As some of you may recall I was having issues with ,y pinto running hot last summer, so today the first nice day I decided to let her tick over out side and see what happens, gauge was reading 102 degrees before my rad fan kicked in, the gauge is. Fed from a block mounted sender and the fan is fed from a polo fan switch on the rad.
Now I noticed 2things, firstly I need to replace a. Clip as the worm appears to be fubar and will not tighten any more
And two the car is. Still getting to hot, now I have replaced the entire cooling system andthehead gasket and bled it, this run wasn't using anti freeze, only other thing I've noticed is my idle speed is higher than it should be, what would you guys set the idle speed at for tick over on a warm engine

And where can I get a fan switch to fit a polo rad that will come in earlier

Not sure if this will help but sounds like your rad fan is coming on at around 97 deg,I changed mine to one that comes on at 86 deg and had no problems with high temps.My car is being used in Spain with outside temps of 40 plus deg and the car runs at around 80 deg,and in traffic the fan keeps nice and cool !!!!

Another idea,a tuned OHC (pinto) needs more breathers from the rocker cover the extra pressure can cause over heating!! I had a similar problem years ago on a striker,but after adding another breather sorted the problem.

hope this helps

cheers

Ross

I've added a breather cap to the rocker cover but have yet. To plumb it up to the catch tank

The breather cap may not be enough,I drilled a hole in the rocker cover (one at each end) with open pipe into catch tank.However try changing the fan switch first before drilling your rocker cover unless you have a spare!!! This worked on mine but is not a guarantee.So try it on an old rocker cover first,

good luck

Ross

82 degree thermostat from Burtons and a 4mm hole drilled in the plate to let air and fluid flow before thermostat opens
Bleed T in 16mm hose from water pump to manifold
I've done all this and a big radiator, today I struggle to get 80 degrees

Big radiator? What off?

Just ordered a 82degreestatfrom buttons, should I cap off the bleed from the thermo stat or route it via a t piece to the header tank with the one off the rad

Try your local motor factors for a fan switch, they should have a listing of operating temperatures. I cut some vents in the rear of my bonnet which helped reduce the engine temperature considerably,try running the engine with the bonnet off to check first . Water Wetter from Red Line, about £15.00 will drop the coolant temperature by up to 20 degrees, worked on my old XM turbo when towing. I would use the bleed off connector on the thermostat housing connected to the header tank.

102c isn't that hot the coolant won't boil until at least 118c, on most tintops the coolant gauge is designed to stay firmly on "N" between 75c and 115c

From your description it sounds like the thermostat isn't opening probably due to it not getting any by-pass circulation around it.
The quick and dirty fix is to drill a couple of 2mm holes in the thermostat valve plate ---- NB 2 holes any more will make the engine take too long to warm up.

It is important that the fan switch switches in and out at temperature that is higher than thermostat temperature. On most 1980s era engine fans switched in around 96c, if you want a fan to switch in at a lower temperature the early Fiat Panda switch (on 92c off 87c M22 thread) is ideal for the Polo rad , and requires no special plug. Loads on ebay for around £7.00

Fiat Panda 1.0 09/82-04/86
Fiat Regata 1.3 09/86-06/89
Fiat Regata 1.5 02/84-08/86
Fiat Regata 1.5 09/83-08/86

Product: Radiator Fan Switch
Manufacturer: Intermotor
Intermotor Part Number 50230

NB You should also check the ignition timing is not excessively retarded as this will cause excessive heat to be rejected to the coolant and exhaust particularly at low RPM. If you still have old fashioned points ignition check the points gap before setting the timing, this particularly import if a Fomoco/Autolite/Ford dizzie is fitted as the points gap (0.023" to 0.027" close up in use.

Thanks
I'm running mega jolt so will take a peek later

quote:

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Originally posted by britishtrident
102c isn't that hot the coolant won't boil until at least 118c, on most tintops the coolant gauge is designed to stay firmly on "N" between 75c and 115c

From your description it sounds like the thermostat isn't opening probably due to it not getting any by-pass circulation around it.
The quick and dirty fix is to drill a couple of 2mm holes in the thermostat valve plate ---- NB 2 holes any more will make the engine take too long to warm up.

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Are you sure it is actually running hot or is it just an electric gauge telling you that? Does it spew boiling water everywhere, smell terrible, seizing up? Or if you didn't bother to look at the gauge would you notice any difference. Kempston Radiators used to be pretty good if you need a new rad and have a good range of switches.

Bought a 42 twin core from Boston radiators the GBS Coolman is 27 twin core so I have a lot more capacity.
Pintos prefer running a lot cooler than most engines, in a 7 they tend to run a lot hotter.
If you can get it running under 90 a the time it will produce more bhp with less stress
The 82 degree thermostats made a big difference to my running temperature and the big rad was fitted to cover one of my 3 Pintos built for 8k and 170+bhp

In order to truly define 'Hot', you need to qualify it with an independent temperature reading, maybe from one of those Infra Red temperature probe/guns. There are several different colour codes for instrument temperature sender units and they will ALL give different readings on a standard Ford gauge (which is what I am assuming you have).

Over heating issues (especially) on Pinto's have been covered numerous times on here. The basics are :-

Header tank feed MUST be into bottom hose.

Make use of ALL available bleed hoses.

Ensure Water pump working properly.

Ensure Thermostat fitted AND working properly.

Head Gasket not blown or head not cracked (later is MOST unusual and very rare).

Cooling fans working properly.

I personally am using a 2.0EFI pinto on a bog standard Polo rad, the only time I ever had a problem was at first when I DID NOT have the header tank plumbed into the bottom hose. I made use of the bleed hose off the top of the thermostat housing, the bleed return off of top Standard Ford hose, AND the bleed pipe off of the top of the Polo rad, they all 'T' into the return to the top off the header tank.

I made a heat shield to go around the exhaust until it is outside of the engine bay (see photo's in archive) and fitted two Metro bonnet vents at the back of my bonnet (again see archive).

IF you really are struggling on this would it help if I popped round to see you one weekend as I'm only a short way up A6 in Rushden

I'm using an ace well digital dash and sender fitted to th block
Header tank feeds into bottom rad hose
Water pump is a new Ashton racing unit
Rad is new
Thermostat was tested when head gasket was replaced this was first tick over run since rebuild
Bleed t piece fitted in water pump to inlet manifold line
Thermostat bleed t pieced to rad bleed returning back to header tank
Rad fan works and is drawing in air sufficient to hold a iece of card to the rad

I have ordered a 82 degree stat from buttons and will get a lower temp fan switch too

Will run her up later and use a ray gun to take temps and post findings here

Why is this an issue? Stood on your drive with no airflow over the radiator the engine will get hotter and hotter until the rad fan kicks in. In your case 102... This is normal behaviour and will happen even if the thermostat is full open and everything working correctly. If you don't want it to get to 102, use a rad fan switch with a lower temp.

For example my bike will get to 103 sat idling on my drive, then the fan comes on and it drops to 95 or so. Get above 30mph and it will sit at 76 all day.

What happens when you are driving it?

I haven't driven it since the rebuild I thought it should tick over with the fan coming in as req to control the temp otherwise surely it would overheat in traffic

i'm with Ed, it's normal behaviour. My fan switch comes on at 103 and doesn't switch off until it cools to 98. I've been running that setup for the lst 30,000 miles, no problems. As has been said, you only need to worry if you're going above 115°.