Nova Cooling Heads

[gator]

Does anyone use the Nova Cooling heads? Do they make a difference in temps? Is it worth buying?

Would appreciate the feedback.

Gator

 

[Fx]

They are great heads. Great looking, and hard to dent and bend. I have one for my Axial .28. Temp before the Nova head was 270-280 after I put the Nova head on it stay in the 240-260 range depending how hard I was running it.

 

[RangerRock]

I run a nova head on my F4.6

Dropped the temps about 30-40 degrees and love the durability of them. Same as FX said, they are hard to bend the fins and scratch....

 

[Shaun]

ya nova heads are well worth the money!!!!

 

[f1n3sse]

i run a nova head as well, cant get my temp above 250 if I tried

 

[ryugaiden05]

I run one on my Axial .28 and like FX I saw good temp drops and they are plenty durable.

 

[Purenitro]

One thing to keep in mind is polished aluminum will give lower temp readings the anodized aluminum will. They do the trick that's for sure but just make sure there is always a good trail of smoke. These heads sometimes lead people to lean out the engine too far because "the temps are so low" another good reason why we should never tune by temp alone. If you live where it's not very hot most of the time, you shouldn't really need it but the bling factor is pretty cool.

 

[wildchild27]

ive heard with the nova heads you cant reall check the temps do to it bein polished. will the polished effect the temp reading?

 

[Purenitro]

I have seen a sts .30 temped at 310f with a black head, the polished 0702 pipe was about 70 degrees less. It was an expensive ray-tech gun, I would touch the head for a brief moment, I would not touch the pipe as it would be an instant burn. The only way to know for sure if your gun is accurate is to calibrate it, it is simple and I may do a "how to" if enough people want the info. If your gun is programmable you can set it to be very close to accurate, if not at least you will know the variance in temp from actual to recorded readings. I have often wondered what the actual temp drop is with a nova head, it does have more fins but lacks the surface area from being bored out substantially more in the core of the head over stock. We don't run them up here because we never see weather hot enough to warrant using one.

 

[Keithv]

Here is a list I found of common metals
ok. I tried posting the chart but it doesnt come up right when I submit the post. So here is the link instead
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/emissivity-coefficients-d_447.html

 

[Purenitro]

Great info, not hard to see that different finishes will give different readings at the same temp. That's why I say you should calibrate your gun to match the head you are running.

 

[gator]

Cheers to all the great info, I got my Nova head On and am looking forward to trying it tonight. I will definately pay attention to the smoke however. Thanks Again everyone.

 

[texasavage]

Might be off topic but I heard a while back that it's better to check your engine temps from the side of the block and not the head(glow plug area). Is this correct?

 

[MikeK1981]

I was curious about this myself. All I've ever heard was to check from the glow plug area of the head but you would think that this would be much hotter than the block itself so we would probably just need a whole new set of temps for basic reference for checking the block since it is just a guideline to go by anyway. Maybe the engines pro's on here can shed some light on this for us.

 

[texasavage]

Yeah has about 8-10 deg differance in temps. I dunno, just soemthing I heard and figured I'd ask

 

[Purenitro]

All of the heat is made right at the very top of the block, from that point down it may be inaccurate as the incoming air/fuel mix cools the lower end of the sleeve and block as it passes through the block porting. The most heat buildup would be between the piston and the button in the squish band, the lower side of this is cooled by fuel/air mix. The top side of this has no cooling short of the cooling head, if you are looking for the most accurate reading of temp this would be the place to find it, right off the top of the button.

Some may ask, "well I get a higher reading from the side of my block then I do from the head?" That's when the whole emission sensitivity comes back into play as the black blocks will give off a higher temp then the colored and polished heads and buttons will. Hope that all made sense.

 

[Shaun]

awsome info as always pure!!!!!:resp:

 

[texasavage]

Thanks for the clarification! Glad we have people like you that hang out here! :resp:

 

[Purenitro]

Any time guys, Just happy I can help out

 

[Keithv]

Whats the squish band?

 

[Purenitro]

It is the clearance between the piston and button at top dead center.

 

[Keithv]

Ah ok. Thanks