Proactive temperature management for tracking/autox 2014 Ford Fiesta ST.

I started tracking last summer with a friend's Miata, had an absolute blast and I recently bought a 2014 Fiesta ST for daily driving, tracking and auto-x. I've only been on the track a handfull of times, but I definitely got quite a few kms under my belt with some professional instruction.

In doing some research, it seems that these cars tend to overheat when you push them. I had my first track day last saturday night at Calabogie Motorsports park outside of Ottawa, Ontario. I kept my eye on the temp gauge and it got within two bars several times over the course of the evening. I'm investigating some pro-active solutions to help me manage my temperatures, so I can avoid limp mode. 

I've done some research and it appears that a mishimoto or mountune rad is a preferable upgrade, but I am currently budgeting for more track time and won't be considering a new one until maybe next year. I read that changing the thermostat can help as the stock one is set for 207F. IS it worth the extra money for the 160F mishimoto thermostat at $70 CAD? or would either an (180F-190F) API, Gates, or Motorcraft alternative work just as well?

Should I be considering changing the fluids as well? Thanks in advance. 

I do not believe the thermostat to be worth it until you redo your cooling system. It doesnt regulate the maximum temperature reached, only the temperature it starts to open so it really doesnt improve your peak engine temps any.

Is there any repro aluminum radiators for cheap on ebay/amazon? I bought my 400whp ls radiator on ebay (mishimoto Xline knockoff) and it's been super cool. The chinese can weld....

I would highly recommend the Mountune radiator, it's manufactured by CSF and is direct fitment.  I would stay away from Mishimoto and eBay radiators, they may be larger than the OEM core but that doesn't mean they have better cooling capacity than a properly engineered exchanger.

The mountune unit is actually cheaper than Mishimoto at $475 right now:

https://www.mountuneusa.com/mountune-Fiesta-St-Triple-Pass-Radiator-p/mp2521-12020-aa.htm

I had terrible problems with overheating in one heat of AutoX on a pretty short course, and on track days.  I tried adding more water to the coolant mix and "water wetter" with no benefit.   Adding the mountune radiator fixed all cooling issues, and as bonus the oil will run cooler as well. 

Another friend was overheating at a RallyCross in January with near freezing temperatures.  The Fiesta just has cooling issues, and a thermostat may not help at all.  I don't believe the thermostat is very easy to replace on these engines anyway, radiator replacement may be easier in fact.

There are some theories out there that the factory radiator had defects of plastic flash blocking flow, but nothing confirmed and no recalls.  There is a recall that may apply to yours depending on when it was built, but it only adds a low coolant reservoir sensor to catch a failing headgasket that more affected the 1.6L in the Escape.

Agreed, just do it the right way the first time and don't think about it again. Skip one track day to buy a radiator that does away with overheating and you'll probably end up with the same amount of actual time in track at full speed. As olemiss said, the thermostat doesn't control the max temperature, just how fast it gets there. I have to imagine that the top end of the okay range is somewhere around 220 if not higher, at which point even the stock thermostat has been fully open for a while. Also if you're going to be serious about tracking it, you're going to pretty quickly want some brake upgrades. Honestly if you ran it hard enough to aproach engine overheat, I'm surprised you didn't run into brake fade issues as well. The one time I had mine on track the brakes started to get hot about the same time that the coolant temp hit the top of the okay range.

Duct the airflow in the nose to force it to go through the radiator and not around it. 

Hood vents to help create the pressure differential through the radiator for more flow. I think Trackspec has some vents specifically for your car. 

If you do those two things, I doubt you'll even need to buy a different radiator.

Run a higher pressure radiator cap. Water boils at a higher temperature with more pressure. What's stock 16-21 psi?

There sure isn't a lot of open space in the nose of the ST's. The '19 I have been driving is just fine at idle and steady state cruise even in city traffic.

You're probably not seeing any rise after a new radiator because it has more thermal mass then the stock plastic tanked one. With the more mass it takes longer to heat up but also gives more time to dissipate the heat.

