The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 10:59 pm 
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With Steve's (Carledo) words just read about Dolly owners flapping about engine temperature all of the time (it was you lot that put the fear of god into me in the first place!) I won't be mentioning that my Sprint is still running really hot (bugger, sorry). I've put a brand new thermostat in it, a Febi 81°C meant for a SAAB according to the 'no reg, no part' excuse of a motor factors I have locally. This has improved warm up and I think helped cooling. The old one was a 'Waxstat' and looked pre-war, are they even still going?

I can see why everyone says a header tank helps with cooling, my 21 year old 3 Litre turbo diesel Daihatsu never gets hot, stays at the same temperature as if the needle was glued there even after a long run into heavy traffic in 28°C heat but noticed today that a huge junk of the radiator fins have oxidised away! Now this radiator is no bigger than the Sprints, looks thinner too and together with an viscous engine fan is still keeping things perfectly cool. The big difference is capacities, the Daihatsu at 10.6 litres of water is double that of the Sprint's so I'm guessing it's all about the doubled thermal mass at play.

A weird thing that I've noticed is that sometimes the steering goes all, well, tight in a smooth sort of notchy way, like pushing something heavy on ice, takes a shove to move but then suddenly slides about jerkily is the only terrible analogy I can think of! Even odder is that it only seems to do this when the radiator fan has been running for awhile, so I'm guessing blowing hot air at the rack perhaps? I dunno, it's weird, anyone had something similar?

Actually, more heat questions, everything seems to go wobbly with the handling in this weather, is this just a sign of old bushings going soft in the heat? Lot of clonking and juddering when pulling away as well, yet again only in this really hot weather we're having at the minute.

The PO notes said that they had replaced all of the springs and shocks but I do find the car walloway in corners. Not only that but the offside front makes a rubbing sound under hard cornering so unless my memory is playing tricks and modern cars have coloured my opinion I remember Dolomites as being taught firm handling, should I be looking at replacing the springs?

Speaking of heat, as I was sat in the car my svelte derriere (or honking great big fat arse, YMMV) felt itself slowly sinking, so hopefully the club has a seat diaphragm left as I think mine melted.

That just leaves the daisy...
Code:
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                  __   /   \   __
                 (  `'.\   /.'`  )
                  '-._.(;;;)._.-'
                  .-'  ,`"`,  '-.
                 (__.-'/   \'-.__)/)_
                       \   /\    / / )
                        '-'  |   \/.-')
                        ,    | .'/\'..)
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                          \|/    _,
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Current fleet: '75 Sprint, '73 1850, Daihatsu Fourtrak, Honda CG125, Yamaha Fazer 600, Shetland 570 (yes it's a boat!)

Past fleet: Triumph 2000, Lancia Beta Coupe, BL Mini Clubman, Austin Metro, Vauxhall Cavalier MK1 & MK2, Renault 18 D, Rover 216 GSI, Honda Accord (most expensive car purchase, hated, made out of magnetic metal as only car I've ever been crashed into...4 times), BMW 318, Golf GTi MK3 16v x 3


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:14 pm 
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Quote:
I can see why everyone says a header tank helps with cooling, my 21 year old 3 Litre turbo diesel Daihatsu never gets hot, stays at the same temperature as if the needle was glued there even after a long run into heavy traffic in 28°C heat but noticed today that a huge junk of the radiator fins have oxidised away! Now this radiator is no bigger than the Sprints, looks thinner too and together with an viscous engine fan is still keeping things perfectly cool. The big difference is capacities, the Daihatsu at 10.6 litres of water is double that of the Sprint's so I'm guessing it's all about the doubled thermal mass at play.

That just leaves the daisy...
Code:
                          .-.
                  __   /   \   __
                 (  `'.\   /.'`  )
                  '-._.(;;;)._.-'
                  .-'  ,`"`,  '-.
                 (__.-'/   \'-.__)/)_
                       \   /\    / / )
                        '-'  |   \/.-')
                        ,    | .'/\'..)
                        |\   |/  | \_)
                        \ |  |   \_/
                         | \ /
                          \|/    _,
                           /  __/ /
                          | _/ _.'
                          |/__/
                           \
Hmmm, not sure about the daisy (lovely though it is), but 1990's Mazdas fit an 'idiot' gauge which indicates a constant temperature until everything's gone horribly wrong. Are you certain that Daihatsu didn't fit something similar?
I would much rather a gauge which responds to constant fluctuations of temperature. If it consistently over-reads, have you tried swapping the voltage regulator?

