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Triumph TR6 - Hot TR6 !

At last, after 3 or maybe 4 years of body off restoration, my TR6 is back on the road.
I´m in the running in process , and you know, listening every noise and with the eyes more in the dials than in the road.
The car feels very tight, after all the new parts fitted.
But something worries me: the temperature climbs very quickly and stays in the upper part of the scale.
I´m in Barcelona, very warm weather here, but even at night the car stays in the right side ( that happens to be the wrong side ) of the scale.
I´ve taken out the original plastic fan and replaced it with a Kenlowe fan ( pulling in the front ).

Do I have to place the original fan back ?

I have to thank all of you for the help, specially to Nelson Riddle for the usefull ( and sometimes humorous ) information about overdrives: I´ve dimantled the unit, changed the 11 "O rings", and put it back all together following his instructions, and it works.

Regards

C Suarez

Kenlowe fans can operate either direction depending how you connect the wires. Maybe your fan is connected wrong. If so, it is trying to force the air back out the engine compartment - back out through the grille. If so, reverse the connections. Turn it on with the engine compartment open and you can feel that it is blowing air in the correct direction.

If all that is OK, maybe the gauge is out of calibration. With the engine not too hot, carefully remove the filler cap for the radiator, and let the engine keep running. Put a thermocouple into the top of the radiator and compare the actual rad temperature with the dial on the dashboard. Maybe the needle became bent or mis-adjusted when it was being cleaned or restored.

Maybe your thermostat is defective. Maybe it needs to be replaced. Many people remove the thermostat when they have overheating problem but all this does is let the hot water from the engine flow too quickly through the rad and it goes back into the engine while it is still hot. The restriction of the t/stat slows down the water flow and lets the water cool off in the rad because the water is in the rad for a longer time.
Don Elliott

Hay C
How about some pictures of her?
Rick C
Rick Crawford

Don, thanks for your answer. The fan is blowing in the right direction. A guy in a garage was reading the temperature ( with a let´s call "external-pistol-laser", I don´t know how acurate ), and the reading was about 85ºC.
Anyway, what do you think about the original fan, should I put it back ?
C Suarez

I left the original fan in my TR3A and installed the Kenlowe fan in front of the radiator blowing from the grille into the front of the rad. I only need to use the fan when I am stopped for 5 minutes or more in stop and go traffic. There is a disadvantage with this. The fan in front of the rad blocks the air flow from the grille to the rad and the temperature can be higher sooner that if it was not there or mounted behind the rad. The advantage is that concours judges do not see the Kenlowe fan.

Being a TR3A owner, I'll leave your question about putting the original fan back in for TR6 owners.

http://www.triumphest2006.com/images/clubcars/30donelliott'str3.jpg
Photo taken when I drove to Colorado in 2001 (5250 miles round trip)
Don Elliott

Thanks Don, I´ll put the fan back on the car and see what happens. I didnt restore the dial but changed the temperature sender unit, maybe that´s the reason of the diferent reading.

Nice car and nice color. I woukd like to do my next project in a TR3.
C Suarez

Sound like a faulty sender unit to me :)
Eric de Lange

Try changing the voltage stabilizer..[on back of speedometer], could be a problem here.Does the fuel guage seem normal?

Buena suerte.

Dale

Dale

IF YOU HAVE A FAULTY READING TEMP AND FUEL GAUGE, THEN LOOK TO THE STABALIZER, I REPLACED MINE THIS YEAR WITH A SOLID STATE UNIT FROM THE uk (ABOUT 7 DOLLARS) AND IT CORRECTED MY FALSE READINGS AND I HAVE PEACE OF MIND KNOWING IT IS A LOT LESS SUSCEPTABLE TO VIBRATION AND RUST...

BOB
Bob Craske

After posting my thread, i went to the archives and found all the subjects about stabilizers and sender units( grounding included). The fuel gauge looks like reading OK ( except for the quickly that goes from full to empty , in comparison to my diesel everyday car ).
I put back the original fan, changed the thermostat for a cooler one, and will check this week end. If this doesn´t work. I will go for the sender and/or the stabilizer.
Thanks for your comments.
C Suarez

Ok. With the Kenlowe and the original fan, plus replacing the thermoste valve for a 160 º, the car runs much cooler ( between half and 3/4 of the scale )

The only thing that worries me is that I made the first 500 Km with the engine very hot.

So, the advice could be: if you live in a warm area, in adition of the electric fan, keep the original one.
C Suarez

This thread was discussed between 03/10/2006 and 09/10/2006

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