Hello chaps. Whilst out and about last weekend I had a fair journey in the still very hot afternoon and noticed Bab's temperature rising. Nothing too alarming, when up to temperature she sits comfortably at just over 60, but noticed she's running a little warmer on the hotter days and a little warmer still on uphill sections of the journey, creeping towards 80. Soon drops back when we're over and going donwhill again. Flicking the cab heater on had a good effect of reducing the temperature siginificantly (obvious I suppose as you're basically drawing more heat away from the system). Now this got me thinking...there must be a better way. I saw one of those subarus at the weekend with a spray mister that supposedly reduces the intake air temperature on the intercooler and I wondered, how easy would it be to install an electric windscreen washer pump that squirts a spray of water onto the face of the rad to give you a little more cooling when needed? Anyone considered that, or indeed attempted something similar?
sounds like a reasonably good idea to me mate, should'nt be to hard to do, but what you would really want is some way to cool the water before spraying for better results, i was considering an aftermarket air con setup that could be used in the cab or diverted to the engine bay if needed but i think that would be expensive
Dolly Commer Is Here http://66.129.69.181/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6833
latent heat of vapourisation - water absorbs a large amount of heat energy to change state - so would work. Being a commer I would imagine a footpump or squeezy bottle rather than a flash mister device - as an aside I combed my radiator today with a brass brush - the crap I got our from between the fins was unbelievable - I will lend you the brush john.
The man from Kenlowe fans told me if my temperature rises were occuring above 25mph then I should be looking at flushing my cooling system & oil system before forking out for an electric fan - so maybe they are things you could look at as well - I see you mention creeping up to 80 - I know the diesels are different, but on the perkins the thermostat doesnt open until 82 degrees - so maybe its nothing to worry about
The petrol engine thermostat starts to open at 82 degC and is fully open at 95, it does sound like your gauge is showing low but as the temp responds to the heater being on and the off-load runs down hill would suggest there's nothing to nasty going on. I'd have a go at Lee's suggestion and clean every thing out first, maybe fit an other small rad - Tim likes to plumb in bike rads for a little extra cooling. One quick and easy tip to improve the air flow is to turn the existing air deflector upside down so it scoops air from under the vallance as well as through the grille (courtesy of Nickclubman) I did something similar but made my own deep-chin scoop.
Oh and check if you've actually got a thermostat in:I
How refreshing
Erm, when I sold Babs to John, she had a completely new cooling system - everything was new in 2009, including and 82 degree thermostat, hoses, thermostat housing and cap, water pump, radiator and a new TIM water temp gauge and sender - so I think that rules out the dodgy cooling systen/mis-reading temp gauge issues.
As for the condition of the inside of that engine, I cannot comment.....
I feel a bit humble after the likes of Tim responding but!....even taking the original 'air scoop' off giving a good clean and repaint with gloss hammerite makes a difference to the amount of cool air reaching the rad
Thanks for the suggestions guys, no real concerns for me, like Andy say's when we did the deal with Babs last year I knew how much work he'd put into her in this department, it was just a thought about reducing the occasional increase in heat when all the aggravating factors are in place, ie; hot out, hills and fully loaded! To be honest I do like simple first, the air scoop reverse trick looks a good'un and an additional small rad on the heater return also looks likely.
) I did something similar but made my own deep-chin scoop.
