Gday

My Mum recently purchased a 1965 Austin Healey Sprite.

I drove it back from Victoria without any troubles and the heat was fine once we got to 40mph. It never got above 90 degrees celsius at any stage.

This morning, I drove the car at about 6am. It was pretty hot, 31degrees. The engine sat at just over 90degrees which made me nervous.

So what should i do in an attempt to lower engine temps?

It has an electric fan than kicks in at 90 degrees but what else can I do to make sure that it doesnt hit 90 degrees that often?

And how hot is too hot?

Thanks in advance!
Matt

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turn on the heater and take off the radiator cap, ive also heard that a wet towel over the grill works nice,

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any parts for a 76 clubby pm me or ring 0405 329 326

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44717

There isnt a heater in it but i thought putting in a heater core from another car and just plumb it in

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Matt

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Matt

it may in fact be working fine, try and find out what temp thermo you have in it as it sounds very much like it might have a 84 plus thermo and if it is holding around 90 the cooling system is probably ok, try and get a 74 deg thermo and put that in for summer but keep the other for winter

Jon

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Roundies and Clubbies(except vans) are both ugly that is why I have Midas and a van
1293 Mini Midas Bronze,1275 Clubman van

Thanks John

Would it be worth my while putting in a heater core or something along those lines?

Cheers

Matt

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Yes - just plumb in a heater core although a motor bike radiator is better as they are designed to cool water not just heat air like a heater core.

When you get a chance - use a radiator flush substance like the Lucas product or go the whole hog and have the radiator rod cleaned.

The fact that this car has an electric fan fitted suggested overheating has been an on going problem so regard the fan as a bandaid and recognise that something is not operating properly. Probably a partially blocked radiator which is normal after 41 years.

Why are you worried about 90°?
Water boils at 100° but pressurised water boils at a higher temperature again (105° or so) Coolant will raise the boiling point even further.

My experience has been that a lot of the cheaper coolants also raise the operating temperature noticably - they dont make it overheat but it narrows the margin.

I guess the antiboil, lubrication and antifreeze qualities offset that though ????

Thanks Mike - I was planning on flushing the radiator tomorrow morning.

Jon, my main reason is that this car is for my mum and she wont notice if it hits 100-105". She is use to her daihatsu charade and not older cars.

I was just taking a precaution so that the engine in this one doesnt get distroyed by ignorance

Thanks again

Matt

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If you want it to be fool proof, pull out the guage and fit a temperature light.
If you really want to be fool proof you can run a feed from the light to short out the ignition so that the motor stops when the light comes on.

mate it will not hurt does it get hotter when idling or is it just holding around the 90 deg all the time, try the cooler thermo and do as the others have said and reverse flush the rad, smiths gauges are not that accurate and it is sometimes a good idea to check buy getting a thermo in the rad and check what it says compared to the gauge( see if you can steal the thermo they use for checking if the meats cooked

Jon

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Roundies and Clubbies(except vans) are both ugly that is why I have Midas and a van
1293 Mini Midas Bronze,1275 Clubman van

Mine runs up to 230-240 F gauge at Wakefield which is around 110-115 C and doesn't boil. I can do a slow down lap and it cools goes back to about 185F. It's got coolant added at 50/50 mix, doesn't matter the brand, I just buy the one thats gots the most glycol/litre (it says on the bottle). I think the cap is rated at 13psi or something if that helps.

I wouldn't be worried about 90 either, just make sure it is 90 and not higher than the gauge is showing (I've had mine tested and it reads within 2-3deg of actual)

Daniel

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Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

Glycol (the main part of coolant) is very slippery and some forms of motorsport do not allow cars to run glycol. (I doubt if CAMS know anything about it though!) If you split a hose it is bad enough, if you spin on the glycol it gets worse, when the 30 cars behind you also spin on your glycol......
Penrite make a non glycol coolant.

The engine sits at 90 degrees but when mum drives she doesnt drive it as spiritedly as i do so less air goes through the radiator so it gets quite a bit hotter

Just want to have another safegaurd

Thanks for all the tips

Matt

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my mini was running on the hot side yesterday...

oh, and how dare you not post pics of said sprite