Discussion
My 400 has had a fair bit of under the hood work done on it over the winter. The cooling system was flushed and pressure tested and all ok. I have been told the temp gauge is somewhat over exaggerating the actual temp but...When I first run the car it runs up to temp then on to 120 on the gaauge for 3-4 mins then settles down to 90 very occasionally soaring again for 60 seconds or so ?? Not happy with driving in the red?
Mine sometimes just hits the red and then the fan kicks in. The gauges aren't damped like other cars. You would know if it's actually overheating - does it dump a load of coolant into the overflow, and does the fan kick in. Are the rad shroud rubber flaps in place and working, i.e. free to move back with the airflow when the car is moving, and return to seal the cowl when stationary?
A lot of Wedges run hot and the gauge approaches the red in traffic especially in the summer. What you need to look out for is if the fan kicks in and then goes off after cooling the engine and water overflowing into the expansion tank at a fast rate and steaming indicating overheating.
Tony.TCB.
Tony.TCB.
On the back of paranoia I bought an infrared temp reader. But cheaper option I used was a telltale sticker. Stick it on and it would tell you the max temp reached.
Both confirmed around 86 max temp read on the top hose out the top of the engine (and a few dotted around elsewhere, think there was one on a core plug)
But also a fan override.
Both confirmed around 86 max temp read on the top hose out the top of the engine (and a few dotted around elsewhere, think there was one on a core plug)
But also a fan override.
Edited by jmorgan on Monday 17th March 19:28
ibroker, Mine does that with an 88Deg stat but is OK with an 82Deg. I have an IR thermometer and agree the external temps are not that high but it still concerns me - I assume the gauge is reading the water temp reasonably accurately and the metal housing temps lag behind and respond slowly. I've stuck with the 88Deg stat, the engine doesn't boil over and the heater is nice and warm so I'm reasonably happy but it's not pleasant to see the gauge do an excursion into the red occasionally!
I've been faffing around with the cooling system for a while and it still doesn't work to my satisfaction. It's clear that TVR kept changing things so that indicates fundamental problems - The SD1 was a metal bodied car with a viscous engine driven fan and different airflow, so it's not surprising TVR struggled. Land Rover changed cooling arangements over the years too so I suspect they were struggling as well! The jury is still out for me...
I've been faffing around with the cooling system for a while and it still doesn't work to my satisfaction. It's clear that TVR kept changing things so that indicates fundamental problems - The SD1 was a metal bodied car with a viscous engine driven fan and different airflow, so it's not surprising TVR struggled. Land Rover changed cooling arangements over the years too so I suspect they were struggling as well! The jury is still out for me...
Wedg1e said:
portzi said:
Get one of these from Amazon, to measure your running temp all over the engine. You can even point it at the swirl pot where the otter switch connects to get the fan switch on temp, l am really pleased with it.
Mark
Do a test sitting on the drive first. Let it get up to temperature on a fast idle and them watch the fan pull the temperature down, let it go through a few cycles of that.
Also look for bubbles of gas escaping from the header tank overflow.
After you turn it off when hot, listen for hissing.
Also look for bubbles of gas escaping from the header tank overflow.
After you turn it off when hot, listen for hissing.
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