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Does anybody have experience of waterless coolant?
I have seen some good reviews and some dire reviews , but thought it could be a quick fix to over heating since R&P was fitted .
I’ve had Evans ‘Classic’ waterless coolant in my SP since 2017 with no issues at all.
As I understand it the Evans is pure glycol, so pretty straight forward. It has a much lower specific heat capacity than water, so could potentially cause over heating issue. In practice I’ve had no problems, even in hot (UK) weather.
My incentive for going water-less was to slow potential corrossion of the cylinder heads in particular but also the rest of the cooling circuit. I’ve not had cause to remove the heads (thank goodness) so can’t testify as to whether the lack of H2O is actually making any difference.
It doesn’t seem to be doing any harm though 🙂
Getting the ‘old’ water out of the car is important. I was lucky to be able to take the car was off the road for 3 months. So I drained everything, removed all the hoses and blew air through the engine, etc. for a couple of months as well as using the Evans de-watering fluid after putting everything back together.
Regards, Andrew
I’ve just reread your post: If your’re already having overheating issues going waterless definitely won’t help. If anything it could make it worse.
I have R&P steering and a Kenlowe electric fan and don’t suffer from overheating.
I think you need to work out what’s causing your overheating issues before even considering going waterless
Regards, Andrew
Really helpful thanks
Prior to the R &P being fitted I had the radiator recored and that had the car running in the normal range , and whilst the rad was off I had a kenlowe fitted in anticipation of loosing the old fan.
The car doesn’t boil over but does sit in the 230 f range using Bluecol and distilled water.
Waterless coolant was one idea , the other is to have the rad altered to lower the bottom hose outlet and make use of the full rad……. Need to sort out a longer bottom hose as well.
Could it be the water pump?……. It doesn’t sound noisy .
If the pump’s rotating it’s very unlikely to be the problem. Sounds like the radiator’s effectively new, so also unlikely to be the issue.
I hope these aren’t insultingly obvious but if you haven’t already checked them:-
If it hasn’t actually boiled, is the engine really running hot? The temperature gauge may be inaccurate. Try an IR thermometer to confirm the temp on, say, the metal of the thermostat housing.
If it is running hot, is the Kenlowe fan thermostat set to a sensible temperature?
Is the wax thermostat stuck? Try it in a pan of water on the stove (or just swap in a new one). It should be rated at 82C
Have either of the 2 main hoses delaminated internally ; causing a restriction to flow?
If it’s none of these, I guess it could be scale / debris build up in the block(?)
Maybe other Forum members have additional ideas 🙂
There are a number of design faults /flaws in the SP cooling system.
The radiator: being turned through 90 degrees to fit in the nose. This then causes the outlet to the water pump being somewhat up the side of the radiator, therefore the top of the radiator is hot whilst that section below the outlet pipe is cold – physics, heat rises.
To over come this the outlet pipe needs re-positioning to the lower bottom of the radiator.
There are hoses that are designed to replace that which is in situ, in that it curves around the rack itself and up to the water pump.The water pump : another design l flaw, in that the original has a four vane impellor with only two working as there are intended, the two others being restricted by a machining flaw.
To vastly improve this aspect there is a company in the US that supplies an 8 vane impellor – they will supply a kit so that you can have that installed here (UK) . One needs a constant high flow of water around the block at all times. The only other why if you so care is to fit an electric water pump in the bottom hose.
Thermostat: ensure you have a bellows type not a wax type. The SP water manifold was designed for the bellows type. A bellows when it fails, does so in the open position and water continues its flow, albeit the engine is luke warm and likewise the heater. A waxstat if it fails, does so the the closed position and will blow a hose within the cooling system and 9 times out of 10 it will be the ‘T’ hose under the left hand carburetter – do remember the system is rated at just 7lbs
I have a complete sealed system with an aluminium radiator (fitted with a defuser so that air is directed through the radiator rather than up and over the opening panel) , header and an expansion tank
Recently when out on a rally the outside temperature was hitting 96f and not an issue , I have not added any water in the last two years
Laurence
Thanks for those helpful comments.
I don’t think the waterways are clogged as I had them cleared when I had the engine rebuilt, and I had fresh hoses fitted and a new old stock bellows thermostat, which combined with radiator recore left the engine running at 185 for most of the time.
The R&P install went well and the Kenlowe is set not far off max …..Kenlowe is fitted in front of the rad , but when driving today no matter how fast or slowly she went the temp remained high,
I like having an original rad fitted( when removed for the recore it had a metal tag fitted from a rad repair company that no longer remains based in Manchester)……..so I think relocating the bottom hose at the bottom lets the car hang onto an original part whilst correcting an original flaw…….i will let you know how it goes and if it works.
I am sure when the outlet is re-located to the bottom then a difference will be observed
As an aside the fan should ideally be pulling air not pushing, therefore needs to be inboard of the radiator
Laurence
Just had the radiator back from the engineers.
We talked about lowering the bottom hose to the bottom and all that was involved( including a new hose from the pump)
The solution I have removed the old malleable iron outlet which requires opening the tank as the base of the outlet is soldered to the tank. This revealed a brass strip shroud around the outlet ( now removed) that would have restricted water flow. We then cut a hole at the bottom if the tank , closed the old hole and created a new outlet that terminates where the old outlet used to be , thus requiring no new hose extension or replacement hose.
All in all , a bit of a phaff but retains the original rad and looks at first glance that nothing has changed, and much cooler running.
Have taken a photo of the adaption if anyone is interested.
For the benefit of other owners of the work carried out on “brittish” recently reengineered original radiator to accommodate a much lower outlet point on the radiator.
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