Hello from Paula and her Vitesse

[Pete Lewis]

Paula  do feargals guage needles move instantly and wag around on bumpy roads or the needles rise slowly

early vitesse had non stabilised  instant needle  and later stabilised   slow needles

this is controlled by a small voltage stabiliser on the back of the speedo  these go wrong and as the battery charge increases the needles will  with a uncontrolled voltage read hot/full  both temp and fuel run off this thing.

if he gets all wooly and peters out when in traffic  slow fan speeds up the under bonnet  temp  to high levels and it gets richer 

i would lean him off a little   and maybe up the idle to get more fan at idle 

Pete

[Paula]

It's a slow meter. It does seem to drop down quite a bit once i get moving again, but by then the plugs are fouled up.
The traffic around me at the moment is much worse than normal. Lots of temporary traffic lights. You seem to go from one to the next. It's almost like they are doing a coordinated attack!
Maybe it's just that?
I've adjusted the carbs so they are slightly lean. 
I'll try all the things mentioned and report back!

 

[Paula]

Ok.

Stand by for some classic "Paula" 

I cleaned the plugs up and got him running again. Sounds pretty noisey i think. Like there's more low end noise. Like a grumble.
Anyway.

Went for a drive avoiding traffic and he runs fine. There was a point where i heard what sounded like something was clunking around in the engine. I thought i had maybe left a spanner on the engine or something, but it sounded bad. I turned around and came home. The noise didn't come back. 

I got home and got my IR thermometer out and checked the top of the thermostat housing. 85'c

Then i checked the radiator 30'c 

So i guess that's the thermostat not opening. I swear i checked it, but i did boil it in a pan. So maybe it isn't opening early enough.
I'll get a replacement and then check again. I am a little worried about the weird noises. Tappets are a bit noisy too, but i can adjust them.
I took 2 videos so you can hear it (should you be inclined!). One before i set off and the other is from me accidently leaving the phone recording in my pocket. It does pick up the clunking sound though

Oh and Sorry @Pete Lewis The gauge is a fast type one.
Any tips on the best thermostat to get?

 

[Paula]

5 hours ago, mpbarrett said:

check the earth connection in the distributor, the small wire that goes to the plate that holds the points electronic ignition. If you dont have that wire the plate is earthed thru the rotating parts of the plate and this can start to fail when it gets hot.
Had a GT6 that had this problem....

mike

I re did this connection to make sure.

Thanks

 

[Pete Lewis]

think i would buzz through the tappets again to loose some of the sewing machine noises 

thermostat 82C    needs  air bleed jiggle pin in the rim to aid refilling by letting the air out when closed 

but you can just drill a 3mm hole in the rim ,thats works well enough 

so those are call ed moving iron gauges , dont need a voltage stabiliser the gauge workings balance 

any voltage changes . s

these use a very different sender unit is 121997     very different to the one for stabilised gauges if you mix them up and get some daft hot readings 

£3,25 from james paddocks stock them if you think the gauge is misbehaving 

Pete

[JohnD]

An overheating engine can make some very alarming noises!

John

[Paula]

1 minute ago, JohnD said:

An overheating engine can make some very alarming noises!

John

I'm hoping that's it!

 

[Paula]

31 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

think i would buzz through the tappets again to loose some of the sewing machine noises 

thermostat 82C    needs  air bleed jiggle pin in the rim to aid refilling by letting the air out when closed 

but you can just drill a 3mm hole in the rim ,thats works well enough 

so those are call ed moving iron gauges , dont need a voltage stabiliser the gauge workings balance 

any voltage changes . s

these use a very different sender unit is 121997     very different to the one for stabilised gauges if you mix them up and get some daft hot readings 

£3,25 from james paddocks stock them if you think the gauge is misbehaving 

Pete

I'll get the thermostat and see how the gauge behaves. It's always made sense in the past

 

[Paula]

Should i get the 74'c thermostat to get it open a bit ealier?

 

[Pete Lewis]

no  being colder needs to run richer   bad idea    stick with a std    82c 

Pete

[Paula]

I've popped the thermostat out and tested it again. It seems fine.

There wasn't a lot of water in there though. Just foam.

Maybe ii just needed to bleed the system?

[Paula]

Getting bad feeling about the smoke too. 

