John:-
Being a fellow MKII owner, I feel compelled to respond, although I
probably won't help a lot.
I have pretty much the same experience as you. I will fill up the
radiator after changing the coolant and the car will decide how much it
will keep after a couple of drives. I find it amusing that it not only
marks its territory by oil drips, but expresses its opinion of my
maintenance efforts by pissing on my foot.
The temperature gauge generally runs between 190 and 195 on normal days,
a little higher on hot days. It does climb quite a bit when idling or
soon after parking.
I have heard of people that have adapted an overflow tank, but I'm not
sure it's really necessary. I have had my car in hot Texas for a number
of years and have only had overheating problems when something really
wrong has happened, like a broken water pump or rotted radiator hose.
I'm sure your experience at the video store was because of the angle of
the car. I think that is probably the only time when an overflow tank
would really come in handy.
David Littlefield
Houston, TX
On Fri, 04 Apr 1997 08:41:03 -0600 "John M. Rogers"
<rogersj@worldnet.att.net> writes:
>I have always wondered about this but have never asked...
>After I have been driving my MGA and come to a stop, the car obviously
>
>heats up to approx. 230 degrees (no air right). If the radiator is
>full, coolant will overflow past the cap down the overflow tube due to
>
>(I assume) increased pressure above the cap rating. Thus, the car
>comes
>to "equilibrium" after a couple of trips after a radiator fill up.
>The
>other night, I parked at the video store on a hill sloping down toward
>
>the filler neck end of the radiator. I lost coolant (have been on
>many
>trips without losing any). Is this because the coolant was already up
>
>to the cap when the pressure went up and the air pocket was up at the
>other end? I guess on a "modern" (boring) car, this overflows into
>the
>overflow tank and is siphoned back into the radiator when it cools.
>Is
>this a modification that one should attempt to make or should I leave
>well enough alone? It hasn't gotten real hot yet. My car runs at
>about
>195 degrees at speed. I know that this sounds like a dumb question
>but...
>
>John Rogers
>"Paranoid" MGA 1600 MkII driver"
>
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