Todd,
It's not necessarily the thermostat. All that does is to open at its
pre-set temp. Thus, if it's a 180 stat, when the water in the engine
reaches 180, the stat opens and allows the water to circulate into the
radiator. There it is supposed to give off its heat to the passing
airflow and return to the engine at a lower temp. Essentially, the stat
sets the minimum operating temp, not the max.
So...remove the cap and run the engine until the needle starts
climbing. Stick a cooking thermoter into the rad water to see if the temp
goes from air temp (70 say) to 180 suddenly, as when the stat opens and
allows hot water from the engine into the radiator. If it happens that
way, the stat is OK. A better check is to remove the stat and put it in
a pan of cold water on the stove with thermometer. Heat water and note
the thermometer temp when the stat rather abruptly opens. + - five
degrees is close enough.
I'm guessing that you have crud in the radiator. Unless you know it's
been cleaned recently, you may be getting ready to remove it and take to
a radiator shop for cleaning. They remove the brass tanks top and bottom,
then clean out those little oval tubes with "rods" and brushes, then
solder it all back together. SHould they find that the "core" the little
tubes and fins are too aged to go back into service, they can "re-core"
with new material. Unless you are really into concours stuff, have them
re-core with a "thicker" or more rows of tubes core. They'll know what
you mean. I had that done to my MGB GT two years ago. Whoopee!
Absolutely no more hot readings on the gauge.
Ironically, I had not intended to go that route. The radiator got
punctured during the UPS strike. I couldn't buy one, because of the
strike. The radiator shop couldn't get the original size core because of
the strike, so they asked if they could use the thicker core at same
price. It was a serindipitous thing!
This is another simple, but annoying, sort of problem that doesn't
necessarily have an immediate, cheap answer.
Bob
On Mon, 7 Jun 1999 21:11:02 -0400 "Todd & Deb Tweedy"
<lulusam2@sparc.isl.net> writes:
>This is the first summer I have had the pleasure of driving my C
>roadster.
>One thing I have noticed is she runs Hot. To Hot. It always ran a
>over N,
>but knowing English gauges I took it with a gain of salt. But since
>the
>temp has gone over 80 she climbs all the way to H. Am I running to
>high of
>a thermostat or what. I've never boiled over, but when I'm in town
>she so
>hot it doesn't want to run smooth.
>
>HELP!!!
>
>Thanks
>Todd 69' MGC
>
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