having finally got the car on the road im thinking its running hotter than it should (in comparison to the family car) the fan kicks in sooner than i would expect, is there any easy way of checking for air locks. or am i just being to damn cautious

its a 1300 xflow

this isnt my car so thanks to whom ever it is but mines plumbed identical

Description

what temperature is it running at?

On both the cars I have built the temperature guages have been catastrophically incorrect...

I suggest you get a callibrated probe and measure the actual coolant temp before you start to panic!

(even using sierra clocks and sierra sender, the temp reading is still wrong!)

Chris, should run pretty cool without the panels on, sorry lol.

Not the answer your after.

Have you got one of those laser themometer thingies, ive got one you can borroy, jusy point and it telles you what temp is at thet point

Joe

[Edited on 8/6/09 by welderman]

One problem I had with my x-flow was air getting trapped under the thermostat - the air held the water away from the wax capsule, so it never opened.

Drilling a small hole in the 'stat housing cured that problem.

What sort of temps are you seeing?

As said don't assume the guages are accurate. Try an infra red thermometer on it as Joe says.

Have you ducted around the rad to stop air getting around the outside of it instead of through it?

adrian

not sure on the temp but iirc the temp switch i got was 87deg now i have a gauge which i set up so i knew where the fan was kicking in and if its rising more than that then its time to stop, not ideal but its a warning. iv no way of testing the temp so will take you up on the loan Joe, will also try the hole in thermostat too. no ducting around the rad but its quite tight in the nose anyway.

i must stress i ran the car non stop virtually for a good 2 - 3 hours on sunday and it was humid out, and had no actual steam or loss of water, im now jus probably trying to find faults

chris

Looking at the photo I would say that the expansion bottle is not plumbed correctly.
It is ok as far as the smaller pipe is concerned (to the thermostat), but the larger pipe should go into a tee off the bottom radiator hose.
I would even consider teeing the smaller pipe off the point at which the larger pipe is connected (in the photo), to the "heater" loop from the water pump to inlet manifold.
Basically you need a flow and return from either side of the engine. At the moment the water is only circulating through the expansion bottle from only the top half of the engine.
Plumbing it the way I suggest will also aid quicker filling and removal of air.

If the radiator pressure cap is working properly your coolant will boil at around 115 to 120c most cooling fan switches operate around 97 cut in 93 cut out but you can find 87c ones which is below the opening temperature of most thermostats..

[Edited on 9/6/09 by britishtrident]

If you have an airlock, will your radiator get hot?

Hugh

quote:

---

Originally posted by nitram38
Looking at the photo I would say that the expansion bottle is not plumbed correctly.
It is ok as far as the smaller pipe is concerned (to the thermostat), but the larger pipe should go into a tee off the bottom radiator hose.

---