crznZ06

I have an '04 Z06 that I use for autocrosses and drift events. At the drift events, the power steering fluid gets too hot and overflows the reservoir because of the high steering angles and rapid steering inputs.

I want to put a cooler in the system, but I'm not too familiar with AN plumbing, what size braided line to get, and whatever else is required to add one. Anyone have any tips?

Thanks!

P.S. I don't want to pull any caster out of the car, and I don't want to run an underdrive pulley.

VetteDrmr

The Z06 already has a power steering cooler; it's mounted right above the steering rack.

I autocross my '00 hardtop regularly, and have not had any problems with the fluid overheating. Have you had any problems with the steering kicking back or getting sudden resistance? If not, then you could reduce the amount of fluid you run in the reservoir to reduce the spillage.

And, just for completeness, I *do* get a small amount of spillage around the cap, but I believe that's just due to sloshing.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

crznZ06

Yes, I know that my car already has a cooler on it. It's just not cutting it. Even with stock caster settings, going lock to lock boils the fluid.

Any other tips? Thanks.

VetteDrmr

Hmm. I'm running Valvoline's Synpower fluid, and I've had no problems with boiling. Have you tried changing out the fluid? Also, you might do a search on power steering fluids that are have higher boiling points.

You could always plug in a bigger cooler, but if the problem is elsewhere in the system it'll be a bandaid at best.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

crznZ06

Yeah, the car already has/had Redline Power Steering fluid in it. I plan to start running 315s on the front also, so I think an additional cooler will be a good thing.

Thanks!

JohnD60

CRZN,

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I am looking at a similar situation with my 2000 C5. It's not a Z06 so it doesn't have a PS cooler. I've already replaced the PS pump once and boiled the fluid at the last event.

Since I'm also seeing high oil temps I'm going to install a dual cooler for both oil and PS combined.

I believe the hose size is -10AN for the oil and -6AN for the PS. I've also read you should tap into the low pressure PS line for the cooler and that you could even simply use hose clamps for the connections (although AN fittings would look nicer).

My problem is I don't know which line is the low side?

Can someone please point me in the right direction for the low pressure line?

Thanks,

John

crznZ06

I'm going to go to Orange County Corvette to take a look at some custom reservoirs, turn one pumps, and possibly a C6 Z06 steering cooler (supposedly it's slightly larger) instead of a completely custom setup. I'll keep you updated. Thanks for the info.

0Randy@DRM

There are a ton of options for coolers. The lines and fittings are the hard part and sometimes better left up to the pros.

1. Turn one We have been racing with their help for 15+ years.
2. -6 lines use TFE for the higher pressue
3. You could use tube nut/sleeve off the hard lines to convert to AN
4. redline is good stuff

crznZ06

Thanks for the information, Randy.

TommyBoy72

I'm really shocked you have this problem. I run in the high desert with 305s in the front and stock GM fluid in the PS system and never have this issue. I wonder if something is wrong with yours or is it the track you run on somehow requires a lot more input?

crznZ06

If you run your car at a drift event, you're close to full lock for most of the time. Then, add a significant amount of time doing figure 8s. It gets your powersteering fluid hot in no time. Lots of fun, though.

bobmoore2

And on top of all that, drift events happen at slower speeds than HPDEs, which means less air flow over the cooler fins. (Speaking from observations, not personal experience.)

If I were you, I'd be looking for a bigger, better PS cooler too.

96CollectorSport

When drifting you are also turning a lot of RPMs which also heats things up, I'm suprised that underdrive pulleys are not used to keep the revs down on the pump. Just an idea, I've always had issues with the p.s. on my 96 at the track.

bobmoore2

To divert the thread for just a moment...

What is crznZ06 short for - cruisin' Z06 or crazy in a Z06?

crznZ06

bobmoore2 and 96CollectorSport hit the nails on the head. I think I'm going to add an additional oil cooler and the turn one pump in a couple of weeks. If I can scrounge enough money, I will probably get this trick custom reservoir that Orange County Corvette fabbed up too.

My interpretation of crznZ06 is cruisin' Z06, but I kinda like crazy in a Z06, which might be more appropriate.

Kinkajou

I do not know if Turn one steering can modify your pump, but they did to my 94 C4 and I am really happy with the results.

racerns

http://www.turnone-steering.com/ls1.html

Give them a call, I run one of their LT1 pumps and it works great.

Cobra4B

Interesting... at first I was going to say something was wrong, but looks like you know your setup, allready have good syn fluid in there, and presented a logical argument as to why drifting is so much harder on the PS.

0Randy@DRM

Maybe if you post a video of the Corvette drifting, you will be more understood. My buddy and I went out in a huge parking lot one night at about 3am. Burnt off the tires in about 20 minutes, the car was pretty much used up at that point.
We are lucky in the north with .5 inch of snow everything becomes a drift machine!

Randy

Cobra4B

^ I fully know what drifting is and have been to a few events, but never really thought about how/why it'd tax the PS system more.