 

 

[GrahamB]

I have never seen foam like that when draining the cooling system.  Foam is a very poor conductor of heat so that might be the problem.  I would flush the system , preferably with a hose pipe, until the water runs clear and without any foam before refilling.  It is almost like someone has added screen wash instead of antifreeze, both of which are blue.

[Paula]

1 minute ago, GrahamB said:

I have never seen foam like that when draining the cooling system.  Foam is a very poor conductor of heat so that might be the problem.  I would flush the system , preferably with a hose pipe, until the water runs clear and without any foam before refilling.  It is almost like someone has added screen wash instead of antifreeze, both of which are blue.

I flushed it last week with cleaning stuff. Maybe that caused the foam?

I’ve topped up and I’m running it up to temp now. I’ll let it cool down and check again after

[Paula]

Also my coolant is red so that's why it's pink foam.

The thermostat is opening now. and he's running nice. i'll check the level again in a couple of hours.

I guess the thermostat is never going to open if it's not in the coolant and just foam.

Really hope it's not the head gasket AGAIN!

 

[Paul H]

I thought we could only use blue antifreeze ? 
Paul 

[Paula]

Been using 4 Life

https://shop.tssc.org.uk/product/forlife-radiator-fluid-5-litres

[Pete Lewis]

there used ti be a problem of mixing any oat based pink with previously  used blue glycol  

dont know how this pans out but seems blue and pink are very incompatible 

i would drill an air bleed 3mm hole in the stat rim  anyway

doesnt explain the  excess exhaust steam  apart from the weather makes it more pronounced when  its cold  running /

Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

I've read that mixing blue and pink causes it to gel, and block the system. One of my 'moderns' uses blue, the other pink so I have to keep stocks of both. I used some of that Prestone coolant in the Herald, the green stuff, that Tescos always sell off cheap. It starts about £28 for 5 litres, drops to about £16, and ends up about £10 - not far off the price of the blue antifreeze that you mix with water anyway. 

I hope that's not blue smoke in that video rather than steam?

[KevinR]

25 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

there used ti be a problem of mixing any oat based pink with previously  used blue glycol  

https://www.valvolineglobal.com/en-eur/what-happens-when-you-mix-coolants/

Whether this is relevant I dont know, as Paula has already said that she is using "4 Life" coolant https://4lifecoolant.co.uk/ which should be OK if it was "fitted" in accordance with the instructions.

4Life coolant is normally red, but turns yellow if there is a head gasket leak.

4Life coolant is usually compatible with older cars that were designed for IAT coolants (i.e. "our" cars), however it should not be topped up with IAT coolant.

https://4lifecoolant.co.uk/faq

 

 

 

[Steve P]

I had a brand new 1500 engine grenade with 4life in it,it needed a complete strip down as all the oil and waterways were filled with jelly.

Another rebuild later and I`ve gone back to water and blue anti freeze,expensive cock up.

We think it began with a cracked head and ended up with a spurt of water from no.2 spark plug hole.

S

[Paula]

I've been out and checked the level and there's no foam.

I went for s drive for about 20mins and it all seemed ok. The smoke cleared up.

I got back and the temp gauge was only 1/3. The thermostat is definitely opening.

Maybe that's all ok now?
Running nicely, But i'm not sure it's sounding as quiet as it used to. Bit of a low end growl.

[Pete Lewis]

might be worth dropping the sump and looking at the bearing shell condition(one day  !!!)

not a road side task to envy .getting the sump of can be a faf with the oil pump getting in the  way 

but with the odd knocking and a growl  could be worn crank shells 

but dont discount some exhaust making contact when underload(a much simpler fix ) 

Pete

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Pete Lewis

[Paula]

1 minute ago, Pete Lewis said:

might be worth dropping the sump and looking at the bearing shell condition(one day  !!!)

not a road side task to envy .getting the sump of can be a faf with the oil pump getting in the  way 

but with the odd knocking and a growl  could be worn crank shells 

Pete

 

I'll save that for better weather!

Maybe some ramps too!

[Pete Lewis]

 

had a donated pair of ramps last month but declined as no one wanted them     now wish i could be clever afterwards

belive they  went up the tip   Grrrr  9 owner moved to france )

tin of STP is simpler but not recommended by the many !!!!

 

Pete