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Best Strategy for Traffic Jams


Paul H

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Been following this thread with interest - for years now my Vitesse has had a Kenlowe fan squeezed between rad and engine and I've fitted a manual override switch as well. I normally switch it on manually the minute I spot a large tailback in the summer, rather than wait for the thermostatic switch to kick in. With the fan running she's never boiled up, but unsurprisingly the temp gauge creeps towards the red zone. She also starts to suffer from lumpy tickover, which I put down to modern fuel combustion temps, despite having  a carb heat shield fitted. Also the fan continues to run for up to 15 minutes in the summer, after switching the engine off, which helps dissipate the residual heat. Finally I believe the old trick of switching the heater on certainly helps control the engine temp - many years ago I got stuck in a nightmare jam in the Dartford Tunnel, in a Hillman Hunter, on a Friday afternoon in the summer and during rush hour. Sure enough the temp gauge crept into the red, so I switched the heater on and opened the windows. I was dreading the car boiling over and failing in the tunnel. We crept along at snail's pace, my eyes glued to the temp gauge ! Slowly the temp came back down and I made it through the tunnel. Once past the jam the engine temp quickly recovered.

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Pete,

Well yes, but no, it was a golden age when the M25 didn't exist and there weren't 20 mile tailbacks on the M1. Did Triumph really think we would be nursing their progeny into the 21st centaury? I keep coming back to "It should be alright". :lol:

Doug

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well it worked for me , she was a fast rorty, hairy machine, never a hic up, exhaust note to die for , left to idle for the whole of the MOT and 

never a hint of heat of cough splutter, , no vaporising,   starts on the button very hot or very cold ,  

keep a good airflow under the bonnet rules apply

 

 

Vit6 2009 011.jpg

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3 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

well it worked for me , she was a fast rorty, hairy machine, never a hic up, exhaust note to die for , left to idle for the whole of the MOT and 

never a hint of heat of cough splutter, , no vaporising,   starts on the button very hot or very cold ,  

keep a good airflow under the bonnet rules apply

Yes Pete, but tell us about the car!

Doug

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I bought an electric fan for my GT6 but have never fitted it. Decided that all I was going to be doing was addressing a symptom concerning me (gauge would read in the red in traffic, but never boiled over) without curing the cause. Having worked through the cooling system - properly fitting rad cap, new temp sender and voltage stabiliser - my GT6 happily sits in traffic with very little increase in temperature. Spent 20 minutes or so crawling through Cambridge on Sunday with no concerns at all.

I also had a real concern that the electric fan I bought (the Revotec kit) required the removal of the mechanical one, leaving no backup.

Gully

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Update : just when I thought I had sorted any potential over heating issues on my Vitesse Mk2  I discovered a leaking core plug - so add this to the list when checking your water system - The Vitesse MK 2 has 8 - I added a new post on replacing the core plug so it will be indexed 

Paul 

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Well as someone from the hot ANTIPODES, the comment re the rubber washers on the Vitesse Rad is interesting & I'll implement Aluminum ones.

Some interesting facts we have a Spit Mk2 with no mech fan but an electric pusher fan, a Chinese cheapie, up to now its been a manual over-ride, but will convert to temp control in the next weeks. On hot days say around 40C if you don't switch it on early in anticipation and the engine gets hot it takes some considerable time to drop it to normal. I've been thinking for some time of putting a removable floor between the chassis legs in front of the rad as it being open underneath I think it causes too much turbulence affecting the air flow through the fan & radiator.

Ref pusher or puller fan there seems to be stalwarts for both. A fan designer friend prefers a puller with a full radiator shroud except over the swept area, ie. so the fan pulls air through all the radiator fins.

Ref the original Mech fan, on a Vitesse its mounted to the crankshaft pulley so at idle it only spins at engine speed say 700rpm, but with a Spit the fans mounted on the water pump pulley running at say smooth engine idle of 900rpm and with a crank pulley of 6in with a water pump pulley of 5in the fan will spin at around 1100rpm, supposedly providing better cooling.

Here in the hotter climes and in peak traffic its normal with the std mech fan to increase the engine speed using the throttle to say around 1500rpm to aid cooling with increased air flow through the rad, it seems to help keeping the gauge from rising too much.

On a club run BBQ a couple of summers ago coming back from the beach/bay when the temp rose to 42C, say hotter on the tarmac road and the sun blazing down with no shade and too boot a 1/2hr stationary traffic jam it gets Bl++dy hot, a day to be in a modern A/C tin top not a Mk2 Spit, there's no way you would put the heater on to aid cooling. Modern convertibles use their A/C flat out with the roof off but its still HOT! I must say the Spit performed faultlessly on the day, didn't overheat or vapour lock, I checked the dip stick when I got home and the oil was so thin it ran off the stick like water, but she still held just under 20psi at idle, not like a club members 1500 Spit who's oil light was on at idle and only 40 psi running at 3000rpm Oh they do need the oil cooler.

The Dolly Sprint we have runs a std viscous fan and just gets above the halfway mark in 36C type weather, I wouldn't trust her at > 40C

I've been thinking of treating the Spit to a puller fan and a larger reputable Davies Craig Fan, but the cast iron head takes some abuse.

 

Regards

Peter  T.

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