That's pretty hot weather - remember that our cars were designed for the
relatively cool British weather (though, somehow, they didn't design them for
the relatively wet British weather - that's another issue).
Do you have a fan shroud in place? That's a typical problem. The pinging might
just be from the raised intake air temperature - one of the "competition mods"
that S-T published way back when (but isn't in the current reprints) was
fitting a 3" vent hose to lead cool air from the area in front of the radiator,
through the shroud, up the inner fender to point close to the carb intakes. I
haven't done it to my 4A yet, but when I made a similar mod to my GT6+, all the
pinging I ever experienced went away.
I'm a strong believer in oil coolers for these cars. My 4A wears a TR6 lower
radiator "shield", which was predrilled for a rollbar and oil cooler. I have a
thermostatic oil cooler plumbing kit and a 13-row cooler - you'll want to cut
some holes in the lower valence, a la the 250 and 6, to get fresh air flowing
over the cooler (or figure out some other way to direct air there; I've seen a
few variations and overall prefer the holes I cut - but I don't have a concours
car).
How fast were you driving up the hill? If you were going more than 30mph, I
would guess than an electric fan won't help much, since it probably won't
increase the airflow appreciably. You can get a custom core made up that has
more rows. You can pop the bonnet and drive that way to allow more air to flow
through the engine compartment.
Oh - do you have a proper thermostat with the blanking sleeve to cover the
bypass hose? This could be the culprit, allowing much of your coolant to just
recirculate and not actually go through the radiator.
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