Mark:
You're close. As I understand it, the bypass function on the engine is
designed to block (mostly) the bypass hole to the head with the sleeve on
the thermostat in order to speed up the warm-up. This is what I learned
when experimenting with sleeving regular thermostats years ago. I
understand that reproductions of the original Smiths (sleeved) thermostat
are now available, but I have not checked.
In other words, it's no big deal to run a current (cheap) thermostat - we've
all been doing it for a long time.
If some other list guru wants to correct this if I've got it wrong, or
expand on this, please help out.
Hope the fan blade did minimal damage - I've heard some horror stories!
Earl Kagna
Victoria, B.C.
BJ8, BT7 tri-carb
-----Original Message-----
From: Schneider Mark
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2011 12:57 PM
To: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: [Healeys] BJ8 Cooling System
A couple of weeks ago I lost a blade off of the radiator fan. Boy, was
that
exciting! I decided to use the opportunity to thoroughly inspect and test
all
components of the cooling system. Anything I found with a problem I
replaced.
Obviously, the fan is first on the list. As I read an information tech
sheet
associated with the one source of the Texas Cooler I came across something
about which I would appreciate some lister input. The article points out
that
the big Healey cooling system design has a bypass that circulates coolant
through the engine until the thermost at opens. If one is using an after
market, non-sleeved, regular type of thermostat which remains closed until
reaching temperature, there is no flow through the radiator core. Do I have
this right? The article suggest drilling a couple of small holes in the rim
of the thermostat to allow a small amount of flow until the thermostat fully
opens. In all the years I have owned a Healey I had never heard of this
before. What is the experience of the list members???
Marks 3
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