is the engine supposed to run hot??

[Jay-Rock]

i test drove a car yesterday that i was considering buying. it was a 93 M. GSX. i drove it around the block andthe temp gauge was in the middle. when i poped the hood and tried to pull the dip stick, the dipsick was so hotthat i could not get it out. it hurt too much to pull on it for anytime at all. so i closed the hood, and felt the hood, and it was hot. is this normal for a turbo car? i have never owned one of these cars, but im not sure if that is normal or not. ??

thanx

 

[InFlames]

Yup, thats how these cars run. I was very suprised when i first bought my car too.

 

[TSIAWDTalon]

I keep a small towel stuffed behind the driver side headlight so I can check my oil at every fill-up. It only took burning my fingers once to figure that one out.

 

[snooze]

:laugh:
After I had bought my GVR4 I went to check the oil level (I was heading home which was 3 hours away)...at first I could not find the dipstick cuz it was hidden under the I/C piping...doh...found it... then all I can remember is extreme pain in my index finger

 

[toshi128]

my friends and i always joke around... "we can have some BBQ on my engine"

 

[Jay-Rock]

wowzerz. i did not know that they ran that hot!! do they need a special kind of oil or anything to keep um cool enough? im sure with them running that hot after about 100K miles the engines start breaking down dont they? or are they built to take the heat?

 

[badgsx]

Yes I think they all run pretty got. Sometimes when its real hot out flames shoot out from under my hood but its no big deal. Its actually kinda pretty when it does it at night

 

[snooze]

I am highly considering getting my turbo wrapped...although I will miss the bright red glow of the exhaust housing.

 

[turboholic]

-Just replace the pathetic OEM oil cooler with a side mount oil cooler, you'll not how hot the oil will get with the engine just idling.

 

[SetH]

Sometimes I can feel heat coming through the firewall by my legs. I was surprised on how hot they run, too...Driving for 10 mins makes it scorching hot!

 

[Oreopride18]

...I never thought of that! I always tried to locate taht heat source in front of me while I'm driving. I drive at night with the windows down and feel this heat by my legs.

*hits head*

The firewall...hehe. Oh yes, these things are hot.

 

[Jay-Rock]

so how do these engines hold up after about 100,000 miles?? if they run that hot, it seems like they wouldnt last too long at all!

 

[SetH]

Can't answer that one, but they do! My friends '91 still holds up @ 249,000 miles.

 

[RocketDSM]

Credit Mitsu with GREAT engineering. I live in San Diego and hang with a few different car clubs (all show peoples, blah) but we use my engine as a hand warmer for about five hours each night that I'm there cause the thing is just cooking and stays that way for 5-7 hours.

 

[Jay-Rock]

i just found out last night, that the exact car that i test drove is now RIP. 2 nights ago while i was out of town(pondering weither or not to get the car) the kid recked it. he crossed into the other lane and hit another car. the police told me that because the engine was so hot, it shorted some wires and the engine cought on fire. the kid got traped in the car, and they had to use the jaws of life to get him out. the kid is now in a coma. i was just wondering, when these things get in wrecks do they usally catch on fire? or is this just a one time deal that happened to this guy?

thanx for the help

 

[SetH]

holy sh1t, are you serious? I've never heard of a DSM catching on fire...was it modded a lot? Man, just be glad it wasn't you. But to tell you the truth, I've never heard of that happening. Maybe when you said it ran hot, we were thinking of how hot our cars run, which is already hotter than normal, but his was even hotter than that.

 

[AWDSOME]

In my GS-T I was hit almost directly head on and nothing like that happened. They ended up repairing my car and it has now hit 195K miles on the original engine and turbo.

The civic was totalled that hit me. He went to take a left onto the highway ramp and hit me on the driver side front. Did considerable damage, but the weird thing is that my airbag never went off.

 

[All4Smoking]

let me get this straight, a kid is in a coma from crashing a car that you were thinking of buying, and it caught on fire. and you are just thinking about the car still. be glad that wasnt you man, maybe you have some bad carma.

 

[toshi128]

airbags!!

my airbags didn't go off either when i hit two different walls on freeway after losing the control going about 90 + mph.... it was scary but at the same time

 

[SetH]

I don't even like airbags anyway....

 

[Jay-Rock]

yeah, i was thinkin about buying it, but it needed new struts the kid said. i didnt know how much those were gonna run me, and it already needed a new mirror and a new corner lens. i kinda told myself i didnt want it cuz it needed too much work and i didnt wanna spend 3G's on the car and have to fix it more. i offered the kid 2500 and he didnt take it. if he had taken it, he wouldnt have wrecked it, it would be mine, and cuz im outa town all the time, it would still be in my driveway. but i got home for a couple dayz, and i was reading the paper and say it. i was like , i almost bought that car!!!! but yeah, it cought on fire, and they said the kid was really lucky that some1 drove by and had a fire extinguisher in their car. they put it out and called for help. they got two of the ppl out, and now the driver, is in a coma. im only 17, and i have been in luv with these cars since i was like 10....i told my parents and they were like, well if these cars are spozda run that hot! and that guys cought on fire, we dont wany u to get one. so my mom said, aight get on ur forum and ask ppl if they do that alot??? so i was just kinda wondering wut to tell her she got online and because i live in alaska i have to go to seattle to pick up a car, so she got online and was lookin for civic EX's for me. she was like HEY LOOK U CAN TURBO THESE THINGS!!! but i want a dsm!

 

[Jay-Rock]

so i dunno wut ta do?? have her pick me out a civic or get a 1G dsm and have it catch fire on me?

 

[wishihadatalon]

tell your mom this story. My friends dad owned a civic. He went out to check the oil and left the ripped shirt in the engine bay. well that day my friend was following me and the engine just shut down. We floored it and it would only go up to 3500 rpms. Sure enough the shirt got caught in the intake. So tell her that the car will suck stuff into the engine and break down. Maybe that will change her mind. If not do your homework on them.

 

[mattn]

Good to hear I'm not the only one feeling all that heat coming in by their legs.. I always wondered if that was normal or not!

 

[mrmadmax]

Don't sweat the hot stuff!! What's hot to you is really nothing to an engine. Most people will say ouch to anything they touch over 140 degrees--these cars have thermostats that keep the temp around 195 degrees, and the cooling fans don't even come on until the temp is somewhere over 205! (chevy once produced a car with the fans set over 230...)

Too bad for the kid in a coma. Hope he pulls out.

Tell your mom that's not the norm for these cars. Freak fires can happen to any car, especially in an accident. Just another example for my quest to get everyone to carry fire extinguishers in their car (I used to drive a tow truck).