Tamora Water Temps and Oil Pressure

Tamora Water Temps and Oil Pressure

Author
Discussion

scotti

Original Poster:

85 posts

253 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2003
quotequote all
Got my Tamora last week just in time for cracking Easter weekend driving with the hood down. Great car!

Interested to know what sort of operating temps and oil pressures I should be looking at as manual gives no info on this.

Thanks, Iain

alt

1,879 posts

283 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
quotequote all
Good choice!
On a good run the water's about 75C and oil about 65C.
In traffic the water hovers between 92C - 96C as the fans cut in. Oil gets to about 80C.
Cheers.... Andrew

scotti

Original Poster:

85 posts

253 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
quotequote all
Thanks for that. I guess this means I may have some problem as my water temp got to about 105C yesterday evening when sitting at a traffic light.

Iain

alt

1,879 posts

283 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
quotequote all
Scotti, as long as the fans were coming on and there wasn't steam coming out of the bonnet I doubt you've got a problem.
There's a number of other owners on here that see 3 figure temperatures when sat in traffic.
I asked at the factory a while back and they confirmed that over 100C is not a problem as long as the fans come on.
Cheers.... Andrew

dougie

94 posts

283 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
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Agree, my temp often goes up to +100 but so far the fans have always cut in. Previously I had a manual override switch fitted on my Chimaera but have been told that is not easy to do on the Tamora.
Re Oil Pressure, not sure in psi terms but on the sliding scale readout with the engine warm I get 2 bars showing on idle (approx 900 to 1,000 revs)and all but one bar showing when cruising along at approx 3/4,000 revs. I specifically asked the dealer to check the fans and oil pressure and they said all was well.

dicky

928 posts

285 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
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on a " we will go on a wee drive and see if the problem occurs again" one night, we got stuck in the centre of London. I saw 114 degrees before I got her to the edge and switched her off. We couldn't find a clear road to blast some air into her and cool down. The fans were going ten to the dozen and up until I pulled over there were still no apparent problems, except the alarms to tell me it was getting warm going ballastic.

scotti

Original Poster:

85 posts

253 months

Thursday 24th April 2003
quotequote all
Just got back from a short (?#~?) trip to the shops (1 hour round trip for a pint of milk - closest shop is a ten minute walk)and temps only went high on way back when stuck in a row of trafic lights. So I guess that sounds like mine isn't too bad. I reckon I'll just have to stick to good open roads and avoid anything which trys to slow me down too much. Shouldn't be too hard !

frostie

428 posts

276 months

Friday 25th April 2003
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100 - 105 degree temps in traffic are not unusual especially with the warm weather we have had recently. The only time to worry is if the temps won't come back down again when you hit open roads, as this could indicate head gasket problems as happended with my car.

Mark

nubbin

6,809 posts

279 months

Friday 25th April 2003
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Mine always runs at 100-105C in traffic - but the fans are very efficient and drop the temp. within 20-30 secs, by a degree or two. I got to 108 once, and got a warning on the dash, but there was no problem with the car.

sidpinup

998 posts

256 months

Friday 25th April 2003
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I had the warning about water temp too. Did some tests and the fans soon bring it down to a reasonable level. You still get the sinking feeling in your stomach until the numbers come down though don’t you. "is this when my S6 spectacularly lets go in public" flashes before your eyes.

Having a few teething problems for the life of the car seems to be the norm with a TVR but if its going to break down let it be in a quiet spot, please.

scotti

Original Poster:

85 posts

253 months

Friday 25th April 2003
quotequote all
Temps only get high when in traffic or stuck still for a while. They always come down when I get moving again so all seems OK. I guess it's all part of the TVR experience which I have to say I like v. much.
Cheers, Iain

julianc

1,984 posts

260 months

Monday 28th April 2003
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I was looking closely at water temps and oil temps/pressures over the weekend.

Result:

- oil temps always seem about 10C less than water temp
- water temp about 75C on motorway at 73mph (3000 rpm running in limit!), I've had her to high 90s around town
- oil pressure about 38psi on motorway at 73mph, about 25psi winding around country lanes at 2000rpm, about 9psi at idle when fully warmed up. The latter looks a bit low, but my oil level is right up where it needs to be. I'll check this with the factory during the 1000 mile service next week.

Julian

scotti

Original Poster:

85 posts

253 months

Monday 28th April 2003
quotequote all
I think I was a bit premature in my earlier post.

Out on Saturday night and got stuck in a long traffic queue - not actually stationary but v. slow moving for about 15 mins. Temps slowly rising and then all of a sudden they took off and warnings 16 and then 5 came up on the display followed by a load of steam coming from the engine. Pulled over to the side of the road and waited about 30 mins for things to cool down. Luckily I wasn't too far from home so managed to get home and next morning have a look at coolant level.

Tried the wooden spoon trick as suggested on other thread and handle wasn't even wet. Put in 1.5 ltrs of coolant and same of water and took out for spin and everything seemed fine but I don't think it should use that much coolant in a week. No obvious leaks.

Anyway, off to the dealer tomorrow so hopefully they can sort it just in time for a (fingers crossed) sunny and clear long weekend.

Iain

Bigbrowncow

83 posts

263 months

Monday 28th April 2003
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Fingers crossed Scotti.

Hmmm...according to the guru, oil temperatures of 110 indicate its time to ease off a little.



Steve


Borrowed from the yahoo Tuscan group:
------------------------------
John Ravenscroft’s Tips on Mechanical Sympathy and his Engines!


RUNNING IN

Most importantly, drive fairly normally. Being too gentle with an engine when running in can be as bad as being too rough.

Although it is important to avoid full throttle or over 4,000 rpm during the first 1,000 miles, occasional bursts (c.5 seconds) of 75% throttle up to 4,000 rpm, will help to bed the piston rings in.


FROM COLD

When starting, please be careful not to let it rev straight up so please make sure that you do not give it anything more than a tiny bit of throttle while cranking it over and then lift off as soon as it catches.

Then try to avoid more than 3,000 rpm until the oil (not water) temperature has exceeded 40°C, 4,000 rpm until 60°C and 7,000 rpm until 80°C. If it climbs above 110°C, please keep the revs below 5,000 rpm until the oil temperature returns to normal.

stuartaustin

12 posts

252 months

Monday 9th June 2003
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I was having problems with Water temp of up to 110 - the TVR dealer at Clarks/Street Bromsgrove plugged in a lap top and found the ECU gauge reading 93 and both fans cutting in so the Dash read out is wrong - they are fitting a new temp gauge for the dash only. Nothing to worry about.