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Overheating??? Not sure please help.

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Bart

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I bought a 1975 spit last October. I have owned several american muscle cars but, kinda wanted to do something different so, I bought the spit. Some folks told me "don't do it because it is British". Did it anyway. Stubborn I guess. Well, I've been working on it all winter. Lots of work on interior (gutted it and replaced everything). Lots of other cosmetic stuff. I have to say very clean little car. Never drove it when I bought it because it was winter in Chicago. I am pretty happy with the looks now as it is mostly restored but, as I said I never drove it. Well, I took it out Sunday. VERY FUN little car. Two things came to light. 1) leaked differential fluid - it is in the shop getting new gaskets in the diff and transmission. 2) it seems to read NEAR HOT. It shows now signs of being hot like boiling over or making grumbling sounds when turned off BUT, the gauge is near hot! Mechanic said I should install a aftermarket guage to make sure but that it does not sound like it is running hot. ANY ADVICE? As I said, I'm new to the British stuff. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif
 
Could be a couple of things, both simple. One could be a defective temperature sender. Cheap to buy and easy to replace. The second could be that the thermostat isn't opening fully. Once again, cheap to buy and easy to replace. Most likely culprits.
 
Does the car read hot when you are traveling at say 50mph for 20 minutes? How hot is the air coming out of the heater? Your mechanic is correct, make sure something is wrong. You can get a thermometer at the hardware store that reads from 80 to 220 F-- kinda cheap and it is pretty good tool to have.

Regards George
 
Above statments are right on. I would add, please don't start throwing incorrect aftermarket parts into the car because your Tec. dosen't know about, or dosen't want to take the time to get the right part. The original temp gauge was a good unit, the problem is probably in the sender if the problem IS in the temp gauge circuit. A new sender through a british supply Co. is a lot cheaper than a gaudy temp gauge set from auto zone.
Unless you're in to doing a little customizing cause you want to, then I'm just blowing smoke.
 
Good advice above.
You should also check the coolant, change it if you don't know the history.
I've had a couple of cars that liked to boil over particularly when dropping into traffic after high speed highway running. In both cases I fixed it by putting in fresh coolant mix.
 
Hey this car has the cross flow radiator, right? Those things tend to gook up on the bottom, so you might not be getting the coolant flow you need. Don't just replace the coolant, flush that radiator out (Unless this care does not have said radiator at which point ignore this post).
 
Thanks for all the help guys! Like I said, I'm new to the British thing and new to this forum. Sounds like a fairly early thing to track down. I will do all that you suggest! Also, I Really like that temp guage from Radio shack! Cool! I could use it on all kinds of stuff. I'll hold off adding the aftermarket guages for now. It is all original and I'd like to keep it that way if I can.
 
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