Cooling problems sorted...I hope!!

Some of you may remember the issues I had last year with my RRC overheating.
Back end of last year I replaced water pump, expansion tank cap, head
gaskets, thermostat (88 degree) and viscous unit. All seemed OK, up until
the warmer weather started to arrive...and the needle was creeping up again.

So earlier this week I decided to remove the radiator, and try and flush it
out (didnt realise how easy it was to remove!). Upon lifting it out, I
found about half the contents of the New Forest wedged between my rad and
the air con rad; dead leaves, bits of twigs, loads of flys and
insects....disgusting! Filled a large carrier bag! May have had something
to do with poor airflow and cooling, me thinks! After hosing the rad down
to get rid of the rest of the leaves, it crumbled away in front of me.....so
an eBay search later, have bought a new rad, and fitted an 82 degree stat
(which i'd already bought). Complete with fresh coolant, fingers crossed
that everything is sorted. Later on I'm going to find a big traffic jam and
sit in it to see if the problem is finally fixed!


Thanks,
Paul
--

"Pacman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Some of you may remember the issues I had last year with my RRC
overheating.
> Back end of last year I replaced water pump, expansion tank cap, head
> gaskets, thermostat (88 degree) and viscous unit. All seemed OK, up until
> the warmer weather started to arrive...and the needle was creeping up
again.
>
> So earlier this week I decided to remove the radiator, and try and flush
it
> out (didnt realise how easy it was to remove!). Upon lifting it out, I
> found about half the contents of the New Forest wedged between my rad and
> the air con rad; dead leaves, bits of twigs, loads of flys and
> insects....disgusting! Filled a large carrier bag! May have had
something
> to do with poor airflow and cooling, me thinks! After hosing the rad down
> to get rid of the rest of the leaves, it crumbled away in front of
me.....so
> an eBay search later, have bought a new rad, and fitted an 82 degree stat
> (which i'd already bought). Complete with fresh coolant, fingers crossed
> that everything is sorted. Later on I'm going to find a big traffic jam
and
> sit in it to see if the problem is finally fixed!
>
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
>

Mine was doing the same but the cooling fins had nearly all rotted away. New
rad sorted it but I think I'll give looking for a big traffic jam a miss.
;-)

Martin

On or around Fri, 12 May 2006 09:42:03 +0100, "Pacman"
<[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:

>Some of you may remember the issues I had last year with my RRC overheating.
>Back end of last year I replaced water pump, expansion tank cap, head
>gaskets, thermostat (88 degree) and viscous unit. All seemed OK, up until
>the warmer weather started to arrive...and the needle was creeping up again.
>
>So earlier this week I decided to remove the radiator, and try and flush it
>out (didnt realise how easy it was to remove!). Upon lifting it out, I
>found about half the contents of the New Forest wedged between my rad and
>the air con rad; dead leaves, bits of twigs, loads of flys and
>insects....disgusting! Filled a large carrier bag! May have had something
>to do with poor airflow and cooling, me thinks! After hosing the rad down
>to get rid of the rest of the leaves, it crumbled away in front of me.....so
>an eBay search later, have bought a new rad, and fitted an 82 degree stat
>(which i'd already bought). Complete with fresh coolant, fingers crossed
>that everything is sorted. Later on I'm going to find a big traffic jam and
>sit in it to see if the problem is finally fixed!


I hope you get it to work. BiL's 3.9 consistently refused to cool properly
(he does use it for heavy towing though) unit he removed the aircon rad
(and, I assume, decommissioned the aircon in the process). Having done
that, they fired up the engine and the resultant airflow blew clouds of dust
and crud from the engine bay. The gist being that the aircon rad severely
compromises the airflow to the main rad.

However, on my 110 V8 I found that fitting a new rad cured the overheating
problems at a stroke (no aircon, obv.) - IME, trying to flush an old rad is
a complete waste of effort. I did all sorts of different tricks to mine and
none made any difference whatever.
--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
"Would to God that we might spend a single day really well!"
Thomas À Kempis (1380 - 1471) Imitation of Christ, I.xxiii.