rad caps ... diff between an OEM and so called "performance" cap
 

besides looking cool ..... what does a Spoon or Mugen radiator cap do as opposed to the standard OEM cap ?

thanks

honestly NO, but sometimes an aftermarket cap will hold in more pressure before releasing (air) its kinda like a blow off valve but for heat/pressure .....not always a good thing....think of it this way Honda invested prolly thousands of dollars of research on that, why would you want to change it..

Off hand the spoon rad cap is 1.35 bar. This increases the pressure in your rad over the stock rad cap. Increase pressure = increased boiling point. Thats exactly what it does, yes it does look really cool :yummy:

so there would be an advantage to using a spoon cap over OEM?? any disadvantages ?

Under heavy engine load like at track events you will notice increased cooling efficiency. But since you increase the boiling point, you have to make sure the rest of your cooling system (rad, hoses, etc...) is capable to handle this, but this is more of a concern only under really heavy load as even with a stock rad cap you wouldn't normally reach boiling point.

:dito:

other parts that are in the system could blow if they are not up to par. the boiling point was set by honda to protect the internals and efficently cool them .... raising the boiling point could effect them and possibly overheat them monitor your water temp gauge

I have to agree with Astroboy, but the only reason I'd buy a Spoon or Mugen rad cap would be for looks. I don't believe there's that substantial a gain mechanically using one of those caps over that of an OEM.

good answers .... thanks guys !

A friend of mine used a Spoon rad cap on his B16A, and it kept blowing his rad hoses. He spent a lot of money replacing parts and diagnosing the problem when it was the POS Spoon part all that time.

Thermodynamics boys... water boils at 100 deg celsius at atmosphere pressure. Increasing the pressure increases the BP of water. Stock is at 1.1 bar, and Spoon is at 1.3 or so... thus, the BP is increased over stock.

Boiling water has air bubbles in it... air does NOT have great heat capacity, hence it REDUCES the effectiveness of water as a coolant.

Redline Water Wetter kinda does the same thing by making water "wetter" and eliminating small air bubbles that from when water heats up (anyone that has boiled water before should know the air bubbles I speak of).