Put the LS on the track yesterday for the first time. The conditions were not ideal as mid-day temps were 105F !! I love, love, love, the LS for it's neutral track manners, but c'mon Ford, you could have done a better job with the cooling system. This was mostly a BMW Forum organized event and numerous M3's, M5's, 335's, a few 370 Z's and a few Porsche's. The BMW and Porsche owners could do entire 20 minutes sessions full-out and with the LS we could do one lap "on" and one lap "cooling". I'd back off my LS at about 240F and never experienced limp mode, but two of my friends were there with LS's and both had limp mode engage on them from overheating. OK, enough with the griping!!

The LS is just friggen' AMAZING on the track. The car is just so neutral and so communicative it's just un-real. It feels like there's a pivot point in the exact center of the car and it's just so easy to rotate the car at will around this pivot. As a relative track newbie, the LS's manners (and traction control) really saved me from any off-track excursions. I'm sure I would have been off with virtually any other car coupled with my novice skills.

However toward the middle and end of the day, we were beginning to learn the track and the apex's and the lap times improved a lot. Toward the end of the day, we were going to experiment with "Track Mode" to let us have a little more throttle capability when the nannies wanted to take control. Overall, just can't say enough about the car, the engine and the near-flawless car dynamics. Just superb! Now, if we could have a bit more cooling capacity we would have had the chance for more track time and more learning!!!

Here's a video of one of the laps. I've included it really just to show the technology of what an iPhone can do. Please note that the only inaccuracy is the gear indication as I had not yet set up the gear ratios in the application. This tool is simply unbelievable as in addition to the cool videos, you have a multitude of analysis tools to compare laps from you and others enabling you to disect the track and do incremental improvements.

We had a great time and the largely BMW crowd were a nice group of people to spend the day with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNJLkWxuEWY

 

Not happy looks like an aftermarket radiator is in the track junkie's future.

 

Agree...

Either an aftermarket radiator or perhaps a Boss 302S hood...the Boss 302S and 2012 Boss share the same "upgraded" Ford Racing radiator. I have driven my 98 Cobra on track as hard as I wanted in the Texas summer heat without ever overheating. I was expecting a similar experience with the BOSS, considering the development of the car was done on track with the Boss 302R. Just a few more $$$ to prep the "race car with a license plate" for the track. Plus caster camber plates + braided stainless steel brake hoses + a rear axle "turkey baster" or differential cooler + 18 inch wheels and R compound tires to replace the stylish (blingy) 19 inch OEM wheels and spendy R compound Pirelli's + TBD's.

 

Are you sure this is the base Boss radiator too? I was under the impression this one is a step up. http://www.cjponyparts.com/ford-raci...12/p/M8005MBR/

The 302S hood will help.

 

Car looks right at home on the track. I was hoping to upgrade to a boss radiator but guess ill look for another replacement.

 

Cool video !! Please provide more information on the iPhone app and how you connect to the OBD port.
Thanks.
-- Jim

 

That pretty much sums up my mod list As far as temps, as long as ambient is under 90F I'm fine. I've only thrown the temp light and gone into limp mode once hitting 250 ECT in 90F temp, but I've also done some cooling laps when running over 240 near that ambient. Under 90F I've been able to run "flat out" without the car pulling back at all. Would be nice to see how to help it run cooler. We know they revised the fog lamp openings on the 302S grille, which I've essentially done on mine. They also put on the Tiger Racing hood, which presumably lowers under hood temps. The bigger factor may be the 12.5 quart oil pan, but that thing's spendy. $1300 last I checked, not to mention an additional $40 per oil change.

All that said I agree with the OP this car is amazing on the track.

 

Would be nice to get confirmation on this. Could be $500 well spent if so.

 

The latest info I've gotten from Ford Racing is the street Boss uses the M-8005-MBR radiator, and the 302S uses the M-8005-MGT radiator. I noticed that all aluminum radiator is $20 less on the Ford Racing site. The question is will the all aluminum radiator bolt right into our cars, and if not what else needs to be changed.

