From: Bill Sheehan [email protected]
Date: 13 Oct 2002
Time: 08:31:45
Remote Name: 203.29.131.3
I think I can hear Stuart's brain-gears meshing from here. If it helps at all, Australia was famous after WW2 for the great Racing Specials built here because we couldn't afford or obtain anything else - and I'm not talking about Austin 7s. Many if not most were Ford V8s and every one of them boiled - to the point they were known as Ford Hot-water Services. Bigger & bigger radiators were fitted (and consequently more water volume) with the result the noses of most cars started to look ugly, being cut and made bigger to allow airflow. One driver (and eventually the most successful) was Doug Whiteford whose Ford never boiled. Why? I found out through a contact that he RESTRICTED the pipes, thus slowing down the flow so it got more chance to be cooled as it passed through the rad. Could be worth considering. One Austin 7 special I built here (see Ken Stuchbery's on austin7club website) was later fitted with a 3" core instead of 2" (both modern) and Ken claims his overheating problems vanished overnight. Now work that out - was it the extra water volume or the core itself that did the trick? Cheers, Bill