How hot is normal ?

[Ehclipse]

Car has had a full rebuild on the engine and rebuilt turbo which have just past 3,000 miles. After i drive my car for a quick 30 minute drive on average about 60mph the whole time. The engine gets very hot, but the temp gauge just reads normal, it gets hot to the point where i touched my spark plug wires on my knuckle and it gave me a good burn. Gets hot where if you drop a drop of water it'll sizzle and evaporate. I've read these cars tend to get hot, I've never experienced cars getting soo hot so quickly. I'm scared to take my car to Los Angeles through a canyon pass which takes about 2 hours, so i have to take my sisters corolla, am i being too paranoid ?

30 minutes is on the longer side, i usually drive my car for about 15 minutes and gets just as hot *

 

[fierosail]

burp the cooling system and check t-stat id also get a ir temp gun and check that way to make sure your gauge is right

 

[ktgurl87]

Hubbys gauge reads 'normal' and I've actually seen the temp less than 200 on my scanner, and he just got friggin "minor 3rd degree" burns on his arm from hitting it on the turbo trying to get a coupler back on. We were on our way to Virginia, had been on the road for about 15 minutes, ans that sucker was HOT. So yeah, they get hot . And don't think about touching the aluminum radiator or the shiny metal spark plug cover. You might not get your finger back with fingerprint.

 

[LiquidX]

These cars run hot, simple as that. Everything gets hot until you have a vented hood.

 

[NHerron]

I don't know your setup but I think you would be safe with exhaust wrapping the cast iron factory manifolds. I don't advise as much for the tubular manifolds since it can devolp cracks especially with the weight of the turbo. At least a good 30% cut down on bay temps but, only con to most is that it looks ugly as hell. I see the guys that run it are ecstatic with the results. I plan on tryin it (mainly because I don't have the original heat shields) but, ebay sells it around $15 for 2" X 25ft

One thing that made me wonder- they claimed it would benefit gas milage and performance including NA engines. I can see it would do that for turbo but...

 

[Jason G]

I wouldn't trust the stock gauge. I've seen temps in the 240s from a logger and the gauge never moved from the middle.

Get an actual gauge or some way to log it, either a logger or link.
Stock, they run about 212 before the fan kicks on.