Put your blinkers back in. Removing your blinkers allows high pressure air into the engine compartment, bypassing the radiator. You want ALL the air that enters the nose of the car to pass through the radiator. ALL THE AIR. Same with that hood scoop if its functional.

I'm guessing there is no belly pan at all on that thing either?

Either way, it looks bestial.

Edit: Like this



Or this:


with more bellypan. All the way back to the edge of the subframe below the PS rack in the above image.

 

I built a box at the front of my heat exchangers. The top section ducts to the upper part of the radiator and with an piece of aluminum bent to form a large sealed plenum to the top of the radiator.





The middle section is forced directly through the intercooler and the lower slice is a combination of the oil cooler and brake ducts. Here is the air dam and splitter rough cut.



Every cubic inch of air going through the nose of the car is cooling something. I'm running the FM crossflow and can hold 190 to 195* on a 190 thermostat at 85* ambient running ~260whp on the track for 30 minute sessions. Without the thermostat, I'm confident it would overcool another 20 or 30 degrees f.

No matter how big the radiator's capacity, it will eventually heat soak and overheat if it is just sitting out in the wind. Ducting is critical for a mid/high power track car.

 

Behold my implementation of Genesplicer's excellent bathtub liner idea.

Wurks gud, but may not survive long in Texas heat. The aluminum tape glue eventually softens.

 

Nope no ducting or belly pan at all. (insert head slap here...) The front of the hood scoop is blocked but I did vent it to be functional to the rear. I know that is a high pressure area and probably hurting me too. My thought was to block it up for track days and leave it open for autox so it would vent at low speeds and sitting in line. Easy to block it up though.

The photos and explanation are super helpful - thank you very much! I hate those blasted turn signals... and the license plate. What about if I duct the signal holes over to the radiator? Any benefit? Otherwise I'll just smoke the lenses and move on.

 

Wow that is epic! Very sweet fab job and really a great visual for me to figure out how to make this work right. THANK YOU!

 

The is very helpful. Thank you! This material looks along with a sheet of aluminum for an under belly tray looks like a really easy solution. Will take the heat of being in contact with the radiator?

 

I've read that the melting temp of PVC is around 160* C, with instability around 140*C. As long as the water coming out of the engine is no higher than 287*F, you shouldn't have any problems. On the sides of the radiator, I took aluminum bar stock and wrapped the PVC around it, riveting and gluing the PVC to the bar stock. I then bolted the aluminum bars to the radiator at the mounting holes on the end tanks to get a secure fit around the radiator.

 

I found a bunch of aluminum roofing flashing for very cheap that worked great. I picked up a roll of aluminum high temp tape that was not cheap but also worked great. It’s unreal how much difference the ducting made in it. I still have some more work to do to make it less ugly but I think I am good to go on the temp issues. Thanks so much for your help on this!!

Full write up and photos of my efforts is here:
Jim and Jenna build diary, Miata LS1 Conversion: LS1 Miata Cooling 101

 

Nice writeup. No need to try to fool us into thinking you have a wife though, we're all Miata owners here

 

LOL! Actually I commented on that in my blog too...
Jim and Jenna build diary, Miata LS1 Conversion: I want to talk to all the married guys out there for a minute

 

Mine has been taped directly to the sides of the radiator with the aluminum HVAC tape for 6 track days with no issues. The hvac tape glue does eventually fail, but I haven't had to re-tape everything yet. I expect to get 3 more track days out of it, the rest of my season.