In reply to engiekev :

Thanks for the advice. I've checked with Ford. There are no outstanding recalls on my car as of this moment. I was hoping to avoid doing the radiator right away, but it definitely seems like it's pretty high on the priority list. 

In reply to dps214 :

The brakes have already been addressed. Slotted rotors, performance pads, braided cables, and I flushed them the other day. They were in good shape while tracking it. It definitely seems like I'm going to need to address the radiator sooner rather than later. Thanks!

In reply to z31maniac :

Thanks. I will definitely look into this.

Remove the AC condenser.   will help with air flow.  

 Those 160 stats do nothing to control overheating.    Just takes a little longer.

Do less laps per session or do a cool down lap in between.

I'm really surprised at the overheating.  I haven't tracked my '18 FiST but I have driven quite a distance at 80 mph in 90+heat with the AC running full blast.

I know, that is a lot different than running a full chat.

Is the engine tuned? If so, the easiest and quickest way to help might be to revert to stock for track events.

This isn't an uncommon problem for turbocharged cars. I've read reports of even the Civic Type R overheating at the track, stock.

z31maniac said:

Duct the airflow in the nose to force it to go through the radiator and not around it. 

Hood vents to help create the pressure differential through the radiator for more flow. I think Trackspec has some vents specifically for your car. 

 

If you do those two things, I doubt you'll even need to buy a different radiator.

If the vehicle does have the overheating issue, he will need a different radiator for autocross, not enough airflow even with proper ducting. Sure higher speed track days might be OK, my ST with the stock radiator overheated in one run at AutoX but did last several laps at a hot track day before overheating. The Fiesta ST just has issues with cooling.

Tune doesn't make much of a difference for this issue, most with overheating issues are on the completely stock tune. 

Some Fiesta ST's overheat and some don't, so it might be best just to give it a try and see if it will be an issue for you.

In reply to iceracer :

They're very different situations. I've never had any signs of issues on the street but it was good for about three laps of pittrace at a time on a honestly not very hot day. Also got hot once at an autocross with a particularly long course on a hot day. But once I figured out the proper between runs cooling method it never happened again.

iceracer said:

Remove the AC condenser.  

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I'd guess the vast majority of people don't want to remove the AC from their daily driver.

I have a '14 and had the cooling system recall done. It was a complete nightmare and Ford dealers in my area are complete crap. All it does is add a sensor to detect a low coolant level. Even if you get the recall notice, I would skip the hassle and keep an eye on your coolant.

I have tracked my FiST and autocross regularly and have never had an issue with overheating, but I honestly can't say that I ever paid much attention. I got no warning lights so I figured all was good. Based on this thread, I am going to start paying attention!

Do you have hydraulic power steering? If so, I bet you'll have it puke out of the reservoir from overheating after a few HPDE sessions. A larger cooler will fix it. 

pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:

I got no warning lights so I figured all was good. Based on this thread, I am going to start paying attention!

The warning is you're accelerating in a straight line and then the car starts backing off the throttle, then you look down and notice the gauge is pegged. The only time it was that bad on mine was an autocross on a hot day with two drivers on a long course with some straight sections. Once I learned that the proper method for cooling between runs was to spray the radiator, let it run for a minute, then shut it down (versus letting it run the whole time) I never had issues again. On track it creeped up slow enough that it never left the okay range but spent a lot of time above the middle of the gauge where it should be. Backing off a bit on the straights went a long way once it started getting warm.

I was going to suggest a water spray.

 sorry, I don't have anymore suggestions.

sergio said:

Do you have hydraulic power steering? If so, I bet you'll have it puke out of the reservoir from overheating after a few HPDE sessions. A larger cooler will fix it. 

They are EPAS racks.

To OP, i went with just the hood vents(Verus Engineering) and have been good to go. I never overheated to begin with the car does stay cooler over a long period of time with no cool down in between.

Not sure if Beer_the_North will chime in, but we replaced a thermostat, and added a Mishimoto rad yesterday.  The car went into a limp mode at an event on Saturday of last week (on te out lap) and it appearred that the thermostat wasn't opening (cold lower rad hose). 

We used an OBD2 bluetooth dongle and Forscan Lite to clear the code.  All seems to be well!