[Healeys] Coolant bypass port in the head - 6-cyl

Tue Mar 29 20:42:50 MDT 2022

Bob -

One thing it might be is stop leak.  Stop leak can plug up a system if
there's air in there somewhere, and stop leak will form clumps if you don't
drive the car every day.  Using stop leak is fine, but you have to flush
the system out thoroughly after the stop leak has plugged the holes in your
system.

Best,

Alan

On Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 10:10 AM Bob Spidell <bspidell at comcast.net> wrote:

> It's been years, and my memory is (always) suspect, but I believe I put a
> RS in a pan of boiling water (with a frog, of course). The conical top of
> the RS goes up in the thermostat housing, so I think the moving part can
> only go down. IIRC, the sleeve only moved a quarter-inch or so and I
> thought at the time it would only cover maybe half of the bypass port.
>
> I mostly came to the conclusion Michael did: Covering the port or not
> makes no measurable difference; it's certainly not a cure for overheating
> Healeys.
>
> On another note; I drained my BJ8 to install another heater valve and
> block valve and, when filling noticed some crud blocking a couple tubes. It
> was hard to extract, but when I did it appeared to be solder that had come
> off from somewher (by the shape probably from around a tube). Rad's not
> leaking, but I'm not a happy camper; this was an 'uprated' core installed
> less than 6 or 7 years ago.
>
>
> On 3/29/2022 7:00 PM, Alan Seigrist wrote:
>
> Hi Bob -
>
> the Robertshaw thermostats are nicely made, but they open the wrong way
> around... let me do some measurements as I am dealing with the cooling on
> my BJ8 now.  I have a robert shaw... as well as another sleeved thermostat
> as well as the bellows.
>
> Best,
>
> Alan
>
> On Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 9:54 AM Bob Spidell <bspidell at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> Years ago, someone--might have been BCS, but I'm not sure--was selling a
>> Robertshaw thermostat with a brass sleeve soldered to it (Robertshaw
>> thermostats have a center portion that moves up and down). The one I bought
>> was 160deg; I desoldered the sleeve and soldered it to a 180deg Robertshaw.
>> I bought one of the original, bellows-type from Kees--whatever happened to
>> him?--but never installed it; heard they were the 'fail closed' type, which
>> could turn a minor failure into a catastrophe (still have it around
>> somewhere).
>>
>>
>> https://flowkoolerwaterpumps.com/products/robertshaw-330-160-degree-thermostat
>>
>>
>> On 3/29/2022 6:35 PM, Alan Seigrist via Healeys wrote:
>>
>> Harold -
>>
>> Thank you, now I understand how the whole thing is supposed to work.  The
>> sleeve works to cut off the bypass so that hot water is not recycled into
>> the system after it warms up.  FWIW, this only applies to the 6 cyl, the 4
>> cyl doesn't have any sort of bypass.
>>
>> Yes, I think it would be great if you could share with us which
>> thermostat to purchase and how to modify it.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Alan
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 1:28 AM Harold Manifold via Healeys <
>> healeys at autox.team.net> wrote:
>>
>>> The coolant bypass plays an important but problematic role in the
>>> Healey’s cooling system. When the thermostat is closed coolant returns to
>>> the water pump via the bypass. See the red circle on the attached picture.
>>> The bypass is important for three reasons: its allows the coolant in the
>>> block to continue to circulate and come to a uniform temperature before the
>>> thermostat opens, it prevents hot spots that could develop from stagnant
>>> coolant and it prevents the water pump from dead heading.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The problematic part is in the original design the bypass was closed by
>>> a sleeve on the bellows type thermostat when the thermostat opened. The
>>> original Bellows type thermostat used a volatile liquid and were not
>>> reliable and were not suitable for the 7 psi cooling system pressure. Wax
>>> type thermostats are much more reliable but they do not have a sleeve to
>>> close off the bypass. There may be some expensive wax type replicas of the
>>> original bellows type.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> After looking at many options the best option for a reasonably priced
>>> wax type thermostat with a sleeve to close off the bay pass is the modified
>>> Land Rover Series ll thermostat. If anyone would like to know about
>>> modifying the Landver thermostat let me know. It can be easily done.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Harold
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From: *Michael Salter via Healeys <healeys at autox.team.net>
>>> *Sent: *Tuesday, March 29, 2022 9:17 AM
>>> *To: *Healey list <Healeys at autox.team.net>
>>> *Subject: *Re: [Healeys] Coolant bypass port in the head - 6-cyl
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The coolant travels from the bottom of the radiator to the water pump
>>> into the block then from the block into the head then through the
>>> thermostat to the top of the radiator.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> M
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue., Mar. 29, 2022, 11:57 a.m. Elton S, <eps2660 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> As a related question, what is the direction of flow through the
>>> radiator - up from the bottom or down from the top?
>>>
>>> Elton
>>>
>>> BJ7
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 11:44 AM Michael Salter <michaelsalter at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> As Gary points out, and far as I have been able to figure out, the
>>> bypass passage is open when the engine is cold, the idea being that by
>>> "short circuiting" the radiator the coolant in the heater and bypass
>>> passage will warm up more quickly and the heater will produce heat more
>>> quickly.
>>>
>>> We had a slew of the "shrouded " type thermostats that I bought when
>>> Smiths Canada closed down. The part number was 43570/28 and we used to sell
>>> them to customers who reported overheating problems.
>>>
>>> I stopped promoting them as a potential solution to overheating issues
>>> after being taken to task by a customer who did an extensive study of the
>>> issue and proved, at least to my satisfaction,  that they improved cooling
>>> not one iota.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> M
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue., Mar. 29, 2022, 10:47 a.m. Alan Seigrist, <healey.nut at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't know if this has ever been answered before, but where does the
>>> little bypass port begin?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> What parts of the head does that bypass come in contact with?
>>>
>>> When do you want to cover the port with a sleeve (when coolant is hot or
>>> cold?)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I ask because the old bellows style thermostat will cover the bypass
>>> port when the thermostat opens
>>>
>>> then I have another wax thermostat and the sleeve actually cover the
>>> bypass when it is cold, and doesn't cover it when the thermostat opens....
>>> so it works exact opposite to the old bellows style thermostat.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> confused....
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Alan
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
>>> Suggested annual donation  $12.75
>>>
>>> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/healeys
>>> http://autox.team.net/archive/healeys
>>>
>>> Healeys at autox.team.net
>>> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
>>>
>>> Unsubscribe/Manage:
>>> http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/michaelsalter@gmail.com
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
>>> Suggested annual donation  $12.75
>>>
>>> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/healeys
>>> http://autox.team.net/archive/healeys
>>>
>>> Healeys at autox.team.net
>>> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
>>>
>>> Unsubscribe/Manage:
>>> http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/eps2660@gmail.com
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
>>> Suggested annual donation  $12.75
>>>
>>> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/healeys
>>> http://autox.team.net/archive/healeys
>>>
>>> Healeys at autox.team.net
>>> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
>>>
>>> Unsubscribe/Manage:
>>> http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/healey.nut@gmail.com
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
>> Suggested annual donation  $12.75
>>
>> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/healeys http://autox.team.net/archive/healeys
>> Healeys at autox.team.nethttp://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
>>
>> Unsubscribe/Manage: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/bspidell@comcast.net
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
>> Suggested annual donation  $12.75
>>
>> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/healeys
>> http://autox.team.net/archive/healeys
>>
>> Healeys at autox.team.net
>> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
>>
>> Unsubscribe/Manage:
>> http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/healey.nut@gmail.com
>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/healeys/attachments/20220330/c1db4d5d/attachment.htm>