Hello my learned friends on here.
Following my recent chain tensioner and brake problems I have been road-testing the Elan and seemed to find the engine very hot after a brief run even though the new gauge registered only 80 degrees centigrade. I then tested the new gauge by immersing the capillary end in just boiled tap water and it registered only 87 degrees and then dropped slowly back. Bearing in mind that the water should have been close to 100 degrees do you think that this gauge is faulty?
Sadly, it’s common on Smiths gauges to be inaccurate. Is it new or old?
Do you have a surface thermometer or IR pyrometer to check temperature coming from the head or returning from the radiator to the water pump? That differential will tell you if your radiator is cooling properly.
Which cooling fan are you using?
Gauge is new from one of the usual suppliers in UK. Doesn’t say Smiths but looks identical.
Unfortunately I don’t have a thermometer nor a pyrometer.. The rad is three core and not that old, it was cooling correctly before the last gauge packed up. I use the original style electric fan for an S4 SE Elan. Should I suspect the thermostat perhaps ?
I don’t think you need to suspect the thermostat. In the time that it took to get the kettle from the kitchen and dunk the capillary end in the water the temperature would have dropped from 100 deg C, the gauge then needs time to respond so 87 deg C may well be right.
Does your wife have a jam thermometer which you could borrow to check the water in the kettle temperature?
What made you think the engine was very hot after your brief run?
Mike
I actually boiled the kettle in the garage and dipped the capillary almost immediately.
the engine felt almost scalding after a run.
Yes, probably not the thermostat as the rad also felt very hot.
No jam thermometer I’m afraid.
Donald
I agree with Mike. Boiling water looses temperature quite quickly from kitchen to garage. I use an alcohol in glass thermometer from scientific laboratory supplies, this is the kind of thing you might have used in school physics and chemistry labs. These thermometers can be checked domestically, by boiling and freezing and will sit in the vessel of hot water that you are using to check the gauge.
Hope this helps,
Richard Hawkins
Donald,
In the spirit of ‘for what its worth’ - and assuming your location is Dorset in the UK, this isn’t going to be much of a problem, but for the Americans on here who live at altitude, the boiling point of water drops by approx 1 degree C for every 300m of elevation. I live close to one of the highest points in Surrey, so my water boils at 99.1C.
Probably an apocryphal tale, but Sir Edmund Hillary was supposed to have commented that the worst part of climbing Everest was that he couldn’t make a decent cup of tea. Water boils at 70 degrees C at the peak of Everest.
Equally, the 10psi rad cap on the Elan will raise the boiling point of the water in the cooling system to 117 degrees C (at sea level).
Thanks to all. I shall try to obtain an ethanol thermometer and take it from there.
Not a good idea to plunge it into boiling water, you may well have damaged the gauge.
My refurbished gauge came with label warning against doing that and an A I search comes up with an explanation.
Horse/stable door etc. But, thanks for that info anyway, oldelanman.
