Hello, Healeyphiles -
Since my water temp gauge tested to be 100% accurate, and the various
thermostats (unsleeved, sleeved, and no thermostat at all) had no effect on
preventing the gauge from going to 212 on a hot day, the only thing left to
do was to investigate the radiator. I decided to spring for re-coring the
radiator with a modern core that has larger tubes, more of them, and more
cooling fin area, too. I got the re-cored radiator installed this morning
(67 deg. F in Havelock) and took the car on a test drive as I did before - 5
miles out, turn around at the traffic light, and 5 miles back home. I had
removed the sleeved thermostat for the previous test, so this morning's test
was done without a thermostat at all. Here's the result:
The car warmed up (slowly, as expected without the thermostat) to about 180
as it idled at 1000 rpm in the driveway for 15 minutes. Once underway at
speed (55 mph), the gauge dropped down to 140 and stayed there to the
stoplight, where it moved up to 160 as I waited to make my U-turn. It was
back to 140 when I got home. Although a real test will come when the
ambient temperature is higher, it appears that the new radiator does have a
positive effect. I'll reinstall the sleeved thermost later and see how it
does.
The radiator guy at North Raleigh Radiator said there was nothing physically
wrong with my old radiator core - no plugging of the tubes or anything else
visible. His comment was that that kind of core is usually found on
industrial equipment like forklifts instead of cars.
Steve Byers
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
Havelock, NC USA
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