Getting all hot and bothered!

[FridgeFreezer]

Depending on pennies, you could do worse than look at a custom rad like mine & Nige's - wide spaced fins, wide thick cores - doesn't clog up with mud, stands up to a pressure washer, holds loads more water than a stock one. Cost about £250 but that's made from scratch and it cools the 4.6 nicely.

[nas90]

sorry, i mean the gauges are the same part no.!

Yes, it cant be in the heater side of the plumbing as my vaporizer would freeze and it doesn't.

Got the spare rad cap out of my old rad so going to stick that in once i've easy outed the bloody old one!

Must be a circulation problem so going to try the rad once i have some cash.

Had a look on the Famous Four web site and found a nice one with an oil cooler built in! Anyone tried one?

When i put water through the rad it took a while to work its way through- might have loads of rot etc inside the core.

Thanks again!

Paul

Paul, until you are absolutely certain you have a good radiator you will be going round in circles trying to fix a problem that is staring you in the face. Save up your pennies go get a nice new one from preferably Land Rover since it will not be a Chinese copy. If you then still have over-heating problems (which I will doubt) then you can be certain that you need to look at fan / pump / thermostat.....................

In your original post you said worked fine when you installed engine then started to get worse, probably as the gunge inside started to block the waterways. Having run V8's for 25 years they do like a rad that can keep them cool.

[dirtbox]

Yeah, I agree with the rad situation.

I'l stick it on my Christmas list!

What are the thoughts on Ali rads?

Do they actually last any longer and for the extra cash, what benefits do you get????

Went for a spin earlier without any thermostat and it was fine, although a bit cold!

had a worrying white exhaust smoke when first started but once she finally warmed up it looked fine, think she is running a bit rich at the mo on gas though cause i cant be arsed with paying to get exhaust gas analyzed!

Many thanks yet again, not only for the great advice but also the friendly support!

Paul

[FridgeFreezer]

I opted out of buying an ali rad when I saw how hard it is to repair one. They're undoubtedly more efficient and lighter though.

Why pay to get exhaust gas analysed? £5 gets you a lambda sensor, £3.99 gets you a multimeter - voila! Welcome to the 20th century

[ThreeSheds]

Why pay to get exhaust gas analysed? £5 gets you a lambda sensor, £3.99 gets you a multimeter - voila! Welcome to the 20th century

What a great suggestion! And so useful for so many situations! Beats buying a Colortune any day

Not wishing to hijack the thread (I think that this is relevant? ) and if it's not too much trouble, could you confirm (or correct or criticize) the following which I gleaned from a 1/2 hour web-based investigation and a little thought on the subject:

It appears that any old sensor would (once over 300^o C) give 0.45v if the mixture is ok, 0.2v means lean and 0.8v indicates rich. This would probably have only one wire (if a non-heated type) and would be available on most injected scrappers of the mid nineties.

Since I don't have a lambda sensor on mine (and hence no tapped hole) I would be thinking to cut out a section of exhaust with attached sensor from a scrapper Ford, Vauxhall or whatever (doesn't matter), cut a hole in the side of my pipe and then weld the mounting in complete with sensor...

Alternatively - is it possible to use a heated sensor just stuffed up the tailpipe of a non-cat system?

TwoSheds

[dirtbox]

Why pay to get exhaust gas analysed? £5 gets you a lambda sensor, £3.99 gets you a multimeter - voila! Welcome to the 20th century

forgive my thickness but is it as simple as fitting lambada to exhaust, and the multi meter will automatically adjust the power valve?

[FridgeFreezer]

Not quite - you weld the boss into the exhaust, screw the lambda sensor in and then the voltage it puts out will be 0-1v. 0v is very lean, 1v is very rich, 0.454v is 14.7:1 air fuel ratio. The multimeter is just to display the volts, to be bling you could use one of these gauges:

They're not mega-bucks from most "tunin' and stylin' and loud stereos innit" type places, I think Halfords may even sell them. Ignore the b*ll*cks about accuracy, the only accurate reading is at 0.454v, otherwise all you can tell is it's a bit/quite/very rich or lean, but frankly for a carb setup that should be plenty.

[nas90]

Yeah, I agree with the rad situation.

I'l stick it on my Christmas list!

What are the thoughts on Ali rads?

Do they actually last any longer and for the extra cash, what benefits do you get????

Went for a spin earlier without any thermostat and it was fine, although a bit cold!

had a worrying white exhaust smoke when first started but once she finally warmed up it looked fine, think she is running a bit rich at the mo on gas though cause i cant be arsed with paying to get exhaust gas analyzed!

Many thanks yet again, not only for the great advice but also the friendly support!

Paul

Get a rad from Land Rover.

It will be the correct design for a V8

It will be sized for your vehicle

Plenty of contributors here can get you part numbers

It will cost you more but how much time and effort and other spare parts have you already suffered........................