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1980 Dolomite 1850HL Auto
1977 Dolomite 1500


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:29 pm 
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Oh, no, the Daihatsu does all the in between steps from cold to not perfectly and it did once rise past normal when I was towing a tonnes worth of boat up an extremely long hill in peak summer weather at 60mph. I was more making the point that a 21 year old vehicle with an impaired radiator, no header tank and a viscous fan cools itself perfectly and the only real difference (I know petrol engines generate more heat than diesel) is the vast capacity differences. In this weather my Sprint temps climb alarmingly in traffic even with the fan on full, the car runs on when stopped and the fuel is evaporating out of the carbs quicker than I can say Peter Piper pecked a pick of pickled pigs, or something like that.

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Current fleet: '75 Sprint, '73 1850, Daihatsu Fourtrak, Honda CG125, Yamaha Fazer 600, Shetland 570 (yes it's a boat!)

Past fleet: Triumph 2000, Lancia Beta Coupe, BL Mini Clubman, Austin Metro, Vauxhall Cavalier MK1 & MK2, Renault 18 D, Rover 216 GSI, Honda Accord (most expensive car purchase, hated, made out of magnetic metal as only car I've ever been crashed into...4 times), BMW 318, Golf GTi MK3 16v x 3


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:10 am 
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If the car runs on after switch off? It could just be as simple as to high a tickover or not letting it rest for a few seconds before turning off. Nice daisy by the way :lol:

Tony.

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:46 am 
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Maybe you have 1850 rad installed? Post a picture square on to the fins...

Plenty of diaphragms in stock I believe...


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:48 am 
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A reminder.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 9:03 am 
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Notchy steering sounds like the coupling, but then how that would link to the fan running I have no idea?!
I've always been a temperature worryer, but my first car (1978 Land Rover Lightweight) had "issues" and if you didn't watch it like a hawk on long journeys you could end up boiling over.
In the Spitfire I've managed to distract myself from worrying about the temp so much by installing an oil pressure gauge to focus my worrying on. :wink:

To me it sounds like your rad might be clagged up or something?

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 12:32 pm 
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Only runs on when the weather is hot and the gauge shows hot (though not panic hot), and to be fair to the car, when it's <21°C it handles fine and not a peep out of the engine, almost like two different cars! If anything it struggles to get up to temperature in the colder months which is one of the reasons for the new stat.

Good point about the coupling, I'd assumed it was the rack itself, I'll take a look later on at the coupling, maybe it's binding when it gets hot and somehow the fan is blowing hot air down that direction?

I've reversed flushed everything through a couple of times, on both occasions the water has come out clear. Times when I've done this in the past on other cars it always came out heavy with sediment. I'm sure i've used a descaler (Holts not Oust!) in the past but maybe not, I should keep notes. Certainly the hoses are almost as hot at the top as they are at the bottom. I've posted about this before, and I think the consensus was the radiator might not be a Sprint one, or at least an aftermarket less efficient Sprint one. The recommendation back then was the sensible one of fitting an expansion header tank but I'm sort of resisting that as it feels like it is masking an issue that should be dealt with.

Thanks Alun, pair of diaphragm's ordered. I reckon it's all the people that sit in the car and exclaim how lovely the seats are whilst bouncing up and down as if they've discovered the first ever in-car trampoline...

Surprisingly difficult to take a picture of a radiator, focus past the fins seems to work best.
Image
Got some protein stuck to the front!
Image

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Current fleet: '75 Sprint, '73 1850, Daihatsu Fourtrak, Honda CG125, Yamaha Fazer 600, Shetland 570 (yes it's a boat!)

