TR2/3/3A Running a little hot...

[HighAltitudeTR3]

Just got on the road for the season and I’m running a little hot... what can I do staying as stock as possible to cool ‘er down a bit? I wash running fast and hard today to push her a bit to prepare for an up and coming trip... if rather make the journey than have to pull over every 30 mins. Thanks

 

[CJD]

Hot at idle or only when running at speed?

 

[TR3driver]

Do you have the cardboard air deflector in front of the radiator?
Slots in the grille opened up?
Both centrifugal and vacuum advance working?
How much glycol in the radiator?

 

[Geo Hahn]

Flushed the cooling system in recent years?
Using a sleeved thermostat or else added a partial blockage to the bypass hose?
Verified that fuel mixture is not too lean? (how do the plugs look?)

 

[sp53]

the fan

 

[mt10flyer]

I also have a high altitude TR3. I live at 6000', work at 4500' and on the drive home I used to overheat no matter the time of the year. It seems that the car was designed for driving in jolly old England, where the highest point is Ben Nevis at 4400, and there isn't a road to the top of that. The cooling system just wasn't designed for Aspen or the Sierra Nevada. I tried adding an electric fan while keeping the original "fan", I replaced the water pump, cored the radiator, replaced the ugly card board thing in front, added an oil cooler and it just didn't help.

So I punted and replaced the radiator with this:

https://wizardcooling.com/1953-1965...with-11-fan/?gclid=CN2GydCa5tMCFY22wAod9AoHTg

Since then, no problem at all. The fan has only come on twice. I am one who is more interested in performance rather than stock so you may not want to go this way, but it sure worked.

 

[charleyf]

I am originally from Colorado and had a TR3A for a number of years while there. Then moved to Southern Calif. and drove the car to work daily both places. I never had a cooling problem with that car. Then I sold that car. Years later I bought a TR3B in northern Calif.. The only over heating problem I had with that stock cooling system was caused by a really messed up carb adjustment. Once the carbs were properly adjusted the problem was gone.
Back to the Colorado experience, during the last VTR convention I drove my TR4 to Colorado along with a friend in his TR3B. We toured Colorado and went over I believe 8 10,000 foot passes . Neither one of us had any cooling problems. But I am running a Wizard aluminum radiator in the TR4 . The TR3 was has the stock cooling system.
I think these cars can do well if properly set up.

 

[karls59tr]

Run 35% glycol ....15% "water wetter"....50% distilled water. The rad has to be in top condition. I run an electric fan in front of the rad linked to a toggle switch that I flip on when I'm stuck in traffic on a hot day. I replaced the stock fan with a yellow TR6 fan. The stock fan dosn't move enough air. It might be OK for England's weather!

 

[NutmegCT]

Just got on the road for the season and I’m running a little hot...

Did it run hot before this season?

Tom M.

 

[Hill Billy]

Check your distributor and vacuum advance unit. Running with late timming will cause it to run hot. If the vacuum advance is not pulling vacuum and advancing the timming at road speed it can run hot. I replaced my vacuum advance unit on my MGA and it runs much cooler now.

 

[Got_All_4]

Sometimes the veins in the radiator get plugged. Flushing and back flushing may help a little but is better to get them cleaned out by a professional. I had to go around to a dozen radiator shops before I could find a shop to remove the tanks and clean the veins out. Everyone wanted to re-core it and I would loose the hole for the crank. Like you I wanted to keep the original look so with doing the clean out and swapping out the original fan with a GT6+ metal fan it has never over heated. The GT fan looks original and after I painted the blades silver no one has ever noticed it even in a LBC show.

 

[TR3driver]

Sometimes the veins in the radiator get plugged. Flushing and back flushing may help a little but is better to get them cleaned out by a professional. I had to go around to a dozen radiator shops before I could find a shop to remove the tanks and clean the veins out. Everyone wanted to re-core it and I would loose the hole for the crank. Like you I wanted to keep the original look so with doing the clean out and swapping out the original fan with a GT6+ metal fan it has never over heated. The GT fan looks original and after I painted the blades silver no one has ever noticed it even in a LBC show.

They don't even have to be plugged all the way. Last time I went around this tree, I was using a radiator that had worked fine in the past but sat unused for a couple of years. The radiator shop said it flowed fine, there was no need to rod it out. After trying everything else, I finally insisted that they do rod it out. Surprise, surprise! Although none of the tubes were actually blocked, they had a terrible time forcing the rods through, and wound up with 5 or 6 leaks once they did. The inside of the tubes were coated with "mud" (highly technical term there, doctor) that was apparently mostly old stop-leak; and was blocking the transfer of heat from the coolant to the fins.

Rather than mess with the leaky core, I had a new core installed. My shop gave me the option of putting a hole in the new core, but said it would reduce cooling capacity by about 10%, so I elected no hole. All of my cooling problems vanished like magic!

 

[sp53]

Yes get the GT6 fanand re-core, if lucky- if not, get the re-core with the GT6 fan that is thebest way. If you cannot get the GT6 fan then get the Macy copycat fan.

 

[Geo Hahn]

... Like you I wanted to keep the original look so with doing the clean out and swapping out the original fan with a GT6+ metal fan it has never over heated. The GT fan looks original and after I painted the blades silver no one has ever noticed it even in a LBC show.

FYI - what it looks like:

I was able to have a local shop re-core my radiator with a core that had a crank-hole. He just ordered it out of a big book, possibly most shops use the same source.

 

[Got_All_4]

yep that's mine looks like too.