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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - mgb v8 cooling

got buick 215 in a 71 mgb having trouble keeping it cool, have 4 row rad strech 3 inches down and single elec fan whats the solution?
sjs sjostedt

Assuming your motor is in tune and all the mechanicals, pump etc are OK. You can ,
Close couple the fan (no air gaps between Fan shroud and radiator)I used an old windscreen rubber surround to seal the edge.
You need a shroud or some sort of ducting cos the air doesn't want to go through the radiator, would much rather go around because of the steep heat gradient.
Idealy place the fan behind, not infront of the radiator. Fan behind & you get the full pi R squared circle of cooling, fan in-front & you get a reduced donut shaped area of cooling (edge effects and fan motor in the middle detracts).
If that doesn't work cut RV8 style manifold exits in the inner guards. The wheel arches are a low pressure area. When my fan switches on hot air pours out of the wheel arches, you can actually see a shimmering heat haze.
As a last resort (because of the expense) get an alloy radiator. Mine cost $600 Australian (about $300US) and I got it from Race radiators, who make them especially for MG Workshops.I'll get you their number if you're interested.

In my car I cut out the front tray to level with the upper slam pannel and put in a big Alloy radiator, I attached a 16inch fan to the back of it. This I now believe was overkill, but it works to perfection on even the hottest days (45degrees C in peak hour traffic is a pretty tough test).

Actually when I first set this up I had the fan running backways, and it took a little while to figure out the problem...doh!.


Peter

Even the UK factory V8 has twin fans and needed them, but these are unshrouded pushers and not very efficient. The RV8 used a close-coupled very large single puller with shroud and was much more efficient. The biggest difference on mine was cleaning up all the fan electrical connections, giving each fan its own heavy gauge, short, ground wire and taking a heavy gauge brown direct from the spare output spade on the alternator direct to the fan relay. All that was to try and improve the cooling when stuck in traffic, it was fine when underway, when is yours giving you problems?
Paul Hunt

Paul.

I still think backward-facing louvres on the bonnet are the answer...........People seldom seem to have problems when on the move but the heat gets trapped when stopped.....there's not much room for it to escape around the engine and gearbox......you should see the heat haze coming from the louvres on my car when stopped,with the fan running...but the water temp. soon returns to normal as soon as we are on the move again.

Mike
Michael barnfather

I don't know how hot you mean by hot but my motor definitely seems to put out more oomph when it's nice and hot, like 210. At 185 it just isn't hot enough to really go. Or so it seems to me, having tried many variations and done many timed runs. I ended up putting in a 195 thermostat and that does seem to help. I think with a 15# rad cap the water temp has to be around 240-250 before you need to worry about it boiling over. So relay, and enjoy!
Ted

I maintain that overheating is much less of an issue with a decent engine driven fan.
Carl

This thread was discussed on 28/03/2003

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