Radiator efficiency

[Dave Wheatley]

Bumpa, thanks for that interesting post. I used to keep a boat in Troon!

[Tom Ward]

I'm not ignoring you all but I haven't got near the car since MGB60 so I'll have a play this weekend and see how I get on. Thanks for all your input so far. I didn't know there was a block drain near the distributor. I'll start there.

[Bumpa]

It's quite likely that nothing will come out when you remove the block drain plug, even if you poke a screwdriver in there. Many are completely silted up, although it often doesn't cause any problem.

[Not_Anumber]

I had to poke a screwdriver in there to free up the accumulated crud that was quite compacted but this made an instant difference on my engine.

[Tom Ward]

It's the radiator. Further testing this weekend consisted of an hour drive on mixed country roads and dual carriageway. Having sorted the timing and re-tuned the carburettors we took it for a drive. As before it ran hot on the dual carriageway but could cope although at an elevated temperature on the country roads. When we parked up in the garage the radiator was hot down both sides but a 6-7 inch wide area in the middle from top to bottom was stone cold so there is no flow or heat transfer going from one side of the rad to the other.

We'll drain the system this week and take it out.

[Ian F]

That's good, and a fairly straightforward fix. Sounds like a strange one though? Could it be that the central tubes have become blocked? I think the flow would be vertically down from top to bottom, but I confess it's a long time since I looked closely at a radiator!!

Ian F

[Tom Ward]

It seems a bit strange. I can't really think why a radiator won't work, I've had old ones break down and become less efficient over tiem, it happened in our venerable old Peugeot a few years ago. We have flushed it with a hose pipe and the water runs through without seeming to be blocked.

The block is clogged up as well, we filled it with water and took out the plug behind the distributor and nothing came out, so some digging required.

[Allan T]

Ooops - apologies, Mike, I missed that crucial detail.


Allan