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Overheating Problem on Spitfire

To: "'triumphs@autox.team.net'" <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: Overheating Problem on Spitfire
From: Philip Ryan <pryan@itdesign.ie>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 08:57:38 -0000


Hello Listers,
        
I hoping someone can point me in the right direction on this one.  It's 
freezing (well atually just above freezing) here in Ireland at the moment.  I 
don't intentionally drive the car when it's raining.  The last couple of times 
the car temperature guage would steadily climb up to near max then drop down to 
the middle or two-thirds.  I thought this was because the thermostat was taking 
longer to open or getting a bit stuck.  However the last time I drove the car 
(it's a Spitfire Mk3) was were in stop start traffic and the temp went up to 
the max and stayed there.  I eventually pulled over just as the oil warning 
lamp came on.  We sat for ten minutes but had no real change when I started it 
up.  I got out and checked everything, fan spinning nicely, overflow bottle 
full...  That's when I decided to pour the contents of the overflow bottle into 
the radiator.  She ran fine all the way home, although the oil lamp would come 
on at Idle.

I thought that the thermostat was the culprit, but guess what, the DPO had 
removed it.  I ran the car with the radiator cap removed and cheked for flow, 
it seemed fine.  I checked the radiator for leaks, but there seems to be only a 
small loss.  I'm just not sure where to go from here.  I took the radiator out 
and flushed it, a little bit of rust but pretty solid still. I put the hose 
down the thormostat housing to flush the engine, and that eventually ran clear.

Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance
Phil Ryan

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