In a message dated 10/22/2005 8:10:07 PM Central Standard Time,
tr3driver@comcast.net writes:
> >I don't know, I have had no experience with over heating in the TR3 but a
> >friend of mine claims that installing a restriction in his bypass solved
> his
> >overheating problem.
>
> Well, all I can say is that I tried it and it made no detectable difference
> for
> me. If it was going to make a difference, I would think the difference
> would
> have to be at idle where water flow is much lower, but a decent fan solved
> that
> problem for me (which again suggests that lack of water flow is not the
> problem
> even at idle).
>
> Are you sure your friend didn't change something else at the same time ?
Quite likely. He was more interested in solving the problem than analyzing
it.
>
> >It could be significant or else why bother with the skirt on the
> thermostat?
>
> Could be that someone didn't do their homework, and just assumed that the
> bypass
> had to be blocked. Many if not most cars do not block it ... just look at
> all
> the thermostats at the local parts house that don't have blocking plates on
> them. They all have bypasses. And apparently Triumph/BL later decided that
> it
> did not have to be blocked. TR250 &6 did not, for example. And while the
> TR7
> did (probably due to persistent overheating problems), I suspect the TR8 did
> not.
And these cars had a significantly smaller passage. Even the TR3/4 housing
changed to a smaller passage and perhaps that is all that was necessary. I
doubt the skirt provided a very effective cutoff of flow anyway. The later
TR7's
and the TR8 all had bypasses that ported to the coolant reservoir. This
provided a handy way to vent any trapped air to the reservoir where the lowered
level would readily be noticed. This was done via a long, small diameter (1/4
in) hose.
>
> Of course you could settle the argument by taking inlet and outlet water
> temperatures on a TR3 running at the brink of thermal overload. Then we
> could
> run them through the calculations I posted before, and see how much
> difference a
> small change in water flow would actually make. Unfortunately I don't have
> the
> means handy to do that ...
Nor do I have the weather at the moment. And since the TR3 is not drivable
at the moment (nor for the coming year and a half) perhaps some TR6 testing
will suffice.
Dave
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