Coping With Hot Le-Mans Traffic?

[Zeemax_Mini]

Just a quick question really, do you think a recently serviced Tam would be able to deal with sitting in gridlock traffic outside of le-mans if its a really hot day? Would there be any sense is putting a lower thermostat in or lowering the temp at which the fans kicked in etc? Watter wetter?

Cheers!

Dom

[TVR_owner]

Zeemax_Mini said:

Just a quick question really, do you think a recently serviced Tam would be able to deal with sitting in gridlock traffic outside of le-mans if its a really hot day? Would there be any sense is putting a lower thermostat in or lowering the temp at which the fans kicked in etc? Watter wetter?

Cheers!

Dom

No reason why it should not cope. Lower stat is a good idea, but probably not a lot of help after you've been standing for a while. Water wetter works, but it means dumping the glycol mix you have in now and a chance of getting air in the system when refilling.

Maybe worth checking dashtemps vs actual as dash read-outs are often 4 or 5 degrees higher than actual - if you know this to be the case its a help.

[bogie]

yeah, no reason at all for a healthy car...weve spent many hours over the last 10 years stuch in traffic on a hot day outside LeMans in a TVR

[Zeemax_Mini]

Great thanks for that guys, how do you go about checking the actual temp to compare with the dash readout as I agree it might stop panic for no reason! Cheers, Dom

[Barry Ashcroft]

TVR_owner said:

Water wetter works, but it means dumping the glycol mix you have in now and a chance of getting air in the system when refilling.

Just suck the water out of the expansion tank & pour the water wetter in.

[Zeemax_Mini]

Whats the best method for doing that Barry - does it need to be done by the garage or could I just syphon it out etc? Cheers! Dom

[Barry Ashcroft]

Yeah just syphon it out

[tail slide]

Barry Ashcroft said:

TVR_owner said:

Water wetter works, but it means dumping the glycol mix you have in now and a chance of getting air in the system when refilling.

Just suck the water out of the expansion tank & pour the water wetter in.

Yes can work, but you do get only part of the potential benefit.

An antifreeze/water wetter/water mix reduced my temps by around 3 degrees, but they advise you can get maybe double that by water wetter + water only (still protects from corrosion, but not freezing)

It's not widely recognised that water is actually a better coolant than anti-freeze.

Edited by tail slide on Sunday 10th May 14:53

[Lensey]

I changed the thermostat in the Griff all the hoses shortly after I got it, it coped with four Le Mans and a trip to Spain and back in a heatwave for five days and I never had any problems with it. Its been the same with the T350, just make sure all your hoses and clips are sorted and it should cope fine, I got stuck in traffic for nearly 2 hours a few years back and it was fine, if the traffic gets that bad you tend not to go anywhere anyway so you have five or ten mins with the engine switched off.