Shock Temperature

[Jim Garry]

How hot is too hot for shocks? My rear shocks are located directly under the exhaust on my FF. I'm going to build some heat protection but will also buy some heat indicating stickers and need to know the range to purchase.

Thanks for your advice.

[mikey]

I'm interested to know this also. My Lola T91/50 has inboard vertical mounted shocks and actually came with cooling ducts to direct airflow onto them.

[alangbaker]

How hot is too hot for shocks? My rear shocks are located directly under the exhaust on my FF. I'm going to build some heat protection but will also buy some heat indicating stickers and need to know the range to purchase.

Thanks for your advice.

My buddy and I raced all of 2019 and it seemed there was never more than about 3 feet between us, but I can tell you that his Lola T644 used to get loose in the latter stages of a race...

...at least until he added some shielding and venting to keep his rear shocks cooler.

[Hawke]

I test a lot of shocks on my dyno. I don’t see much performance difference up to 60 degrees C. These are usually twin tube steel single adjustable shocks. I suspect that current fluid used these days changes very little with temperature.

I only get them to 60 degrees by letting them run for 10 minutes at full hard at 10 ips. Normally only do that to bed new piston rings in following a rebuild.

I recently had to fix some shocks on a Suzuki Jimni that some boofhead has used to try and drive across the Gunbarrel Highway. They had got so hot the paint had burnt off, and the seals melted, then the oil fell out. I don’t know the melting temperature of oil seals, but I suspect it more that we ever experience on our race cars.

Can’t comment on mono tube shocks.

[EricP]

Angelo (ANZE suspension) told me around 200F is too hot. If I remember correctly... so I got temp stickers that turn color at 160, 170, 180, and 190.

[romoman]

I've done testing on a tin top GT car rear shocks with a thermocouple. They never got hot, but short track stuff can get plenty hot depending on the car/setup/track. I think the suggestions for 160-200 F are probably pretty accurate.

[Jim Garry]

Thanks guys.