Carl & all
I have been driving one or another V8 MGB's daily since 1986, & have not seen
this problem. GM did not have this problem with the thousands of 215's it sold,
they all shut off hot water flow to the heater. Rover & MG did not have this
problem with the P-6 V-8 Rover, the 3500 Rover or the factory MGBGTV8. These
cars all had valves to shut off water flow to the heater as does every car I
have any personal knowledge of, Chevys, Plymouths, & the odd Buick & Bronco.
A quick trip to your friendly auto parts store- a REAL one, not Trak or similar-
will put you in front of a catalog showing the hundreds of heater shut off
valves for virtually every car made in the last 20 years.
I have not seen the article, so I do not know if the quote below is accurate,
but I assume that it is. I cannot see any connection to heater flow & the
thermostat. There is no direct flow between the heater & thermostat, the other
end of the path ends at the water pump, not the thermostat. The statement just
does not make sense.
There is a possible overheating problem that involves the heater. If the heater
is not filled when the cooling system is filled- remember the instructions to
have the heater on?- a fair amount of air will be trapped in the heater core &
lines. That air can-may-not will- work its way into the coolant circulation
where it can create an "air block" or steam pocket. This will definitely cause
cooling problems. I have had that experience, & it isn't fun The temp gauge will
swing wildly & scare the hell out of you.
My VDO was pegged at 300` plus, then dropped to 160`, back to 280` & so on.
Lets put this to bed & not create another inaccurate urban legend.
Jim Stuart
BlkfxdWG@aol.com wrote:
> I found this line from Jim Patterson's '97 Street Rodder article disturbing.
>
> <<There is also a cooling problem that develops if the heater connection at
> the rear of the intake is blocked off - It won't allow the right circulation
> to the thermostat. >>
>
> Seems that an MGB heater control valve would do the same thing. Has any one
> experienced this situation? Maybe this is part of the overheating problems
> with an MG V8 conversion. Surely we don't have to drive around with the
> heater valve open in the summer.
>
> Carl in TN
> 79 MGB V8
> (not yet running)
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