On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, Dianne Fullam wrote:
> Since there's a string going on about thermostats, I'll put this to the
> list:
> If I cruise at 3600rpm for a while, then get into a long stopngo line at a
> toll booth, the 4 will overheat right now. If I start it cold or drive
> around a short time at low speed, it will idle all day at about 80C. I have
> an electric fan, an oil cooler, a sleeved thermostat and water wetter. The
> air shroud is in place. Once it gets moving, the temp comes back down to 80
> in under 10 min. It never overheats while underway. We went around Chicago
> at 80-85 mph on the Tollway in 93 deg heat and the gauge didn't go over 2/3
> max.
>
> When we went to Rockford we got into a concrete bog jam in Gary IN, also
> over 90 deg. I did _not_ have the sleeved thermostat at the time and it
> didn't overheat. So what's going on here? The rad is clean and original and
> there's no mud in the coolant passages.
>
> The Hudson trip was 2770 miles without a hitch. It averaged 26 mpg and used
> 1/2 qt of 20W-50.
Judging from your com # you have a mid run TR4... Do you still
have the TR3 radiator and fan? If you have the old style fan
(Rounded blades) this could be the cause of your overheating. My `4
an early car used to overheat in traffic regularly. I blocked my
bypass, which didn't help much... It just delayed the enevitable.
Once I changed the Old fan fro the later TR4-4a fan (got it from
Moss), My overheating problems quickly resolved. Another thing...
The next time you have the engine completely torn down, have the
block hot tanked, then go over the inside of the water jacket and
get off as much of the loose rust that you can... I used old
dental tools to do this (It took forever, but was worth the effort.
Nowadays my TR takes longer time to warm up. In traffic in
Chicago coming back from Road America, last month the temp barely
got over 185F. In the winter I have to block the radiator to get
it to run warm enough...
Greg Petrolati
gpetrola@prairienet.org 1962 TR4 (CT4852L)
"That's not a leak... My car is just marking its territory!"
Greg Petrolati, Champaign, Illinois
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