Engine temp question

[s,one]

I topped up my expansion tank yesterday probably took around a pint of water or so and carried on without anymore thought. Although the car didn't previously show any signs of overheating the temperature gauge was at time moving a little eractically.It went upto 105 and within a few seconds dropped down to the low 90's then tonight the expansion tank vented some water off while the car stood stationary outside (running) my garage. I wonder have I overfilled it when I checked the car yesteday it had probably been standing for around 30 mins when I topped it up. should I check for air in the system or do they tend to have rapid fluctuations in temperature.

Cheers

Steve

[morebeanz]

Mine moves quite quickly when the conditions change, ie when going from stationary to moving, fans off/fans on, etc.

The one thing that seems pretty stable is the limits at which the temperatures stop once the car is up to operating temperature.

[jonnyw]

Check that there is no air-pocket in the rad, bleed screw on the top right. I had the same problem, eventually found a small intermittent leak in the rad. Long story which ended up with an aluminium Radtec rad, car now runs at below 80c.

[s,one]

jonnyw said:

Check that there is no air-pocket in the rad, bleed screw on the top right. I had the same problem, eventually found a small intermittent leak in the rad. Long story which ended up with an aluminium Radtec rad, car now runs at below 80c.

Out of interest can I ask how much this work cost.

Cheers

Steve

[jonnyw]

Steve,

Since you asked:

Overheating, or high temperature started to cause other fluid related activities, such as power steering (although this really needed the fluid changing.

I got a second hand rad for £100 and that had a leak under pressure, I had the original one repaired for £45 and two days later it sprang another leak.

So several gallons of anti-freeze etc.. and a worylingly high temperature in traffic I phoned up Radtec and got a great deal on the aluminium rad plus two monster blowers. Plus VAT and delivery was about £600 from memory.

Very, very happy. I use the Cerb in the TVRCC Speed Challenge and under serious duress, circa 7,000 revs all the way for 2 minutes, after sitting in a queue for 20 minutes, it still runs below 90c.

Doddle to fit, two bolts and a couple of clips.

And it looks fantastic!

Regards

John