Hello all. I'm back.

Shazzbat

New Member
Sorry for such a long time not attending this forum. I've been moving home and you know how time consuming and tiring this is!

Well, back to normality now. For those of you who already have me forgotten, I remind you that I am the only owner of a P6 in Spain (as far as I know). Very proud of it, indeed!

Looking for some help from your side, once again. As you know the P6 suffers from overheating issues, much more when the car is driven in the scorching Spanish summer.

I took the radiator off to the workshop for flushing, renewal, revamping, restoring... call it at your own. Slightly improved but not enough; as soon as the outside temperature reaches over 28º, the temp gauge falls right to the red. And you know that reaching 28º is very easy over here.

My plan is to swap the old one for a new, or more precisely, for another radiator coming from a modern car... And here's where my question comes up.

What car do you already know which radiator could fit to the P6? Did any of you get this job done already?

I went to the scrapyard this morning, but it's difficult to find a suitable one when just browsing.

Your help would be really much appreciated.


Thanks and Merry Christmas


Regz
 
Hi, I can't help with a specific alternative, but I can offer guidance on finding
one. The size of the rad is defined by the amount of heat it has to deal with
which is almost directly proportional to the power of the engine, so you need
one from a more powerful or larger capacity car than your's. The other problem
is the physical size, you need to take the dimensions of the space available.
Modern cars usually have wide, low height radiators. Have you considered a
V8 radiator, or having you existing rad rebuilt with a extra row core?

So, having given you more problems than answers :wink: Good luck!

Colin
 
Hi,
The first thing that you should do is to verify that the temperature gauge readings correspond to the actual temperature of the coolant. Sometimes this is not the case, due to an incorrect replacement temperature sender unit. In order to do this, you can use an infrared thermometer, or the thermometer function of a multimeter. Simply point the infrared or tape the contact of the multimeter sensor to the cylinder head, next to the temperature sender, and see if the readings match the readings of the car temperature gauge at various points, from cold to hot. If there is a mismatch, you need to fit the correct sender unit. One of the usual P6 specialists in UK should help.
If all is well with the readings, but you are still not happy with the running temperature, then you can fit a new 3 row core into the existing header tanks of the standard 4 cyl 2 row radiator. I am sure you can find a radiator shop near you that can tackle this job. It's easy, relatively not too expensive, and you will practically have a new, much more bigger radiator, that fits like the standard one. I have done this in my TC, and never had any temperature problems since, even in the most difficult conditions. It is something well worth doing in hot climates.

Demetris
 
Have you had the sideplates off the engine recently? It's amazing how much sludge accumulates behind. This reduces the coolant capacity significantly so the coolant you have in there has to work much harder.
 
The owner of the scrapyard is looking for something, while, to be honest, I do not expect any success.

The gauge works perfectly. This summer we drove along a mountain pass 1500 m over the sea level (35º outside) and when the gauge reached the red zone, I stopped the car and she started to give off steam like a XIX century locomotive. For sure the gauge is accurate!
Anyway thanks for your advise, Demetris, row cores is something to be tried out if...

If sideplates cleaning doesn't work!

I think Tom hit the mark. I brought the car here from Britain in Dec 2009, and summer 2010 was OK. Problem appeared suddenly in May/Jun 2011. The only explanation is that sludge on the sideplates is well over the limit now but wasn't one and a half years ago.

I will try out sideplates cleaning. I will tell here the result.

Thanks. All the best.


Regz
 
Don't forget the small plate on the back of the cylinder head too. Taking off the side plates is a fiddly job but possible with the engine in situ. I did mine this summer. On both sides, the engine mount arms have to come off. I left the oil pump in place on the driver's side (rhd) but removed the filter for better access. Just cover over the filter mount so you don't get any contamination on the oil. On the passenger side, I had to remove the inlet and exhaust manifolds. Mine is a TC, SC inlet manifolds are cast in with the head so don't come off. The starter and alternator can stay in place but removing them makes cleaning the dirt off the outside of the block easier. As the job is so awkward I'd replace the plates if you're in any doubt as to their condition. They rot out from the inside and will eventually leak. Decent quality antifreeze, regularly replaced should help stop this happening again.

