Hi! Just testing to see if I'm getting thru. I own a '61 Austin Healey
3000 MKI BN7, we made our annual trek to Carlise. 70 + miles on the PA turnpike
with no overdrive, my ears are still ringing. ;') Still had a great time, it
was a beautiful day for it. I've owned the car for about 6 years now and still
have a bit of work to do. Mainly the interior, but I would like to get the over
drive fixed. Well like I said this is just a test, so I'll keep it short.
Steve Kocik
From rwg1@postoffice.mail.cornell.edu Tue Sep 11 11:33:20 2001
From: (Roger Garnett) rwg1@postoffice.mail.cornell.edu
To: (British Cars) british-cars@autox.team.net
Date: 19 May 93 12:43:10
Subject: Re: Radiator Overflow
> > My '67 MGB tends to expell water out of the Radiator overflow
> > after the car has been running for a while on a warm day when
> > I turn the car off. Why is this?
My '65 always did that a bit too, I just top it off once in a while. The
hot engine heats non-circulating water more (hot spots), which raises the
pressure. You might check the fit and finish in the radiator neck, and
for the correct pressure range stamped on your cap. (7 pounds rings a
bell? Check the specs.) And, the correct depth of the plunger.
> > I have tried several combinations of thermostats and radiator
> > caps with no success. Right now I have a 165 degree thermostat
> > in the car.
The thermostat won't do anything for this problem, it just controls the
operating temperature when the car is *running*. I think 180 is
standard, and 165 sounds a bit cool unless the car is too hot when running.
> Has anyone fitted an overflow bottle to their MGB?
> > ...Mike
> I have, and it works quite well. It's just a generic aftermarket bottle.
> My current problem is that it works well with my old radiator cap, but
> when I put a new cap on, I found it would let water out of the radiator,
> but not suck the water back in as it cools. I guess my new cap is
> defective?
> -Jean H
There are 2 basic kinds of radiator cap- the old blow-off for over
pressure only, and the newer recovery type that has spring/valving to
allow suck back when there's vacum in the cooling system. (cool-down
cycle). You can install a catch tank to recover overflow with the old
type cap, but you pour the coolant back in yourself.
________
/___ _ \ Roger Garnett (Roger-Garnett@cornell.edu)
/| || \ \ Agricultural Economics | "The South Lansing Centre
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