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Spitfire Spitfire running hot

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Spit_Newbie

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Hello all, Im having a hard time figuring out my very hot running Spitfire. Its running at about 240. Any suggestions? Ive been told they dont usually run hot. Help!!!! Spit Newbie
 
I think you have a 1500?? well bad news is they run hot if not set up properly.
1. is it really 240? (how did you measure this?)
2. do you have a full width radiator or the smaller one (there is a wide metal flange one side) the full width rad is much better.
3. is the radiator plugged up? Take it out and bring it to a rad shop to have it cleaned out / inspected. they will take it apart and can remove any crud or you may need a new radiator
4. thermostat? is it actually opening? unless it is new, put a new one in, they are cheap.
5. clean out as much crud from the block as possible. if you have a pressure washer, take off the pump housing and give the water passage a good spray.
6. clean out the block as best at possible. take out the drain plug and scrape around with bit of wire, rinse out, and you should get clean water.
7. are all the air deflectors in place? they make a big difference.
8. engine properly tuned? running lean will cause it to run hot. as will improper timing.
That should keep you busy for a while /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
I think 70herald has given good advise to resolve a hot Triumph, especially the part about cleaning out the rust crud in the block.
 
My spit had started running hotter then normal, I pretty much did his checklist he has posted. (Good checklist!) My symptoms were, running hotter then normal and loss of power with poor idle. Turned out to be my water pump was starting to freeze up, no noise just an extra load on the engine.
Dennis
 
Thanks 70herold, I just finished running the flush. Quite a bit of rust particles came out. I used my garden hose to flush out the block until clean water came out. I dont have an actual petcock on the block. Which side of the block is the plug on? I would like to try to flush from that point too. The timing is a tad advanced but not to bad. as far as the radiater goes, its the smaller one. not a lot of crud came out when i cleaned it. The auto supply store was out of 180 thermostats so i got a 190, is that i big deal or will it work? Thanks for the help, Spit Newbie
 
If you have an automatic choke, I think it requires a 190 degree anyway to properly shut off. If I recall correctly, I think I read that in the Haynes repair manual.
 
Spit_Newbie said:
... I dont have an actual petcock on the block. Which side of the block is the plug on? I would like to try to flush from that point too....
Click to expand...
Likely as not, your car will have only a brass hex-head plug in the block drain. It can be found on the RH side of the engine, towards the rear, maybe half-way down the block.
 
A 190 thermostat should be fine, that is not your problem.
Since you had lots of particles come out, you should have the radiator taken apart and "rodded" they will shove a rod down each tube and force all the crud out. Radiators make fantastic water filters.
 
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/iagree.gif Ask them about thermal efficiency while they have it. I fought overheating problems on my TR3A for a long time until I did that. They said the fins were no longer in good thermal contact with the tubes, so the radiator wasn't removing much heat even though the water flowed fine. After they recored it, all my overheating problems vanished.
 
TR3driver said:
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/iagree.gif Ask them about thermal efficiency while they have it. I fought overheating problems on my TR3A for a long time until I did that. They said the fins were no longer in good thermal contact with the tubes, so the radiator wasn't removing much heat even though the water flowed fine. After they recored it, all my overheating problems vanished.
Click to expand...
Amen to that! Many a "good" radiator in a hot running core has a lot of lose and missing fins.

Rodding often leaves a lot to be desired, as it leaves scum and scale on the tube walls, which act as insulators. Yes, it gets the chunks out, but it doesn't clean down the walls. So you can get water flow, but very little heat transfer to the tubes.
 
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