Show whole topic Aug 02, 2011 6:59 am
Julian Offline
Member
Registered since: Dec 04, 2007
Location: Belgium


Subject: Re: M45 Cooling Improvments
Hi Bill,
Interesting!
Only comments I have is that in my experience neither the Three litre or the 4.5 Meadows show much cooling problems in "standard tune" setup and manage generally ok as long as the rads are clean. The 3 litre does suffer when power goes up though and you have to be rather aware that the temp gauge is not telling the whole story either when driving hard. Or stuck in traffic with either a standard or tuned engine as the block has very poor water flow and is actually "thermosyphon".
4.5s generally don't "show" cooling issues until it's too late, the temp gauge reads fine and all will be well "until" it picks up a piston for no apparent reason! this is usually down to stagnant flow around certain cylinders. Clean blocks and heads, clean radiators etc all help a great deal and in general and in standard form and normal driving conditions we have little problems with any setup.
We find problems occur most when people expect a little too much from a 70 year old design and drive as they would in their Audi. Or go racing! then we really need to know the truth about the complete engine temp, not just the rad header tank!
I think Bill, people like your self who have rather a good knowledge of the vehicles you drive have little problems with any of this because experience plays so much in driving these old cars and keeping your selves out of trouble areas. Monitoring gauges and listening to sounds, and above all "knowing what those sounds are from experience"

Julian.