could someone please tell me what the temperature of an engine can get before it over heats...

cheers damian

the way I always saw it was if water gets to boiling point, it's over heating.

if it starts boiling, pressure will increase rapidly, forcing the pressure cap open, losing coolant, overheating more etc.

generally in a car you have two things on your side to increase that boiling point. pressure, and anti-boil mixture (glycol).

so in your mini if you have a decent pressurised coolant system with some anti-boil glycol type mixture, your boiling point should be some point above 100 degC.

as to how well the mini handles temperatures above 100 regarding oil life/other fatigue etc.. I'll let someone else answer that!

a nice little calculator here for pressure vs boiling point of water..

http://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/magnus/boil.html

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tim
68 Deluxe 1293, HIF44, megajolt/EDIS4, daihatsu alternator..

'a mini is for life, not just for christmas!'

Like superseven said, with a good coolant mix and a good rad cap, it will be able to run over 100c without boiling.
The fans on a Commodore come on at 105c so they can't be run without a rad cap or they go nuts.
A mini with everything good should run at the temperature set by the thermostat, 88 - 92c is what i like. It doesn't always work like that though...

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Dean Hutton's first car was a Mini.

Mine usually runs at about mid 80s degrees celcius and into the 90s if im giving it a bit. On a long stretch of highway it starts to get to a little over 100. So i watch it closely and drop the speed.
So far hasnt had any problems due to this, but has a new thermostat, pretty new radiator and plastic 16 blade fan.
Joe

mine used to run at 105 with an oil pressure of 0 on idle and 20 at 4000 rpm, then i changed the engine over to something with a few less problems , runs about 80 nice and comfortable however i've had the temp guage hit 130 on an old mini, filled it up with more water after letting it cool for a bit and just kept going no problems at all (apart from the overheating issues which were fixed later on)

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1962 850,Frog

Anything over 110C is asking for it to boil or burst a hose, but I prefer to run mine at between 80-90C

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Too many cars, and too little time.

Mini's like to run hot, an 88*C thermostat is just about right IMHO.

In the week leading up to the Victorian bushfires (mid-high 40's) my 998 van which has the cruddiest cooling system ran beautifully, best ever, sustaining about 95*C in traffic.

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

i have no idea what mine gets up to in the heat.. the gauge gets up towards the hot end, but it never loses any water so it can't be that bad.

will have to get a calibrated thermo into it some how.

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tim
68 Deluxe 1293, HIF44, megajolt/EDIS4, daihatsu alternator..

'a mini is for life, not just for christmas!'

True, unless there's no water in there to lose

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

i picked up a digital temperature probe from jaycar some time back. They have a range of digital temperature devices with differnt options and form factors. twin temperature gauges (oil/water temperature perhaps, or in and outside temperature) and are very cheap and innovitive. They typically run on a large watch battery (included) and I will get about 12 months out of a battery even if left on more often than not

The temperature probe is a super flexible lead attached to a stainless steel probe, I have measured water temperature by ducking it under the top hose and nipping up the hose clamp. I have also used it to get a relative oil temperature by inserting it snugly into the rear of the oil cooler adjacent to the inlet and closing the fins of the cooler cell on the other front to remove air flow through the cell it occupies .It works extremely well.
They panel mount and feather weight so I used a piece of upholstery card with vinyl to mount the gauge. I haven't made one for the new car, but reckon I will for something to do

This is the one I use, but there are others in the links below which are also useful and are superbly priced.
http://www.jaycar.com/productView.asp?I ... rm=KEYWORD


http://www.jaycar.com/productView.asp?I ... rm=KEYWORD

http://www.jaycar.com/productView.asp?I ... rm=KEYWORD

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

I found my temp gauge buried in a drawer, so dug it out and refitted it to my mini. It sits by itself right where you see it in the photo atm. The lead passes throgh the small gap beneath this point and then joins the wiring loom to get into the engine bay. It comes with a 2.9 meter soft flexible lead. Nice and discrete. It measures accurately to 0.1 of a degree and with a range of -25 to 150 degrees C. It also has a minumum and maximum temp memory as well as well as an alarm if it goes outside these temperatures.

It slips under the top hose nicely, but I had to create a small gasket to get a good seal. To do this got a small piece of 20 x 10 x 2.55 mm rubber and made a shallow groove down the middle. I then I champhered the edges and put that between the cable and the radiator inlet pipe.

As described elsewhere, the probe will slip with a machine fit into the oil cooler matrix if you want to keep and eye on what is going on there. So depending on what blows wind up your skirt, you can watch inlet or outlet temps. There is an error of a couple of about 4 degrees at full temperature and driving because of it's external placement when you place it in the oil cooler matrix, but it goves a pretty good indication. This reduces to zero when you stop at the lights.

If you want a more professional finish, you could have a 18th brass olive brazed onto the rad or the cooler. all you need to do then is slip the needle probe into the fitting as far as is needed to put the tip into the flow, and tighten. These are good for a couple of hundred PSI so would be more than enough.

There you have it, a hyper accurate gauge for your mini, pretty good price at 45 dollars and it's a little bit of hitech electronics for your mini

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.