Engine Really Hot in Sand Driving

lespo

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Joined
Dec 2, 2008
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28
Location
Kellyville,Sydney
Just wanted to get some feedback from other members who drive on sand regurarly.

During Christmas we drove along the entire lenght of Stockton Beach. This was my first time on sand driving and did all the right things...tyre pressure down to about 16psi on the really soft section. Car was just serviced and had some transmission oil additive put in for safe measure plus snatch strapd and stabiliser snatch etc.

Whilst driving near the shipwreck side of the beach the engine temp got really hot...Is this normal. I have an Auto and was holding 2nd gear most of the time and had to use 1st in the really soft rutted sections to keep engine revs up.

Thankfully we had no probs or warnings with the A/T lights and as we headed down towards the Anna Bay side the sand was more compact and it was easy.

Initially when we entered from Lavis Lane we veered to the left of the sand dunes and were lost wandering around for a while before we found our way to the coast line.

Sorry no excting car action pics time as the battery went flat.
 
Hi lespo, yes this is fairly normal as the engine has to work really hard in the sand with out much forward speed to assist the cooling. On some of our club runs we have had particular problems with the turbo powered cars on hot days and have had to pop the bonnet and wait for them to cool down a bit.
 
You are really working an engine hard on sand. If you want to find out how hard, try dragging a bicycle through sand and see how quickly you tire.

If you wish to do this alot, I would recomend an engine oil and transmission oil cooler. Engine oil is also a coolant and that should help somewhat. If your engine got hotter then you like an oil change may not hurt either.


nipper
 
Yes, this is normal in autos when heading in the direction of the wreck on Stockton because of the soft sand and prevailing wind that comes from behind you.
Heading in the other direction, as you said, is fine.

Manuals on Stockton don't have the problem so what's actually happening is that the auto transmission is running very hot and is increasing the temperature in the radiator coolant. Adding an extra transmission cooler will help; popping the bonnet and leaving it sit open a little bit will also help - add a strap so it doesn't fly up!

The best solution is to add an "always on" switch for the fans - this does work on Stockton. I have not done it yet but I had a fan wire corrode and it gave up on Stockton so I hard wired the fans to the battery and there was no over-heating at all.

PS - my avatar is from Stockton
 
I've had high engine temps on sand once before, even in my manual, however this was at Mungo Brush in 40 degree Celsius ambient temp and very soft sand due to recent dry weather and a hot wind. Needed to stop and idle every few minutes of driving to keep the gauge out of the danger zone.

Also, rather than going at my usual soft beach driving speed of about 50km/h in second gear / 4000rpm, I ended up easing off and just ambling along in first which helped. The auto Forester I was travelling with was affected worse by the heat - not sure if it had a trans cooler fitted or not.
 
^ reminds me that there is another potential solution - run a large ATF cooler without going through the radiator. The trans fluid passes through the radiator to collect heat for colder climates - we don't need that here.
 
Thanks guys for the reassuring advice. I think I'll install Kevins clever trick of a "Always on fan Switch".
I've already got an transmission cooler as I've got a tow bar fitted. Makes sense looking back now that the wind was blowing frpm behind when travviling up to the stocktons side.

Have a great weekend everyone.
 
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