MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - Additional electric fan

My TD has a tendancy to overheat when climbing steep mountain roads. And they are plenty in Switzerland!
I am considering to install an additional electric fan to avoid this problem. Which solution do you recommand ? Replace the original 4 blades fan with a 6-8 blades fan ? And then, which model ? Or install an additional fan in front of the radiator? And then, which model ?
Thank you for your advice.
C.M. groucho

CM,
How hot is "a tendancy to overheat" ??

Steve
Steve Wincze

If your car is moving at more than 20mph the cars movement will provide more airflow than the fan.
If your car is properly tuned without any brakes dragging, A re-cored radiator would offer more cooling.
Regards, tom
tm peterson

I was only researching this on the archives last night. Owners tend also to move away from the original steel fans as they can break and do a lot of damage.
The consensus seams to be for the plastic yellow MGB fan. This is an option on the Moss website. It can be painted black. Owners have also installed electric fans. Plenty to read in the archives. I think I will be opting for the plastic fan.
D Lamb

Steve,
When climbing for a long time, temperature may reach 200-210 Fahrenheit. When it happens, I have to stop and let the motor run for a few minutes, then drink a beer, and I can start again. When driving on flat roads, the temperature does not exceed 170 Fahrenheit, even on hot summer days.
Tomorrow I will add a cleaner, then drain the circuit, and replace the liquid. Maybe it will help.

If it doesn't, I may consider re.coring the radiator as suggested by tm peterson.

Thank you guys for the advice.
C.M. groucho

I fitted both the MGB 7 blade plastic fan and an electric fan in front of the radiator. Sounds like overkill, but does have benefits. When I lost a core plug and the coolant temp rocketed, I wanted to stop the engine but continue cooling, that was easy with the electric fan, and probably saved the head gasket.
Dave H
Dave Hill

CM - Conventional wisdom is that an engine is not overheating (regardless of the temperature) as long as coolant is not boiling and overflowing and the engine is not stumbling. Coolant (mixture of water and anti freeze) extends the boiling temperature considerably above that of plain water. Running at 200-210 degrees Fahrenheit should not be a problem if you have a mixture of antifreeze in your cooling system. I have had the temperature in our TD high enough that the gauge was completely off scale while climbing mountain roads in the Western US and the car never missed a beat. Instead of investing in anything more than the 6 - 8 blade plastic fan and perhaps consider having your radiator checked and possibly re-cored. Also check that the coolant passages in your are all clear. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

I have a 3 (or maybe 4) row dimpled core radiator and it is actually a bit too much cooling capacity. I put in a new t stat with the small bleed hole in it and once changed the temp sometimes won't reach operating temperature.

I suggest a new radiator core.

Alex
Alex Waugh

I went thru the same problem with my car. I fitted the MGB fan but it did not solve the problem You need to get the rad re-cored. That's the only solution. Not all that difficult to do.

A
A R Jones

CM, I had a similar problem with overheating. My conclusion was to change the Water pump impeller with a 6 blade type.
Since that I never ever had any problem with engine temperature.
Last year I travel in Switzerland up and down without any problem.
The shown castings are frequently offered in Ebay but need some machining anyway.
Therefore I decided to machine it from a 60 mm bronze round bar. A small company next to my hometown make it for me for a reasonable price.
Good luck
Guenter


GK Guenter

When your car is overheating you really need to find the source of the problem, anything else is just a bandaid. The most major problem is obstruction in the water passages of the engine. If your block is blocked, no other fixes will do anything but mask the problem. If you are certain your block is clean (and the only way to be certain is to open the frost plugs and fish through looking for obstructions) then the second step is to look at the radiator and have it rodded or recored. After that, consider upgrading the water pump to a 6 vane option. Lastly, you can look at the fan.
In my case the car finally overheated until it melted the cam bearings. The engine was so blocked that water simply couldn't circulate. I had flushed it and done everything possible to fix the problem short of removing the block, but it was not enough; 65 years of scaling had added up to create a real problem.
I ended up pulling the block, boiling it twice, and I still was able to pull out gunk from the engine drain hole. Once I had it completely clean, I performed several recommended mods - drilling a small hole in the front, allowing water to circulate to the cylinder sleeves, cleaning out the small hole in the back that was already there, and using a long neck grinder to smooth and clean the passageways at the front and rear where water enters and exits. All these mods can be found in the archives.
Then I removed, unsoldered and rodded the radiator (you can actually do this yourself, check the archives). I had it pressure tested (at low pressure) and reinstalled it. Then I had the water pump rebuilt with a modified, modern 6 vane impeller, offering about 50% improvement on water flow.
Lastly, if you have, or install, a heater, it can act as an additional small radiator, removing heat from the water (and blowing the removed heat out on your leg) and improving cooling.
Geoffrey M Baker

The water pump and fan blades are normally satisfactory with a radiator that does not have any blocked tubes, but there us another area you might check. I suggest you look at the series of photos under the title 'XPAG cooling system' by Gene Gillim, available on the web, and in particulat photos 5 and 6. Each photo shows a wire coming through a small drilled hole approx 1/8" diameter. However, on my engine these are large open waterways, photo 5 coming from the base of the water pump recess, and photo 6 leading to a channel out the rear top of the block into the cylinder head - the coolant flowing from 5 to 6 inside the square section channel on the side of the block. The 1/8" holes are obviously far too small, and I think in the engine shown there were webs of iron incorrectly formed across the two holes or openings, which were not removed after casting. I accept that to check means removing all the manifolding, plus the two core plugs, but any restriction means that the coolant flow will be vastly reduced, so the openings should be cleared using a larger drill, rotary burr or grinding wheel.
Just my thoughts.

I have just read, and agree with, the posting by Geoffrey Baker, which appeared whilst I was writing my missive!
R A WILSON

See http://www.ttalk.info/XPAG_Cooling_System.htm for Gene's article. Bud
Bud Krueger

Fantastic input from Geoffrey, R.A Wilson and Bud!!!
I really appreciate your advice. I thought I could solve the problem with just minor repairs, but it seems logical to clean the block and the radiator, check the pump before adding an electric fan...
Thanks to all of you.
Claude
C.M. groucho

Claude, I had many overheating problems during the Summer in France where it did not get nearly as hot as it does here in St. Louis. I had the original? two row core replaced with a three row and it made all the difference in the world. I use a stock water pump and with a 7 blade MGB plastic fan in place of the original metal version. On Summer days here it is not uncommon to have temperatures in the 90s F with higher temps on the hot concrete highway. My car seldom experiences any tempa above 95C now even up and down hills. We have no real mountain areas here in Missouri but I am sure my three core rad can take it. You can see how many rows of tubes your rad has by looking down in the filler hole. The picture may give you an idea of how the two core version looks.

Jim Merz

This thread was discussed between 06/07/2016 and 10/07/2016

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG TD TF 1500 BBS now