Nearly a trip too far. 
Take a step back to Bromley Pageant, after queuing for nearly an hour to get in the Stag was running a needles width from red but didn’t boil over, phew. Since then it has struggled to maintain its usual cool. I ordered a new thermostat (74) rad cap 20lb and temp sender. All were fitted Tuesday last week.
Test drive to pick up a chum en route to Dover found the car still appearing to run hot. the engine however didn’t feel hot and was running great. We suspected a failing voltage stabiliser – probably fried by my rogue alternator from 2 weeks ago. From cold the temp would rise normally to 1/3 and stay static for some time, on the motorway after 10miles or so of fast running it would slowly creep up so the needle was just over the M of Temp. hmmmm still thinking voltage stabiliser we pushed on to Dover.
Once in France normal service was resumed, for a short while. Anyway it was about ½ on the gauge but I was running fast on the peage 3500rpm ish and it was high 20’s temp so I thought ok. refuelled at my usual stop Baie du Somme aire and on restarting the temp needle was up against the red, fairly usual behaviour. However when getting back up to speed again the temp didn’t drop back to ½ as I would have expected but stayed a needle width off red.
Pulled in at next Aire and suspected vacuum advance might be misbehaving. Removed cap, rotor and ignition base plate. to check the bob weight operation and also to find why when sucking on the vacuum advance the optic sensor didn’t move that far, like about 1mm if that. the diaphragm was intact.
20150611_220256.jpg
Found all this ^^^ broken plastic in the bottom of the dizzy, pretty mashed up bits of plastic!! unlikely to have been impacting the bob weights and the shaft moved as I would expect so concentrated on vacuum advance. Refitted baseplate and fired her up. Back on the road the temp dropped quickly to 1/3, engine also felt a lot peppier. yay fixed it.
Or so I though 10 miles later it started to creep up again, past ½ and to the middle of the M. hmmmm Bollox not even half way there yet! Stopped again only this time it shat water as I switched off. Investigation in the dizzy found another bit of plastic. Vacuum advance still not working properly. Refitted original rad cap just in case new 20lb unit was faulty and set off again.
Car seemed happier running nearer 2k rpm than 3k. in fact anything over 2.5k saw the temp rise quickly. As the ambient temp rose above 30 the car didn’t seem to get any hotter. on the long down hill stretches I knocked it into neutral and coasted this dropped the temp to middle of M.
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Made it to outskirts of Le Mans but got a little warm waiting for some pillock up front to a argue why he couldn’t use his well worn £10 note to pay etc etc cue plenty of impatient horn action.
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Anyway even though it did that ^^^ it didn’t boil. I pulled over and again it didn’t seem that hot but by now it was pushing low 30s. Carried on and got stuck on the ring road for about an hour but then we had a cloud burst then temp was running right against the red but not in it. Stopped for an hour for beer and wine rations and the temp gauge was still reading ½ so I though what the heck, must be a false positive. Queued for over an hour to get ½ mile closer to the camp site and poor thing finally threw in the towel and shat steam and coolant all over the place. I switched off immediately and let it cool by the roadside, fortunately there were no TVRs about, must have all broken down hours ago ;-)
Refilled with 4litres of water and carried on with the needle stable but nudging the red and got to the campsite arghhhhhhhhh beer now!
part 2 next
Take a step back to Bromley Pageant, after queuing for nearly an hour to get in the Stag was running a needles width from red but didn’t boil over, phew. Since then it has struggled to maintain its usual cool. I ordered a new thermostat (74) rad cap 20lb and temp sender. All were fitted Tuesday last week.
Test drive to pick up a chum en route to Dover found the car still appearing to run hot. the engine however didn’t feel hot and was running great. We suspected a failing voltage stabiliser – probably fried by my rogue alternator from 2 weeks ago. From cold the temp would rise normally to 1/3 and stay static for some time, on the motorway after 10miles or so of fast running it would slowly creep up so the needle was just over the M of Temp. hmmmm still thinking voltage stabiliser we pushed on to Dover.
Once in France normal service was resumed, for a short while. Anyway it was about ½ on the gauge but I was running fast on the peage 3500rpm ish and it was high 20’s temp so I thought ok. refuelled at my usual stop Baie du Somme aire and on restarting the temp needle was up against the red, fairly usual behaviour. However when getting back up to speed again the temp didn’t drop back to ½ as I would have expected but stayed a needle width off red.
Pulled in at next Aire and suspected vacuum advance might be misbehaving. Removed cap, rotor and ignition base plate. to check the bob weight operation and also to find why when sucking on the vacuum advance the optic sensor didn’t move that far, like about 1mm if that. the diaphragm was intact.
20150611_220256.jpg
Found all this ^^^ broken plastic in the bottom of the dizzy, pretty mashed up bits of plastic!! unlikely to have been impacting the bob weights and the shaft moved as I would expect so concentrated on vacuum advance. Refitted baseplate and fired her up. Back on the road the temp dropped quickly to 1/3, engine also felt a lot peppier. yay fixed it.
Or so I though 10 miles later it started to creep up again, past ½ and to the middle of the M. hmmmm Bollox not even half way there yet! Stopped again only this time it shat water as I switched off. Investigation in the dizzy found another bit of plastic. Vacuum advance still not working properly. Refitted original rad cap just in case new 20lb unit was faulty and set off again.
Car seemed happier running nearer 2k rpm than 3k. in fact anything over 2.5k saw the temp rise quickly. As the ambient temp rose above 30 the car didn’t seem to get any hotter. on the long down hill stretches I knocked it into neutral and coasted this dropped the temp to middle of M.
20150611_161143.jpg
Made it to outskirts of Le Mans but got a little warm waiting for some pillock up front to a argue why he couldn’t use his well worn £10 note to pay etc etc cue plenty of impatient horn action.
20150611_162713.jpg
Anyway even though it did that ^^^ it didn’t boil. I pulled over and again it didn’t seem that hot but by now it was pushing low 30s. Carried on and got stuck on the ring road for about an hour but then we had a cloud burst then temp was running right against the red but not in it. Stopped for an hour for beer and wine rations and the temp gauge was still reading ½ so I though what the heck, must be a false positive. Queued for over an hour to get ½ mile closer to the camp site and poor thing finally threw in the towel and shat steam and coolant all over the place. I switched off immediately and let it cool by the roadside, fortunately there were no TVRs about, must have all broken down hours ago ;-)
Refilled with 4litres of water and carried on with the needle stable but nudging the red and got to the campsite arghhhhhhhhh beer now!
part 2 next
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