to ask yourself if all the added expense was worth it.

 

Time for a dum-dum question...

Why do you need to dial down the boost in the summer? Detonation? It seems to me to get the same amount of O2 into the engine that you could dial up the boost since the hot air is less dense.

 

"Ahh don't care who you are, that's funny raat thar"

You jus ain't been in the raat part of the State yet boy....

 

You must not have ever been to Donna or Carrizo Springs....

If God was to give the world an enema, that's where He would put the tube.

I do sympathize with you, not on the weather, but the drivers! They have more stupid people here than ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE USA! 50% don't have a license, of that 50%, 100% of those have no insurance! Most people don't know what an acceleration ramp on the freeway is for. Some stop dead and wait to get on!

 

The only dumb question is the one not asked. ...And the one about how to stuff 24's under the G.

Detonation is the reason for dialing down the boost... ...but this is only needed if you were running high boost levels in the first place. A "safe" system running a fixed boost level, such as a supercharger, is just that, a safe boost level for most situations. But anyone with a turbo and a respectable electronic boost controller can tell you their high and low boost settings, illustrating the change in performance that is usually dependent upon the ambient temperature.

And you can't dial up the boost to get more air into the engine without serious detonation because the intake air is always going to be less dense with oxygen than it would be when cold. And compressing air (resulting in boost) heats up the charge also. The higher the boost, the hotter the charge. It's cold weather that allows you to crank up the boost with less fear of detonation. Heat is the enemy, as detonation is the lighting-off of the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber before the spark, due to hot spots on the cylinder wall or the face of the piston usually from excessive heat and/or incorrect air-fuel ratios.

 

I couldn't agree more. I have lived in San Diego CA, Norfolk VA, and even Honolulu HI. But there are no worse drivers than what I have seen here in Corpus Christi.

One might ask, "Why is there NO Infiniti dealer in Corpus Christi?" The truest answer: These roads are not worthy of such an automobile.

Driving to work every day is like dodging mortar fire on a minefield. They have no idea what road construction is here either. I only have 16 months left. I think the Sahara is cooler than this place!

 

Man, I'm so laughin my head off right now but I feel your pain. The very few times that I've had to travel down there I lose my mind...people are going f'n 35-40mph on the HIGHWAY...THE HIGHWAY... I N F I WHA?!?! People down there have probably never even heard of Infinitay....ha.ha.ha..

It could truly be worse...you could be stuck in the crappy wasteland of West TX where all you see is tumbleweeds and all dat wonderful dust for your car to suck up.

 

This is funny. salary.com made a list of 'most favorable' places to live, but only accounting for avg. pay rate vs. cost of living. Corpus Christi is #8! The survey failed to included livability factors, such as schools, weather or cultural amenities.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...UGNLCTH0R1.DTL
(see the chart too)

 

Yet another use for Water Wetter......Love that product.
C.

 

Donna??? Never heard anyone mention that small town anywhere before. Anyways im shure u've heard of McAllen since its close by to Donna.......Rio Grande Valley sucks in the summer....

 

Use to commute from San Juan PR to Corpus on a monthly basis for years, in early 90's sure it must have improved since then.

At least you have access to decent fresh gasoline.........and sea food.
Wonder it the refinery fumes in the air help?

 

Where do you get this stuff? I've yet to find it anywhere. Also anyone ever find the bleed valve on the radiator core?

 

Well the this whole area has been growing, and well the area around McAllen is pretty decent

 

I've seen the Redline Water Wetter sold at Pep Boys and Autozone. Denifitely a nice product to have. Royal Purple sells a similar product.

 

Likewise, you could get a bottle through Summit Racing, Jegs, etc. if you can't find it local.

It seemed to help a bit on my old turbo. If you're making other efforts to reduce underhood and operating temps, then you owe it to yourself to use this stuff too.


While on the subject of heat, have any of you upgraded your radiator? Since I'm in West Texas, I might give this some thought, along with some other things. I don't plan to autoX, but this would make life easier on the engine and produce some modest gains. In combination with other heat-reduction steps, there should be something noticeable gained.

My preliminary list for heat reduction is basically:

JetHot2000 coating on headers (these should be back next week )
Oil-Pan Spacer (for increased capacity)
Radiator (increased capacity)
Water Wetter
Oil-Cooler
Differential Housing with cooling fins
...pretty much whatever I can think to address, I will conssider.

Although, I'm still reluctant to wrap my CF UR G-Tube with heat-shielding/insulation if I can't make it look good. Doesn't anyone make the heat-shielding foil in black? lol