Kurt,
You didn't say what ambient temps were, but this seems a bit high
(my BJ8 didn't run that hot in Death Valley at 115degF, until we had
to pull a long grade leaving the valley).
Check your timing (retarded can cause hot running). You didn't
mention any driveability problems, so your mixture is probably close.
You can enrichen a little to run a little cooler.
Did you rebuild your radiator when you restored the car (at least, rodded
it)?
I've done the following to keep temps in line:
- installed Texas Cooler
- installed fan shroud from British Car Specialists
- use approx. 1:2 mix of antifreeze:water (distilled)
- the the modified thermostat with sleeve (180deg)
- use Red Line Watter Wetter
- rebuilt radiator with Excel core
- engine block was hot tanked at last rebuild
BCS, among others, suggest putting baffles on the sides of the radiator
to keep the fan from recycling hot air (some of the air pulled through the
radiator gets pushed back to the front of the radiator, probably from "eddy
currents" from the ends of the blades).
I think M**s is now selling the "old-style" thermostat (the barrel-shaped
ones with the moving sleeve to block the bypass port when open). One
of these MAY allow more coolant to flow (not sure).
bs
***************************************************************
Bob Spidell San Jose, CA bspidell@comcast.net
'67 Austin-Healey 3000 '56 Austin-Healey 100M
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Subject: enginetemp
> It's been a hot and humid summer in the NE and I have been driving my
> newly restored bt7, I had heard all the info about the cars running hot,
> but I am concerned about how hot. The car runs about 190-195 as long as
> moving along, but will rise close to 200-205 if stopped for any length
> of time. My other concern is when I shut off the car engine the temp
> will rise to 220+, can this damage the engine?. I was originally running
> a 50-50 mix of antifreeze and water and reduced this to 75-25 mix which
> helped a little but I don't think enough. Car is all original including
> 4 blade fan. Are there other things to be concerned about. kurt
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