 

Thanks for the heads up on what Ford Racing says is being used for the radiator in Boss 302S. However, this information conflicts with what they have printed in their catalog…saying the M-8005-MBR is the radiator used in the Boss 302S. Marketing hype ???

These two radiators look like they are physically similar. Hose connection points look close to the same and the radiator support points look similar as well. Hard to tell if the M-8005-MGT is a direct replacement or not.

Ford Racing tech notes for radiator M-8005-MBR are:
· Radiator used on the 2012 Mustang Boss 302 and 302S race car
· Improved cooling over stock 5.0L 4V Mustang GT radiator
· Fits 2011-2012 Mustang GT

Ford Racing tech notes for radiator M-8005-MGT are:
· Service replacement part for the FR500S race car
· Fits 2005-2010 Mustang GT
· Uses OEM fan and mounting points
· All aluminum construction
· Increased cooling over production radiator.


Don’t know what radiator Ford Racing originally installed in the Boss 302R…but Multimatic had cooling issues last racing season and made changes in the off season to improve cooling and reliability. Their specs list the Boss 302R’s radiator as a aluminum PWR radiator. Don’t know if this radiator is new for the 2011 season or not. The PWR web site says their radiators are up to 30% more efficient that standard construction radiators.

 

Here are a few more pictures.

First up... can you tell that the trans cooler (scoop) is installed?



Here are my two buddies who also attended the event.



Here is a couple of others...

 

My impression was the 302S hood would help some but not the answer. I think the hood has greater benefits reducing lift which increases downforce.

 

i'd really like to hear a cure for the temp issues, as i might have to rule out the Boss as my next car, since Im going to be running it down at Sebring in the Florida heat.

it would be nice to have some of the Ford engineers identify why these cars are overheating so quickly in higher temps. Their goal was to beat the M3, as long as it's not hot outside!

 

Could the solution for the over heat problem be as simple as a hi-flow grill?

 

I mentioned this in another thread - I would bet the problem lies with the oil cooling and not the water cooling. The liquid to liquid block mounted oil cooler is not up to the task. A more conventional finned oil cooler is what is needed to cool this car down. Motor oil has two main functions, lubrication and engine cooling. The oil in the Boss is not getting cooled down enough.

Above it is mentioned that the BMW's could run entire sessions all day, but this was not always the case for the E90 335i. Many of the early models were delivered sans oil coolers, and they also went into limp mode on the track. Once fitted with oil coolers, blammo, problem solved.

Hopefully Ford will step up and take note of this problem and offer a solution.

Here is a quote from the great Coyote engine write-up from Mustang & Fast Fords:

 

kind of what I did to my CTS-V. Mounted a Mocal oil cooler under the front bumper support and can now run full sessions without oil temps going sky high.

 

Check out this excerpt from the upcoming Boss book. We have cooling issues because of snow????

 

If you're tracking on a 105 degree day I think you'd want to get some gauges to show engine oil, engine water, trans, and diff temps. You can view them all on one gauge if you install a rotary switch and can find time to switch it! Shouldn't be too hard to get sending units on all these.

 

The specs for the Boss 302S list an "oil cooler". Doesn't say whether it is an oil-water or an oil-air cooler. I watched the Boss 302S build video that Autoweek sponsered a few weeks back and did not see the oil-water cooler on the engine that we have on our street Boss cars. Maybe the Boss 302S gets an oil-air cooler - anybody can confirm one way or another?

We are going to need something to cool the engine for sustained high rpm track action. Especially in the states where it is 80 degrees at 7 in the morning 5 months out of the year and where 90 degrees is a common occurance.

It does get hot in Utah this time of the year. Maybe the delay in the Track Attack program is more about overheating than the lack of the Trackey. Miller is a big bad race track with lots of high reving opportunities.

But at least we are safe to drive in the snow.....as long as the ambient temperature is above 40 F for the tires.

 

I'm pretty sure we saw at least one oil cooler mounted out front. Looked to be about 12 inches wide... 9 inches tall.. about that as I recall. Rick, Drew, Chris... you guys remember talk of an oil cooler out front? When and why?