Dean,
Your temperature gauge shouldn't go beyond the 3/4 mark on the gauge.
If so, you will get boil-over from the expansion of the hot water/coolant.
If you're getting a normal temp reading on your sensor I'd make sure it is
operating correctly? They do occasionally go bad! (I had to change out one
once in my 1500.)
There are 3 things I'd check if my car is overheating.
1. Do you have a "summer" thermostat installed ? (It's a $5 part, and you
should have a new one installed every summer.) And conversely a winter
thermostat installed in the fall.
2. Make sure the water pump is moving water when the fan pully turns.
Stagnant water in the block will heat up quickly.
3. You've eliminated the need for checking for a radiator clog (I hope).
Since it's a brand new radiator, it should be fine.
Not to be an alarmist, but soon after fixing an over-heating problem on my
1500 with similar overheating symptoms to your car, my mechanic..upon
checking the crank...said I was very close to
melting a bearing...Now It may have been just that time (I have no idea if
the car had 10,000 miles on the bearings or 100,000 miles on them). I'm
not even sure if the engine overheating can "melt a bearing". But I'm sure
someone on this list can tell you if you need to be concerned.
Also, my experience in cooling: I changed out my radiator for another
1500 radiator (when I was having an over-heating problem, which I assumed
was from some clogged radiator coils). But I noticed that the radiator that
I had in the car had fins that were much further apart than the one I got
from another spitfire from the same year.
I don't know why there was this difference. But the one I got from the other
Spitfire (with the closer together fins/more fins) seems to cool better.
But that may be due to my theory of a clog system (a lot of crap came out
when I flushed the 21 year old original radiator).
I still had overheating problems in 90+ degree weather in traffic situations
, but I installed an electric fan in addition to the mechanical fan on the
engine. Kept the engine pretty cool except in the hottest, and non-moving
traffic conditions (I think the exhaust from the vehicle in front of your
car does little to help your fan out. You just wind-up blowing hot air over
your hot radiator.)
With the addition of an oil cooler this summer, I sit in Washington D.C.
traffic (it's been 101 to 103 not including the humidity the past 2 days)
with the gauge only a hair to the right of the half-way mark.
Terry L. Thompson
'76 Spit 1500
Maryland
At 05:16 PM 7/7/99 +0100, you wrote:
>
>Hi
>
>I have a strange cooling problem.
>
>My original Stanpart radiator sprung a leak, so I replaced it with a
>second hand 'Coventry Radiator Co.' radiator. (after-market patten
>part)
>
>Since then, every time the engine gets hot, ie. worked hard, coolant
>escapes past the radiator cap and into the expansion bottle. The
>engine over heats and I have to top it back up with water before
>continuing.
>
>I have checked the cap and it is a 13lb one as it should be.
>
>What do you think is happening? Is the cap which worked fine on the
>Stanpart radiator not sealing properly now??
>
>The new (old) radiator does not seem to have as many cooling fins as
>the Stanpart one. Is it not as efficient and therefore boiling up too
>easily?
>
>Your combined wisdom would be very appreciated.
>
>Dean Rayner
>MKIII Spit '68
>
>
>
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