Z51 cooling upgrade from base
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2021
Posts: 234
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Z51 cooling upgrade from base
So I’m not having any issues yet but come July/August I want to have this upgrade done to prevent any issues.
what exactly is different from the base corvette to the z51 cooling wise?
if anyone has done this conversion, do you have a parts list?
thanks!
what exactly is different from the base corvette to the z51 cooling wise?
if anyone has done this conversion, do you have a parts list?
thanks!
Popular Reply
May 5, 2023, 08:06 AM
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 3,428
Likes: 569
From: new orleans
In my quest for lower temperature eng/oil/dct, I added another radiator in the center.
Removed the plastic behind the licence plate cover. For street driving I just reinstall the cover and it looks stock. The temps are about 15 degrees cooler, the temp just stays about at the thermostat opening level. I may do a 160 t-stat if i can figure out which stat it takes. It’s a 2 bolt stat housing, so it’s not a gen v style. Probably order one and do some measurements.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2021
Posts: 234
Likes: 147
Safety Car
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 4,436
Likes: 875
From: Bay Area CA
Engine and DCT cooling differences on a Z51 are larger capacity front radiators and a third radiator on the passenger's side. There is a heat exchanger on the DCT, but the Z51's get the additional radiator and a dedicated fan. This third radiator further cools the liquid coming from the radiators up front and sends cold water to the transmission heat exchanger. Not sure how one would go about converting to a Z51 cooling system, but it looks to be complicated.
Last edited by Mike's LS3; Apr 6, 2023 at 09:32 PM.
Safety Car
Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 4,079
Likes: 2,414
From: Florida
I realize you didn't ask this but you could sell your car for what you paid for it and then by a z51@msrp and probably save in the neighborhood of $10,000.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 3,428
Likes: 569
From: new orleans
You could buy the right rear radiator and hoses and plumb it, worse case you would add an inline thermostat and gave the fan turn on when you want. I have a z51 and plan on adding the 3rd front radiator in the front and having the licence plate cover removed for track duty, and cover it back up on the street. The way the z06 and e ray have the radiators plumbed is in parallel so once i have the center radiator mounted i will T into 1 upper(out) and 1 lower (return) that will get the ect where i want them 190-200 at the end of the session, and i plan on adding the right side radiator in front on the fan on the right side to control dct and oil temps. I would like oil temps to be 210-215 at the end of the session, and dct to be 20 degrees lower than it currently is.
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Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 3,428
Likes: 569
From: new orleans
In my quest for lower temperature eng/oil/dct, I added another radiator in the center.
Removed the plastic behind the licence plate cover. For street driving I just reinstall the cover and it looks stock. The temps are about 15 degrees cooler, the temp just stays about at the thermostat opening level. I may do a 160 t-stat if i can figure out which stat it takes. It’s a 2 bolt stat housing, so it’s not a gen v style. Probably order one and do some measurements.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2021
Posts: 234
Likes: 147
I’ll be doing this mod pretty dang soon.
track temps at Road Atlanta today were 65 degree ambient and my oil was 230 and trans was 220.
im going to add the radiator up front like c5racer did and see how that fairs.
track temps at Road Atlanta today were 65 degree ambient and my oil was 230 and trans was 220.
im going to add the radiator up front like c5racer did and see how that fairs.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 3,428
Likes: 569
From: new orleans
Cooler
There are ways to tie into the cooler for the transmission. Probably be much easier to buy the factory z51 pod radiator set up off eBay and plug and play. That would be a good start.
im thinking about re routing the hoses going to the transmission cooler so the cool water does not mix with the hot water until after the pod radiator. The way it’s done now is in a funky series/parallel design. Probably because of the need for the car to work in -20 to 100 degree temperatures. I’m in the Deep South where winter is 50 degrees, so the routes of the coolant hoses don’t work for me.
im thinking about re routing the hoses going to the transmission cooler so the cool water does not mix with the hot water until after the pod radiator. The way it’s done now is in a funky series/parallel design. Probably because of the need for the car to work in -20 to 100 degree temperatures. I’m in the Deep South where winter is 50 degrees, so the routes of the coolant hoses don’t work for me.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 3,428
Likes: 569
From: new orleans
Cooler
There are ways to tie into the cooler for the transmission. Probably be much easier to buy the factory z51 pod radiator set up off eBay and plug and play. That would be a good start.
im thinking about re routing the hoses going to the transmission cooler so the cool water does not mix with the hot water until after the pod radiator. The way it’s done now is in a funky series/parallel design. Probably because of the need for the car to work in -20 to 100 degree temperatures. I’m in the Deep South where winter is 50 degrees, so the routes of the coolant hoses don’t work for me.
im thinking about re routing the hoses going to the transmission cooler so the cool water does not mix with the hot water until after the pod radiator. The way it’s done now is in a funky series/parallel design. Probably because of the need for the car to work in -20 to 100 degree temperatures. I’m in the Deep South where winter is 50 degrees, so the routes of the coolant hoses don’t work for me.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2021
Posts: 234
Likes: 147
There are ways to tie into the cooler for the transmission. Probably be much easier to buy the factory z51 pod radiator set up off eBay and plug and play. That would be a good start.
im thinking about re routing the hoses going to the transmission cooler so the cool water does not mix with the hot water until after the pod radiator. The way it’s done now is in a funky series/parallel design. Probably because of the need for the car to work in -20 to 100 degree temperatures. I’m in the Deep South where winter is 50 degrees, so the routes of the coolant hoses don’t work for me.
im thinking about re routing the hoses going to the transmission cooler so the cool water does not mix with the hot water until after the pod radiator. The way it’s done now is in a funky series/parallel design. Probably because of the need for the car to work in -20 to 100 degree temperatures. I’m in the Deep South where winter is 50 degrees, so the routes of the coolant hoses don’t work for me.
the trans cooler is water cooled.
in the Base car the line from the water pump ( which is on the front part of the engine ) is not plumbed to accept the third radiator. Unfortunately, it is a hard line. In order to swap it out it would require removing the AC condenser which isn’t something I wanted to do.
So what I’ve ultimately settled on is that I’m going to plumb in the z51 aux radiator directly to the DCT cooler lines and just remove the thermostat so that it runs wide open all the time.
that being said I don’t street drive this car at all other than to the gas pump sometimes from the track.
additionally while I’m doing this I’m also going to source some more high performance radiators for the front of the car.
I overheated the trans twice today after about 20 minutes on a 80 degree day.
If there is no traffic and I have clear track it’s fine. But if I hit traffic for even a 1/4 lap the temps climb fast