I've never had anything but a stock radiator, and I wouldn't trust them at
higher pressures. I have been running pretty standard stuff, Hepolite
pistons, and have not had any #4 problems. I have always run the heater pipe
around to the back of the head per Ken Gilanders advice. I did get a little
water in the overflow bottle after each race. Larry has a big aluminum
radiator and he was experiencing water in the oil. No doubt that better
sealing of the figure 8's and head gasket oil interfaces would be in order,
but a simple reduction in water pressure reduced the risk of sending water
into the oil. At least I think that worked for Larry, but I'd better let him
answer himself. Larry is bumping up his engine program, and I think he had
forged pistons last time around. I don't know if he has torn that engine
down to see if he has anything to worry about. In the meantime, I listening
and learning as I will be going for more HP soon.
Bob Kramer
rkramer3@austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Henry Frye" <henry@henryfrye.com>
To: "Larry Young" <cartravel@pobox.com>; "FOT" <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2005 9:10 PM
Subject: Re: FOT Project Pulley
> At 09:01 AM 03/26/2005 -0600, Larry Young wrote:
>>However, I've seen problems which I suspected were due to too much block
>>pressure.
>
> You got my interest. What kinds of problems?
>
>>I'm hard headed, so it took a while for Kramer to convince me not to run
>>more than a 7 psi cap.
>
> Inquiring minds want to know... Why Bob?
>
>>With separate liners that protrude above the block deck, our engines have
>>many places to develop leaks at high pressure.
>
> The wet liner engine is far from rocket science. Getting the figure 8
> gaskets and liner protrusion right is the only tricky part.
>
>>A better solution is to install a higher capacity radiator.
>
> I did that too. A bigger radiator makes a big difference. On a TR4 it is
> pretty cheap and easy.
>
> But without addressing the lousy coolant circulation you are still going
> get localized overheating. Combine that with really low block pressure and
> you get the classic #4 overheat.
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