Overheating???????

[Hoover33]

4.3l 92

The car has done this twice.... once sitting in traffic and the othertime after a god thrashing run whilst parking up...

It dumping coolant out of the swirl pot on the engine give spectacular clouds of steam from under the bonnet I'm no expert but this don't sound right.

Temp guage in the car is just under the red each time.

[shpub]

Do the fans come on? If not check the otter switch, fan connectors and fuses.

Covered in great detail in the bible.

[Guillotine]

possibly need a new radiator. upgrade to alloy...end of issues.

only fill to half swirl pot height, you possibly know this, and twin fans if your car doesn't have them yet. most have already been upgraded.

upshot is rad can only just cope and yours will be very coroded by now.

£-400 is money well spent...trust me!

40 degrees, racing round Imola all day, with no issues. worth every penny. unfortunately it was a while ago and not this weekend gone!

[mbishton]

My Griff 500 gets a bit too warm in traffic for my liking - where is best to go for an alloy rad? Am I right in thinking that the standard rad is a Range Rover item?

[shpub]

No the basic core is but the pipes etc are TVR specials.

[griffter]

Hoover33 said:

4.3l 92 The car has done this twice.... once sitting in traffic and the othertime after a god thrashing run whilst parking up... It dumping coolant out of the swirl pot on the engine give spectacular clouds of steam from under the bonnet I'm no expert but this don't sound right. Temp guage in the car is just under the red each time.

As has been said, first thing to check is that the fans come on. The expansion tank on the pre cat should be filled to within about an inch of the bottom of the top pipe which enters the tank from the engine block. If I overfill mine this is where the level ends up. If the filler cap blew at least you know:

a) it works
b) it's the weakest part of the system

These are good things. What you need to do it stop the car getting too hot in the first place. The one time mine blew, when the fans failed, it was at about 120 deg C. In normal use the temp shouldn't go over 100 - all in my experience.

[jellison]

Bin the rad, they are SHIT - call RADTEC.

[Hoover33]

Yep fans were definanatly cutting in......

After the first time in traffic used the manual over ride on the fan to have cooling earlier.

Nope I did not know about the coolant level .... maybe its overfilled and that is the problem..... its a nice clean green colour when sitting on the tarmac .... wonders if it was overfilled on last service.....

I will have good nose around at the weekend me thinks....

[Sooty]

Mine will only run below 100 on the gauge if I am moving quite quickly. All other times need the fan on, either automatically or with the over-ride switch.

I guess the alloy rad is the solution to my problem too !!

[Martin_s]

Sooty said:

Mine will only run below 100 on the gauge if I am moving quite quickly. All other times need the fan on, either automatically or with the over-ride switch.

Sooty,
Either your gauge is misreading, or you have a serious problem.

What temperature is the gauge indicating when the fans cut in automatically?

[parrot of doom]

Water wetter?

[shpub]

Sooty said:

Mine will only run below 100 on the gauge if I am moving quite quickly. All other times need the fan on, either automatically or with the over-ride switch. I guess the alloy rad is the solution to my problem too !!

No getting the fault that is causing the temp guage to either overread or the car to overheat is the issue.

Sure you can spend £400 on an alloy rad but it might be a simple thing like the wrong stat, a dead stat or simply you have leaks in the system or a head gasket. Even if the rad is dead, a three core refurb will increase the cooling capacity without spending a lot of money.

These cars do not overheat if the cooling system is in good condition.

[groucho]

shpub said:

These cars do not overheat if the cooling system is in good condition.

I agree, mine has never stepped above 90 in 2 years.