I notice mine is not running as hot since the weather has turned colder here. Mine is still stock. No plastic fans, original radiator, etc. It seems to be running in the 170 - 175 range on the highway, while there is a lot of air flowing around everything , and about 180 in town. But it never really gets to 185. I had to make a few adjustments over the weekend. Fuel at the carb and timing checked but still ok. Who knows anything about winter running temperatures. I'd say the thermostat is alright and it must be a 185 because that was the normal running temp earlier. Where's Jarid when you need him.
Terry Smith
-----Original Message----- From: steve sage <rootes(at)ix.netcom.com> To: alpines(at)autox.team.net <alpines(at)autox.team.net> Date: Saturday, December 12, 1998 7:54 PM Subject: Indigestion Cured!
>Hello Alpiners:
>The backfiring through my Strombergs (with the Alpine under a "load") we
>discussed a couple of weeks ago has been solved by, it turns out, an
>amazingly simple fix. I pretty much followed everyone's suggestions. I
>checked the timing. Re set it at 9 degrees. Made sure the distributor
>advances properly (both centrifical and vacuum). It does. Checked the
>wiring to my electronic ignition to make sure everything's connected and
>grounded. All OK there. Checked the coil for a loose ground. Not found.
>Checked the plug wires, distributor cap for cracks, condition of the
>plugs. The only thing I did there was to swap the plug from #4 with the
>plug in #3 as the look of the plug indicated it might have been
>mis-firing. No noticable change. Took the Strombergs apart while on the
>car. Cleaned out a bit of junk but everything seemed normal (for 30 year
>old Strombergs, anyway). At Tiger Tom's suggestion, I re-synched the
>carbs so both are set exactly the same. (I've ended up with four turns
>out of the jet adjusters , as opposed to the 2 1/2 the books suggest.
>Maybe it needs more gas since I have 60 over pistons since the rebuild.)
>
>All this seemed to improve things a little, but the car still "popped"
>under full load (acceleration/ up a hill, etc) and in general felt worn
>out. Then I remembered that last summer, even though the car was
>overheating, it seemed to run best when it was pretty hot. After my
>engine rebuild, I had the radiator (a four row) rodded out and the block
>back flushed, and added a Hayden 6 blade plastic fan to replace the
>stock steel four blade. This definitely improved things in hot weather
>(ran cooler) but it was still overflowing & loosing coolant. That
>problem was solved by installing a simple overflow tank to the radiator
>(I think it cost me $10 or less from Pep Boys). I've never lost a drop
>of water since, even in hot weather. I would recommend this to any
>Alpines out there as your whole cooling system will work better. Anyway,
>now the car was running much cooler. It's since turned a lot cooler (for
>Los Angeles) and has been in the 40s to 60s the last few weeks.
>
>In this weather, with my extra efficient cooling system, the water
>guage (which I had checked and is suprisingly very accurate in that the
>needle straight up represents 180 degrees water temp.) barely reached
>1/4 of the way to the right off the peg. Last week I remembered the much
>better engine response when it ran hot. Here's the fix: All I did was
>take out the 160 degree thermostat and put in a 180 degree unit. The
>difference is dramatic. Much better acceleration, no more backfiring at
>all, the heater gets hotter, better idling and much quicker warm up in
>the morning.
>
>We all get so used to trying to get our cars to run cooler that it never
>occured to me I had succeeded too well. A couple of you had mentioned a
>similar backfiring problem, so you may want to check this out that
>you're reaching full running temperature, especially in cold weather.
>
>Hope this helps someone else out there. Thanks again to everyone for all
>the help and advice!
>
>Regards,
>Steve Sage
>
>