Jason,
I went through a year of hell in trying to diagnose an overheating
problem in my TR6. Let me give you a few tips:
1) Get yourself a mechanical water temp gauge (these can be picked up
very cheap at the local Pep Boys or whatever). Remove the electric
sending unit and hook up the mechanical sending unit in its place.
This will give you a good idea of whether or not the engine is actually
overheating. You don't want to waste your time and money on an
overheating problem that is actually a gauge problem.
2) Don't assume that your radiator isn't clogged, even if you've had it
flushed. One of my first steps was getting the rad flushed. The shop
said it flushed nicely and they got some crud out, but the car
continued to overheat. After trying EVERYTHING (removing the head to
have it crack tested, cleaning out the block passages, replacing the
water pump, checking the ignition timing, etc), I returned to the rad
shop and explained what was up and they then told me "yeah, even when
we flush a rad there's a chance it's still plugged somewhere, you
should get a new one". I got a new rad and that solved everything.
So first, get a new mechanical gauge (mechanical so that you can make
sure it's not going to be swayed by electrical gremlins) to make sure
you really do have a problem. Then buy a new rad. Also, did you say
something about putting in some kind of custom cooling system in?
Maybe try going to the stock setup and see if everything works better
that way. It's best not to have too many variables going at once.
Tim Holbrook
1971 TR6
--- me@jasonwgeorge.ca wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Thanks for ALL your suggestions, I'm going through them one by one
> short
> of taking the engine apart and cleaning out the passages. For those
> just
> joining in, this is re: a '73 TR6 engine in a TVR 2500M.
>
> There is more to the story and - of course - I'm not the idiot to
> blame.
> :) Will fill you in when its resolved.
>
> On the suggestion of one member I hooked a hose up to the rad and
> started
> the engine and let the water cycle through. It seemed to come out at
> the
> same rate it was going in.
>
> Is there any chance (due to blockage) that the coolant could be
> cycling
> through the head and rest of the system just find but bypassing the
> block?
>
> I now also know my temp sender/gauge is screwed: with cool water
> passing
> through the system, the sender/gauge was reading 90 deg. Celsius. The
> sender is at the thermostat and this doesn't seem right to me.
>
> Another factoid: my modified cooling system seems to only take 4
> liters
> of water. A little less than 2 liters sit in the rad itself. Would
> another
> 2 liters fill the block, heater, manifold and hoses? I know this
> isn't
> much coolant but it is a modified system and has a heck of a lot of
> fans
> to back it up.
>
> Thanks again!
> Jason
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