After a few autocross events (ok like 12-14) my power steering pump is whining. Looking at the fluid its a tad bit burnt, so I would like to add a cooler into the setup without breaking the bank. What have you all done?

Would something like this work plummed into the system?
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...rt=SUM%2DG4960

Would it hold the pressure? too much volume for the system? Im not really familiar with the whole setup, and if someone had a pic or two (or a writeup you would be my new hero) that would be awesome.

 

From what I have seen from many different people, any cooler will help including the GM one ($$$) to the one in the Summit catalog. Keep in mind that only the GM-stock one is legal to run in stock class.

You can change over to Red Line PS fluid and this will help some. Just get a turkey baster and suck the fluid out of the reservior and replenish with the new fluid. If you do this after every 50 miles or so of driving, it will be an easy way to change over the fluid over time. This "mod" was good enough for autocross, but not good enough for open tracking. After track sessions, my Red Line fluid would be smoking and burnt.

I did this until I burnt the pump seal and had to replace. I probably would have been OK with just autocross events.

However, I took a different approach - I bought a modified power steering pump from Turn One Systems. This pump flows just over half the stock pump. With the Red Line PS fluid and the new pump, I no longer have any real problems with autocross or open tracking.

 

Keith, could you post your info on Turn One Systems? Sounds interesting.

 

http://www.ls1.com/forums/showthread...hreadid=311859

and

http://www.ls1.com/forums/showthread...hreadid=359064

They don't make them for LT1 cars, but when I tried to call earlier this year to see if they could make something up for us I never got through.

 

The OEM cooler works very well. Coming off of a road course, the PS fluid was always coolant temp (~200º) on both my car and a friends WS6 with the stock cooler. 2 friends that had RV coolers were typically 30º+ hotter. In all fiarness their coolers were behind the airdam. I have bought two factory coolers used with the lines, and paid $60 & $65 shipped for them.

 

I have seen the OEM cooled LS1 cars blow up their ps pumps with fast drivers on road courses. The first one I saw was a brand new 1998 LS1 Hugger Orange Camaro at the outside Las Vegas road course.

IMHO any upgrade here is worth looking into. Of course placement of the cooler is critical. I am using a two pass Permacool on my LT1 car, a four pass Permacool on my 3rd gen road race car. Both under $40 and well worth the investment. A new ps pump is over $300 at the dealer.

 

Thanks for all your help so far. I am going to flush the system this week ala turkey baster method as a start. I have another even this weekend... hoping not to make it any worse.

I would like to run a setup which would have a volume greater than the stock one... after all if there is more volume, there is less heat dissipated into the fluid per mL.
Another reason I want to run an aftermarket cooler is I have seen a buddies car autocross (a 2001 with less miles and less track events) with the PS cooler already toast the pump, and burn the fluid. Somehow I was able to avoid the problem unitl now.

 

Try at least using the Valvoline synthetic p/s fluid you can get at AutoZone, Murrays, Advance, etc. It's pretty cheap and is still an improvement over the stock stuff. That's something you can do as an intermediate fix.

For the LS1 though, the real fix is changing your pump to the Turn One unit.

 

I bought a Setrab Oil cooler for around $50 (I think) and plumbed it into the low pressure side of the system using power steering hose. It's a small cooler approximately 6 inches by 3 inches. I used to puke out a fair amount of power steering fluid out of the reservoir even on cool track days. Now I loose only a little even on hot days, so it looks like it's working.

Jim

 

Awesome... picked some up yesterday

 

Anyone have the part # for the OEM piece? Thanks!

 

I am using a LS1 cooler, got it from a junk yard, with everything for 25 bucks. It can't get any simpler or cheaper than that. I have not had one problem since the install

 

Call your local Chevy dealer for the part number...

If you are going to replace the pump, also replace the high-pressure PS line while you are in there. You can get one at NAPA with a lifetime warranty that is much less expensive than the GM version... And it fits just fine.

 

Did you put it in the upper or lower hose on your LT1? thanks.

 

I was getting whine whenever I used race rubber at the autocross. I added some power steering fluid additive from NAPA and it never happened again. I think it was made by Amsoil or Redline.