well, when i did the project, i assumed some ideal situations
like all the air flow goes throught the radiator core, and the
water pump produces a specific amount of flow, but i can say
that i've never had a problem with my car overheating. i have
the narrow mkIV radiator, a 160°F thermostat, i've only flushed
the engine once, and i've never taken my radiator to be tested
or flushed. even when the air temp got to about 95°F a few
weeks ago and i hadn't installed my oil cooler yet, my temp gage
only read 190° at the most, and that was after idleing for 20
minutes. so, i'm temped to say that maybe your water pump isn't
circulating the water correctly or something. i don't know.
--- James Carpenter
<james.carpenter@jccsystems.swinternet.co.uk> wrote:
>
> oh, and as far as the radiator and over heating problems go, i
> should have wrote this earlier, i did a project for my heat
> and
> mass transfer class while in university on the effectiveness
> of
> the spitfire radiator. and i'll just say this: unless the
> ambiant air temp is something like 145°F, and you are
> traveling
> less than 30mph, you car will never overheat. of course that
> means your system has to be in 'like-new' condition.
>
> Well my radiator is in perfect condition, no blockage, no
> sludge and no
> build-up. This is what confuses me, and makes me think its a
> bad water
> pump. Could this be week and ineffective which would lead to
> the
> overheating problems? Or lime scale in the blocks, anyone
> tried kettle
> descailer or does it kill the hoses?
>
> I am extremely doubtful that its the 82 degree thermostat, at
> the
> temperatures the engine was running at it would have been full
> open, some
> how the car is not loosing enough heat. As far as winter
> summer thermostats
> are concerned, in my opinion they are not an option, fitting a
> cooler
> thermostat would be a bodge, not curing the problem but the
> symptoms. After
> all it doesn't tell you to change the thermostat in the
> handbook! My car is
> suposed to have an 82 degree thermostat, and an 82 degree
> thermostat it
> shall have. I could get myself a 78 degree one but I cant see
> what
> difference it would make, afterall the car runs in the 90+
> degree range and
> that temperature both are fully open. It's just I like to
> have the engin
> warm up quickly to minimise the dammage and poor economy
> caused by low
> temperatures.
>
> Could it be engine tune, I had retarted the timing 2 degrees
> for the trip,
> and is pretty much in tune, but the wax stats could have
> leaned it out which
> caused the heat to rise!
>
> I have the front radiator things in place and in reasonable
> condition,
> complete but a bit loose. I don't have the ones on the side
> of the engine
> in place, are they necessary to cut the temperature?
>
> How do you tell if your themostat is openign wide enough, to
> let all the
> flow through?
> How do you tell if your water pump is effective?
> Is there suposed to be somthing below the radiator to block
> the air flow,
> and even above it ?
>
> James
>
>
===
nikolai jaremka
72 spitfire mkIV
east aurora, new york
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