Dear Fellow Tiger Knuts.....
This is a long sad story.....if you want to flame me for a long message,
sobeit.
Remember several months ago the guy leaving the message to the group about
"Cooling a Hot 260"?? What an idiot!! Let me explain.
He got a lot of good answers from a number of people on the Tigers list;
all very valid and accurate. This information he then took and conducted
research as to the history of his car and the engine rebuild. He
discovered that the engine job had been done correctly by one of the top
Ford engine builders in town, which made him even more concerned over
keeping the engine in the prime operating range of 190-200 degrees. As the
engine had been carefully bored-out, he was even more concerned about heat
as the Tiger pretty routinely would hit the 220 to 235 degree mark. Not
wanting to invest the $400+ in the CAT 4-Row radiator that much wiser
individuals of the likes of Tom Hall and others suggested, he chose a
different, albeit temporary solution to the problem…..spending $150 on a
radiator cooling fan.
A day and a half later and some scraped knuckles (who what else is new with
a Tigger!) the installation of the fan was completed. Wisely, he chose the
model which came with a preset thermostatic switch set to operate the fan
when the radiator hit 185 degrees. With great confidence that he had the
problem in check if not solved, he took his bride out for a shake-down
cruise (her first) in the Tiger. Interestingly enough, his wife was indeed
taken by the car. He was exceptionally surprised as she had never taken a
shine to his other LBC’s in the past and she had always had a personal
affinity for KIP’s (Kraut Iron Porches). However, his stomach began to
churn when on this lovely San Diego day, the car was hitting the 225-235
degree range climbing long steep grades in the mountains, when the ambient
temperature outside was only a moderate 78 degrees. He was encouraged
however that the car cooled when going down the other side of the hill to a
little less than 200 degrees. He really could not understand what was
going on. The fan never really seemed to come on during the entire hour
and a half trip. He knew that the gauge was accurate….it had to be.
Rather than the Smiths/Jaeger electric gauge, a previous owner had
installed an NOS mechanical gauge fed by a piton (SP?) tube directly from
the sensor in the manifold. Lord knows all the race car guys use a similar
set-up to give a REAL accurate reading rather than those
prone-to-fault-cause-its-Lucas setups. Flustered and dismayed that the fan
did not seem to work or help, he took the car and his bride home.
Interestingly enough, the pressure cap seemed to hold, and the car never
spit any fluid from the radiator…..maybe the pressure cap was too highly
rated for the car?
Obviously this whole thing required further testing. In the garage, he
set-up and experiment where he put a simple mechanical probe thermometer in
proximity of the fan sensor and heat them both with a small utility torch.
At just above 185 degrees, the fan motor started. HHMMM. Why in the hell
was the fan not going on while driving the car?? It should at least go off
when power is switched on from residual heat 5-10 minutes after the car is
shut down….but it did not…even when it read almost 235!!.
His frustration mounting, he continued to experiment and drive the car. He
was only able to get the car to expel fluid once….when the needle on the
gauge was really pegged, and only _after_ residual heat build up. Finally,
one day after pulling into the garage with the gauge reading about 232, he
popped the hood and went over to the bench to break out his Fluke meter and
Temperature probe attachment. He left the key on, but the engine shut
down. First, he probed the radiator at several locations. He was really
amazed that the reading on the meter rose quickly, but stopped (Depending
on location of the probe) at anywhere from 180 to 187 degrees. Then, he
moved the probe to the water temp sensor on the manifold…..it read 200
degrees and rose slowly to 208 as residual heat began to develop. That’s
strange….when he started this whole process, the gauge read 232 and was now
nearly pegged……but it’s a mechanical gauge…..
By now (if you did not already,) you know the dipshit in this story is me.
The moral of this story is: just ‘cause you do 99.9% of the work on your
own car, you STILL don’t know it all and are STILL prone to tearing into
something without thinking it through. The last thing I did should have
been my first step. Had I taken that (the proper) route, I would have
eliminated a lot of frustration, wasted time and expense on my part….and a
real RED FACE right now.
The saddest part of the story is that I missed a really good deal on a CAT
4-Row radiator during this whole process; not because I did not want it but
because I reacted to slowly….’ya snooze ‘ya loose!!
Now, as I hang my head in shame, I am in the process of getting the parts
(sending unit and OS Smiths/Jaeger gauge) to retrofit and replace the NOS
gauge and piton tube. Besides, I want a light in the damn gauge for
driving at night anyway!! I still drive the car, but remember that the
current gauge reads high by 20 degrees. In retrospect, I really should
have taken more notice when Tom Hall stated (essentially) that the
indication of overheating is spitting fluid from the radiator (Duh! ….why
did I not take that to heart???)
Anyway, I am back in the market for a CAT style radiator….I already have
the modified six-blade fan. So, if anyone out there in Tiger Land knows of
or has a CAT-style radiator for a reasonable price, I would appreciate
hearing about it.
Thanks for putting up with my long message….I only hope others can learn
from my mistakes.
Regards.
Allan
B9472373 (a not-so-HOT Tigger, still thunder’in through El Cajon)
"Iron rusts with disuse, stagnant water loses it's purity, and in cold
weather becomes frozen, even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind."
Leonardo Da Vinci
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