How hot is too hot?
 

I am wondering if 210-214 is too hot?

Nope. 230+ is

Coo, so i am pretty safe around 214-215. Thats hottest it ever got.

I guess you're safe. I wouldn't consider my cooling system good by any means if I stayed above 200.

What is your cooling setup?

I have a stock radiator, 180 dedgree t-stat, small eBay intervooler, 50/50 mix and I m pretty sure I got a bottle of water wetter in there. I don't have the stock air splitter installed or the engine plastic guard.

So you've done everything wrong you're saying.

Install the stock undertray, install a 160* thermostat, drain, flush, clean, flush, fill, drain, flush, clean, and fill your new all aluminum $160 radiator with more like 40/60 coolant/distilled water, and install a reroute. Congrats, you've spent $200 to solve 99% of your over heating issues.

Well, I don't have the money or time for a reroute right now. The best I can do right now is a figure out how to fit the undertray back on.

The T-Stat is unnecessary in this weather climate. I don't have the under-tray on either, but I have a mishimoto 55mm radiator. That's all I've done, no unnecessary reroutes or any of that other mess, and I never peak above 205 under 17psi boost on a 94º day (so far).

Edit- Oh and that's with generic 50-50 mix coolant as well..

Most of what Curly mentioned is either free, or stupid cheap, so start punching down the list.

Read up on my reroute, I think I might have spent $40 on it, and some of it was for a spacer I never used. The rear Gates hose that was kinda expensive could have been replaced with a cheap piece of straight hose had I bought the metal mid pipe that already had a 90* bend in it.

That and some ducting/undertray action will make the stock radiator sufficient for street driving until you can buy an aluminum one. These are also upgrades you can do a step at a time, each of which will show marked improvement until you've got an ideal setup.

whoa! whoa! whoa! "unnecessary reroutes or any of that other mess"? 'the fuck bro? why you talkin shit? just because you run your engine rich and under-timed doesn't mean everyone else's vagina bleeds in the wind the same way.

the reroute is not a modification, but a return to the proper design that has been incorrectly configured for uneven cylinder cooling. you can say "i'm too much of a bitch to want to do it" but don't speak negatively of the coolant reroute.

edit- nice! I got some red font! my dialect is a mixture of satire, insomnia, and ridiculousness. I hope no one other than the WARNINGBOT was offended...

No undertray, 30 dollar ebay rad and 200* all day. 50/50 aswell.

^ Ooh, another turbo miata in the TCs, where you located?