[TR] Spitfire overheating solved

[Mike Welch]

Quick note to the list, maybe this will help someone else.  I've been having
an overheating problem in my '69 Spitfire, radiator was tanked and replaced,
thermostat tested, water pump inspected, whole system flushed and back flushed
by myself and a local repair shop, etc, etc, no problems found, but it would
still overheat.  I went through all of the rubber hoses, they were all good,
until I checked the last one.  On the Spitfire 1300, there is a metal pipe
that goes from the water pump housing to the rear of the engine where it
splits off to the intake manifold and the interior heater core.  The hose that
went to the intake manifold was bone dry after taking it off.  A little
digging into the hose came up with quite a bit of gunk that looks like clay.
Going through that metal pipe, there was the same thing.  So, even though
water was circulating through the radiator and water pump, it wasn't going
anywhere else.  After cleaning everything out and replacing the hoses, the
overheating problem is gone.

Moral of the story is to check the easy stuff first.  Pulling a few hoses
would have been much easier than the radiator/thermostat/water pump dance that
I went through.

Mike Welch
Colorado Springs, CO
'69 Triumph Spitfire MkIII x2
'69 Honda SL350