• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

it's cold outside

Share this page

walshja

walshja

Jedi Warrior
Offline
and the needle on my temperature gauge only gets up to 1/4 at best.

during the summer I reached and maintained for the most part 1/2 the range.

I should be constant, no matter the outside temp? right?

thermostat problem?
 
I don't think so. If the air is cooling the engine as well as the rad fluid - and therefore cooling the rad fluid - everything should be cooler
 
Can always block off part of the radiator with a peice of cardboard. Trim to temp.
 
jlaird said:
Can always block off part of the radiator with a peice of cardboard. Trim to temp.
Click to expand...

Yup. Simple as that. Just like the truckers do. You do need to keep your engine nat or near the typical 180 running temp as that will help keep oil contamination down and also reduce cylinder wall wear.
 
shouldn't my thermostat control the temperature of the engine?

I'm thinking my thermostat is staying open, not allowing the engine to reach the proper temperature.

or is this just the way Midgets work?

If on a perfect car this is normal, I will leave it alone, but seems to me like something is wrong and should be fixed.
 
You are correct, thermostat opens and closes to maintain engine temps at certain levels. Even when below freezing, Bugsy my '68 with 1098 will be up to full operating temps witnin a mile or two of driving. If it is colder then thermostat doesn't open as oftern to circulate coolant. Now when it gets really, really, cold i.e. below zero for example, the 20W 50 W oil in the engine makes it difficult to tunn over but in a few minutes temps will be up there once again. Thermostats are cheap and easy to change out,
 
In my car the temp goes up to about 165F - 175F and stays there.
On the morning drives I can drive seemingly forever with the radiator cooling fan turned off and the temp stays right at 165F - 175F.
Not very much warmth ever comes from the heater, if I let it sit & idle it will eventually warm up a bit more and then the air coming from the heater is warmer.
I take this as a function of the speed of the water pump, faster circulation means cooler running. Cooler running means thermostat isn't open as much.
Do I need a higher temp thermostat? Maybe 190F?
I think the one I have is 175F - if not by spec then by experience.
 
Heater is Bugsy will drive you out of the car. On a sunny 32 degree day, with windows up and windblocker in place totally comfortable at speeds around town running for coffee and even at out on X-Way if needed. If heater isn't driving you out of the car then I'd suggest coolant isn't circulating into the heater core, valve closed/blocked. or some other crud is in there.
 
What you need is a peice of cardboard in front of the radiator to block a bit of wind flow to warm things up properly. Cut to temp.
 
well, I would like to have the car running as it should be, I feel like adding a piece of cardboard to block airflow is a bandaid to a problem, not a solution.

set me straight, the car should not be running cold during cold weather, it should reach and maintain the proper operating temperature, right?

if that is true, I probably have a bad thermostat? as during the summer the heater blew hot, and the car maintained what appeared to be the proper temperature, the gauge was in the middle of the range.

is changing the thermostat as simple as removing the cover, and replacing? will the coolant drain? or can I do this without draining the system?

thanks everyone
 
3 Bolts/Nuts/studs on the manifold. If you've never taken them off before I'd plan on soaking with PB - Blaster for several days in advance. A little bit of heat if things are still stubborn might be needed.

Re coolant loss. Yeah you'll lose a cupful or so that is in the hose but that is about it.

Standard 180 degree thermostat over the counter from local car parts store. Gasket and/or a little bit of blue stuff sealer and your done. This can be a 10 minute job.
 
Oh, be sure to check and see that you still have a rubber or foam rubber seal under the heater. On my car I could see the plenum hole from either side, a good indication that I didn't have a seal in place. I stuffed some foam rubber in there on both sides and then forced air actually came out my defroster with the fan turned on. This was a new trick my car did, never before since I bought it did any air come out those slots!! Now if I could jut get it to be warm air I'd be set!!
 
FWIW, Jack and others are telling you correctly, if the temps outside are extremely cold, then you may need to limited air flow to the radiator, we tape the grille and oil cooler ducting on the race cars on cool days to accomplish the same thing, proper or not, it's simple common sense approach that works. These are old car with mechanical fans, they need a little help in cold weather. I plan on making a oil cooler blank out of aluminum sheetmetal for my Street MGB for cold weather driving, not like I'll need it much in SC, but I would if I drove it tonight. If you ever watch Ice Truckers, look at their grille openings sometime. While these cars are water cooled, air cools that water, if the air temps are extremely low, so will the coolant temps.
 
Don't think of this as a problem. What you really have is a properly efficient cooling system for the hot weather.
 
Hap, temperature is around 32 this week, and my car never goes past the 1/4 mark.

Do you feel this is just the nature of the design? or does something need fixing?

I understand that blocking part of the radiator will address the problem, but if there is a problem, I would rather fix the problem so no jerry rigging is necessary.

If you feel this is just the design of the car, and there is no fix, I will go the route of blocking off the radiator.

I just want to understand if I have a bad thermostat or is this just the design of the car.

Does that make sense?
 
jlaird said:
Don't think of this as a problem. What you really have is a properly efficient cooling system for the hot weather.
Click to expand...

that's the answer I am looking for !! So replacing parts (thermostat, water pump . . ) will not address this problem at all?

Even after replacing my entire cooling system, I would still have this problem?
 
On my trip home this afternoon driving uphill at 70+ mph I didn't need the electric radiator fan on. The air from the defrosters was warm but the engine temp never went above 180F.

Unfortunately my commute in the mornings is almost all downhill.
 
REMEMBER, just because the temp gauge shows cool that is the radiator water temp not the engine temp unless your temp gauge is in the block.
 
Yes, mine is in the block - I wouldn't play around with it if it were in the radiator. Know your motor, know it well. Comes from spending enough quality time with it, I know Jack has spent enough QT with his motor. :wink:
 
I had posted this in the racing section a a day or so ago. I took the #54 out for 5 minutes in this weather and couldnt get the car over 135 degrees. Thats when I covered 1/2 the grille and the oil cooler slots. Even then only hit thermostat temps at idle. (No fan by the way) I'd say your temps are expected.



"I had played around with a new exhaust set up tonight and wanted to take the car out to test it. Well its only like 40+ degrees or so outside, so I taped up the Lower airdam holes for the oil cooler and strapped a piece of cardboard over about 1/2 the front grille. (So I could restrict some cool air and get the car up to a good operating temp.

Well I hit about 75 on the highway and my hood sucked in! Luckily its fiberglass so as soon as I let of the gas it popped out. No harm no fowl. Just giggled a bit."
_________________________
 
Back
Top