[TR] GT6+ Running Hot Part 2

Jim Muller jimmuller at rcn.com
Sat Dec 15 19:29:07 MST 2007


Randall wrote a nice answer to this but I'll chime in anyway only 
because I also drive a GT6+.

On 15 Dec 2007 at 12:58, TR250Driver at aol.com wrote:

> 70 GT6 +, runs too hot for me.  Just a bit over half on the
> NOS SMITHS temp gauge.  Does not boil over under any conditions

Just over half isn't what I'd consider hot.  The fact that it reads 
like that all the time, even with a different thermostat and in 
different kinds of weather, says that it is working just fine.  (I 
think mine runs right at the halfway point, but slightly above 
wouldn't scare me unless it kept climbing.  I have seen it run 
hotter.  Of course, right now it isn't running at all, given the 
amount of snow and salt all over the place here.)

> Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, Beverly
> refuses to ride in the GT6+ for her seat is directly behind
> the exhaust header and  really on fire.  I have to hose her
> down after a sort trip.

Ah, that's a different problem.  I hold different beliefs from most 
supposed experts about keeping a car cool, even some real experts 
here.  The most important thing you can do to keep the interior of 
the car cool is improve air circulation around the engine and 
gearbox.  For example, many people, which includes the factory, 
installed insulation under the tranny cover.  The trouble is, it 
reduces the airflow through there.  When the insulation eventually 
becomes saturated with oil, as it inevitably will, the insulation 
doesn't insulate very well, but the airflow doesn't get any better.  
So more heat is transferred to the interior, and an additional 
downside is that the gearbox runs correspondingly hotter.

When I bought my GT6+ it had no shrouds around the engine or 
radiator.  (The Spitfire did, but IIRC they are no longer in place.)  
Sure the GT6 is warm inside but not so much as to make Sharon 
complain.  We open the windows (old-style "acoustic" air 
conditioning).  We've driven 3-hr trips in 95degF weather.  I have no 
proof of this claim but I suspect if I put in shrouds around the 
engine the entire compartment would get hotter and the firewall and 
tranny cover would feel much warmer inside the car.

For what it's worth, both my cars have the plastic tranny cover from 
TRF, indifferently installed (because they fit indifferently well 
until I work at them some), with no additional insulation.

-- 
Jim Muller
jimmuller at rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+


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