Cheers,

Tom
 
Have a look at the following.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6284&p=38956&hilit=Jegs+radiator#p38956

This would work if you car has the later horizontal flow radiator.

By flushing your radiator do you mean a full cleanout, taking off one of the tanks, and rodding out the radiator by a radiator repair shop?

Also how old is you bottom radiator hose. Could it be collapsing when the motor is running with thermostat fully open? This can happen if the hose is old.

What thermostat are you running? Have you checked its function?

Which year is your car? The newer models tend to run warmer due to crankcase gas recirculation. Automatics run warmer as well. If you are running an automatic in a warm climate then you should have a 160 degree high flow thermostat.

James.
 
Hello James. My P6 is a 2200 SC first registered in January 1974. It's manual while the engine was swapped some years ago for one corresponding to an automatic model. They are identical apart from gearbox connection. Hoses were changed by that date, around three years ago.

Thermostat is new. I bought it from Wins some months ago and fitted to the car in October.

Radiator was taken out from the car and brought to a repair shop, dismantled, cleaned and welded again. I need to replace it in the future anyway, but for the time being I am pretty sure that the cooling system is plenty of sludge.

I keep on informing.


Regardz
 
Hi Shazzbat. Glad to see you back after all this time and hope the move went well :) .
You said that you had tried flushing radiator but what about the engine block? Maybe if you flush your engine with flushing agent that is suitable for alloy engines. This might get some of the deposists out of you engine block?
 
After a short visit to the workshop this morning, we agree to look for a radiator which could be suitable for the car. We think that we have found a good one in the scrapyard, coming from a FIAT 124. That of the FIAT 131 will be even better as water capacity is higher, but still looking for one.

Flushing the complete block was also in our minds, but the problem is that the flushing agent could be very aggresive for the gaskets, not forgetting that the sludge could be thoroughly stuck to the block and tough like a stone. Very low chances of getting something good from that without getting the engine out of the bay.

Regz
 
Shazzbat said:
... coming from a FIAT 124. ... FIAT 131 ...

I hope that you are talking about the 2 litre twin cam versions. Otherwise it will be a waste of time and money.
But these then are very rare!
My money is still on converting the standard radiator to a 3 row core. No need to mess about with the mountings.
 
mine was a bugger for over heating. i took the side plate off cleaned the sludge out, replaced with a brand new one, replaced the radiator with a new uprated one. set the timing to book, played with the mixture to not so lean, and the main thing for me that made the difference was to buy a rare 6 bladed fan from the canadian rover club!! it screwed straight into place where the 4 blade goes. I also bent a slightly better curve onto the blades then put the four blade where it was meant to be.. the bin. I have heard about high volume flow thermostats..... but after months of searching drew a blank. that may be an impossibility. last place i got close to finding one was australia but as i say i never managed to get one just found a company that no longer existed.
These changes worked for me!

If i had to do it again i would just fit a P6 V8 radiator if they fit.
 
what even with different aftermarket or soured hoses? that you surely would need if your robbing a new different car of a rad? I Whent straight for the correct rad but seemed to be space for one?
Less the inlet and outlet are opposites??
:mrgreen:
 
Well, eventually I fitted a radiator taken out from a SEAT (FIAT) 124. It's a three core one and it seems to work fine. It's not important the engine displacement, but the radiator capacity, and that of the SEAT is higher than that of the P6. Also this SEAT's is well cared and the old Rover's was spoiled.

Anyway the outside temp this afternoon was -2º C so no chance for the engine to overheat!

I will have a new try when the outside temperature rises a little.

I have to change the points too. After cleaning and adjustment they can last for some months, but in the end I'll have to change them. I think that the best I can do is to order a new set from Winsintltd. The problem is that I am going to pay more for the shipment than for the part itself (fortunately I do not need anything else!)


Regz
 
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