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Overheating now the warm weather is here.

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ncbugeye

ncbugeye

Jedi Warrior
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Took off on a short shopping trip in ncbugeye today, carrying the lovely wife, no problems, but saw the temperature gauge rise uncomfortably high (close to the 212 mark) during the 30 mile round trip. Temperatures were in the high 70s low 80s today for the first time since I got the car.

What routine stuff should I check out to eliminate this problem? I have no idea how long it has been since anything was done. Should I flush the radiator?

Advice welcome.
 
Chris,

Glad you're having the nice weather! Not bad around here today and I may yet get the street Midget out for a ride.

First, I'd verify the fan belt is snug.
Second, verify operation of the thermostat
And third, flush the radiator

I'd also check whether or not the heater valve at the rear of head is open or not, in case I wanted to open it to allow the heater core to provide a little more "cooling." (warmer in the cockpit though...)

That's way I'd go about it anyway.

Tim
 
I'd remove the thermostat and see if it still runs hot. If it does I would suspect the radiator. You could try some of that water wetter heat transfer additive and see if that helps. Mine ran hot when I had it on the road and I kept the heater on all the time. Also check the hoses, My lower hose has a spring inside it to keep the hose from closing up and this spring had all kinds of junk on it.
 
Will do all these things. While on the subject, ncbugeye has a 1974 1275cc Midget engine but she still has her original 1958 Bugeye downflow radiator. Is a conversion to the crossflow radiator essential/recommended/optional/unnecessary/discouraged/forbidden?
 
I don't know if it makes that big of a difference, but I can tell you how to get by for a while and not cook in your car. Go to autozone and buy a heater core for a 1984 Ford F-150 pickup Tell them v8 no a/c standard heater (about the lowest cost heater core available). The heater core costs around 20 bucks. Find a place to mount it under your hood and extend and run the hoses that go to your current heater to that heater core. You may have to buy 2 and daisy chain them to get more heat out but you will eventually get it down. I would do this and drive the car for the summer and buy a new radiator and replace it over the winter. The whole spridget water system dosen't even hold a gallon, buy adding more stuff you give it more water to cool with. I say all this because spridgets that come off the road for a bit tend to stay off the road, this way you can drive it and enjoy it.
 
Chris, the downflow radiator is more than adequate for a 1275. The early 1275 Spridgets had the downflow as stock.
I would strongly recommend not removing the thermostat unless you install a blanking sleeve to restrict the water flow.
Make sure the radiator is clean on the outside, not full of bugs, grass, Miatas, etc.
If you truly don't know how long it's been since the cooling system has been serviced, a flush may well be required.
I run my California car in temperatures over 100* with no cooling problems.
Jeff
 
Jeff said:
I would strongly recommend not removing the thermostat unless you install a blanking sleeve to restrict the water flow.
Click to expand...

Ditto!!!! The water will run thru the radiator so fast it won't have time to 'exchange' heat properly (assuming the pump is in good fettle).


EDIT: Easy way to "restrct" it is to ~gut~ a t'stat and install the "ring" or outer round bit back into place sans innards.
 
If you have access to a heat sensing gun, check that the gauge reading is accurate. (Possible bad gauge or sender). Engine may be at 180 and the gauge at 210. As mentioned above, when racing a Spitfire I had a "modest" overheating problem and spliced two spare Spit heater cores into the system and the problem went away. Good luck, Bob
 
"Good fettle" is an expression I have never heard on this side of the Atlantic. When I was a kid there was an old geezer worked for the well-to-do family who lived in the big house in the village, a tiny village in Wiltshire called Fisherton-de-la-Mere, he looked after the horses. I got to know him as 10 year old boys do, helped with the horses occasionally. He was always talking about his horses, and how important it was to keep them in "good fettle".
 
Aye, if the fettle ain't kept fit, then you're in a fine kettle of fish!!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif
 
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