[FridgeFreezer]

Twosheds - you were obviously typing as I was replying

Yes an unheated 1-wire one would be fine, although they're actually pretty rare nowadays (most are heated). You can use a heated one without connecting the heater, it will work the same, although for the sake of two wires I'd run it heated.

You're right on the mounting - hack 6" of exhaust out at the scrappy with a sensor in it, cut a lump out and weld it on. It's how I do mine.

Sensor up the tailpipe I'm not so sure about, I wouldn't guarantee it'd work.

[ThreeSheds]

Ok - I've done a little more research on lambda sensors so I thought I'd report it here in case anyone is interested in fitting one as a mixture strength indicator like FridgeFreezer suggested:

On a heated sensor, the heater current is maximum at startup, when it will probably be around 5 amps.

The sensor can be placed anywhere in the exhaust system EXCEPT within 3ft of the engine, for fear of overheating; or 3ft of the outlet for fear of picking up false readings due to atmospheric contamination. Likewise care should be taken not to site it near to a leaking pipe joint which may admit air.

The sensor should be positioned so that it is neither pointing vertically up or down, but should have it's sensing tip pointing generally downwards to allow condensation to clear.

A heated sensor will read correctly in room temperature gasses.

The operating temperature range for an unheated sensor it approximately 300^oC to 800^oC.

Mis-fires will cause the sensor to read lean.

Not completely sure on this last point but it appears that the output voltage will vary, reading alternately high and then low on roughly a one second period and so needs damping or averaging somehow (even if only by eye). Perhaps somebody could clear this up please?

Hope this helps anyone thinking of going down this route.

TwoSheds

[RRX]

Save up for a proper Wideband kit if your wanting to properly monitor exhaust gasses. I use the LM1 from www.innovatemotorsports.com and have saved many a tuned car from going pop as a narrowband guage cannot give anywhere near the accuracy needed.

[FridgeFreezer]

RRX - widebands are nice, and essential for turbo tuning, but for seeing if your carbs are over or under fuelling a narrow band will be fine. A carb is one up from an abacus so why bolt a pentium chip to one

[muddy]

A carb is one up from an abacus so why bolt a pentium chip to one

Since when were you the bling police?

I dont know whether this has been covered before but has anyone ever looked at whether any rads off plant fill the lr gaps nicley? I know the one on our telehandler is very thick and open cored like yours john would be ideal if it would fit, possibly cheaper than a custom jobby?

will.

[FridgeFreezer]

Since when were you the bling police?

Not bling, just expensive

I is all about bling, innit?

[Jon White]

I've got an uprated V8 radiator for sale if you need a known good one. Its a TD one (the largest capacity available) thats been modified for the V8 and re-cored.

Have a flick back through the classifieds or PM me for further details.

Jon

[dirtbox]

well, looks like a trip to the local scrapper for a lambda then!

thanks again for the posts, that has been really helpful! :D

Paul

[Bull Bar Cowboy]

OK ……………… that’s a either a Range Rover or early disco engine …………..so if you have the range rover temperature sender in the manifold and a defender gauge, then yes, it will read hot ……… it will normally sit at about ¾ and then rise into the red when you work the engine a bit hard or you are sat in traffic.

It may not have shown up originally if the thermostat was a bit tired and opening early …….

Best plan is to get an after market gauge and then you will be able to see the actual temperature …….. Racetech gauges are not the best ………. Try to get something half reasonable like Autometer (from Real Steel) or VDO (loads of suppliers sell them).

IIRC the sender thread is 5/8 UNF so you will also need and adaptor …….. VDO senders will be metric and autometer are 1/8npt.

The thermostat on that engine (assuming the rocker covers are original) is 88C ………. The normal operating temperature will be 88 – 90 C

Post up the engine number …………..that way se can tell what it came from ……… by the looks, it seems to be a late carbed engine………….maybe 84 – 86

The other thing that causes hot running is a weak mixture and / or very retarded ignition timing.

Ian

[dirtbox]

Is from a Ex RAF 110 as far as i know and is 1993.

The reason its run on carbs is because any electronic devices, i.e. An EFI unit, would cause massive radio interference or the radio would interfere with the EFI.

Hence the weird dizzy and leads i had on it when i got it!

I recently changed my dizzy, coil, leads etc because of running my gas kit that i fitted was becoming a pain in the arse due to crappy ignition.

When i changed the dizzy i re-set the ignition timing to 8 deg b.t.d.c for the gas. It was 6 as the book says it should be.

Just for the record, it was getting hot before any of this!

Thanks for the ideas anyway, I did think the gauge could be suspect but due to the temp shown without a stat and the actual temp in the top hose, its got to be a circulation problem.

Cheers Ian for your thoughts,

Paul :) :)