[Healeys] Yet another mystery

[Richard Antal]

 I inadvertently omitted an important detail: with the advent of cool weather in NH, rather than change the thermostat to 180 from 160, I slipped a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator. I had driven 200 miles in back roads with the cardboard in place and the temp gauge never got above 170, and so I didn't watch the temp gauge while dashing down the interstate at 80 mph. I was unaware of any problem until arriving home, I could smell radiator fluid. When I popped the hood all was wet, hot, and steaming. Perhaps at speeds 60mph and below the fan blades didn't flex enough but at 80 mph, they did and thus I inadvertently caused the damage to the radiator. I doesn't leak. Today, having removed the suspect cardboard, I'll venture forth and watch the temp gauge keenly.......rich






    On Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 09:38:55 PM EDT, Michael Salter <michael.salter at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 I would also suggest that you take a careful look at the baffles that are, or should be, installed forward from the sides of the radiator to the grille. If these baffles aren't correctly fitted hot air from the backside of the radiator will swirl around to the front and pass through the radiator again and thus seriously deminish its cooling ability.
M

From: Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> on behalf of Harold Manifold <manifold at telus.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2025 6:45:19 PM
To: Richard Antal <rantal243 at yahoo.com>
Cc: Healeys <healeys at autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Yet another mystery Rich,
Your comments "high speed. run of twenty miles" and "extra series of cooling tubes" may offer some clues. Fan blades flex away from the side that pushes air, in other words towards the radiator. The extra cooling tubes may have reduced the clearance between the radiator and the fan. There isn't much clearance to begin with. The combination of the two may have been enough for the fan to hit the radiator.
The other issue is what caused the overheating. At high speeds the fan has little to no effect on cooling. Unless the ambient temperature was very high and you were going up a steep hill the colling system should keep up. What was the water temperature gauge saying?
Harold


On Thu, Oct 2, 2025 at 1:39 PM Richard Antal via Healeys <healeys at autox.team.net> wrote:

Listers,    My BJ8 seems beleaguered with misfortune. A couple of weeks ago I noted the oil pressure gauge wildly oscillating at various speeds. It vanished two days later.    Yesterday a high speed. run of twenty miles produce an overheating radiator with fluid spewing from the overflow tube. To my horror, I saw that the Texas cooler fan which I'd had for at least 25 years had confronted the engine side of the radiator leaving a distinct circular impression and abrasion to the tip of one of the fan blades. That radiator was rebuilt two years ago with an extra series of cooling tubes and had given no problems for at least 5000 miles. I assumed the harness which prevents the engine from sliding forward was faulty. Inspection of the underside did not support that conclusion--it looked fine to me: all bushings and nuts were in place. I ran the engine after filling the radiator and saw no evidence of recurrence of the fan nudging the radiator. I'm perplexed what to do next. Thanks for your thoughts......Rich Antal_______________________________________________
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