Past fleet: Triumph 2000, Lancia Beta Coupe, BL Mini Clubman, Austin Metro, Vauxhall Cavalier MK1 & MK2, Renault 18 D, Rover 216 GSI, Honda Accord (most expensive car purchase, hated, made out of magnetic metal as only car I've ever been crashed into...4 times), BMW 318, Golf GTi MK3 16v x 3


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:54 pm 
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Yep, reckon that's 1850 rad. A Sprint one has an extra fin per inch which makes a significant difference

Image

I can find you a second hand Sprint rad if you want to test my theory without significant expense...


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 2:38 pm 
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I was looking at the picture of one RobSport have, really hard to tell, but your picture does seem to show a lot denser fin spacing. Google searching for radiators just seems to show pictures of modern aluminium ones. Looking around they can be got for around a couple of hundred but I might be in the same boat, think I'll take you up on your offer Alun, my bank account is not looking that healthy at the minute!

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Current fleet: '75 Sprint, '73 1850, Daihatsu Fourtrak, Honda CG125, Yamaha Fazer 600, Shetland 570 (yes it's a boat!)

Past fleet: Triumph 2000, Lancia Beta Coupe, BL Mini Clubman, Austin Metro, Vauxhall Cavalier MK1 & MK2, Renault 18 D, Rover 216 GSI, Honda Accord (most expensive car purchase, hated, made out of magnetic metal as only car I've ever been crashed into...4 times), BMW 318, Golf GTi MK3 16v x 3


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 9:51 pm 
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Triumph cars historically have a tendency towards marginal cooling systems. I guess that since I have had a Triumph of one sort or another round me for most of my 45 year+ motoring career, I have become blase about it!

I have a tendency to prefer well instrumented cars and like to have an oil pressure guage myself, which DEFINITELY gives me something else to worry about! but it IS possible to let the brain worms worry you to death, often with no good cause (been there, done that) and it was this I was drawing attention to in my post!

In your own case, I believe that you do indeed have a problem rather than paranoia! One of the first Sprints I had dealings with used to overheat but only at high cruising speeds, at 50 it was fine, at a steady 60 it would climb to 3/4 and stabilise and at a sustained 70 it would climb to the top and boil over if ignored. Which the customer was not happy about as he had relatives in Holland and Sweden and drove a lot continental motorways. After a new stat and lot of flushing and backflushing which produced no discernible result (or visible detritus in the cooling system) I took a blind leap and swapped out the rad (which WAS the factory original, the car was only a few years old and he'd had it from new) and the problem instantly disappeared. I was interested enough to get the rad dismantled by a rad specialist who found the bottom right 1/4 of it totally blocked with crud, which even repeated flushing with commercial flushes had not shifted - or even pointed to!

Whether you only have an 1850 rad, which, looking at the pics, seems more than possible, or you have a blocked rad (try physically feeling the surface of the rad for cool patches - carefully, they can get mighty hot) or even a misreading guage - you wouldn't be the first to be fooled in this way - I wouldn't like to say from this distance away. But my hunch, based as much on the pre ignition and fuel vaporisation derived rough running as the guage readings, is that not all is rosy under the bonnet. One last quick thought, before I turn to other subjects, have you checked the ignition timing recently? Overly retarded timing can cause both pre ignition (running on) AND overheating!

On new radiators, you can get a real posh Alicool one for about £250, but all the running reports i've had/seen seem to say it's no more effective than the original. Or you can get a recored or recon original for a bit under £200. The Saab 9-3 rad that I use will fit a Sprint and can had from ebay suppliers for around £60 Sure, you need to fit a proper header tank with it and do some messing about to make it fit and mount it up, but still........ And the header tank is worthwhile on it's own! But probably best to avail yourself of Alun's offer and at least see if you're on the right track!

Steering that is alternately notchy and sloppy does indeed suggest a duff steering coupling and varying levels related to heat is, I suppose, theoretically possible, with expansion of metal parts when hotter and rubber going soggier. Clonking and juddering on pullaway is normally a sign of a fatally oil soaked and soggy geabox mount, but I know you have a relatively new Volvo one fitted so I dunno there!

Steve

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'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 12:24 pm 
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Or you can get a recored or recon original for a bit under £200.
The last one I had done with GAT was about £100


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 12:48 pm 
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My Dolly 1300 features a safety feature to stop it overheating in that the ignition/fuelling system gives up first and the car will stall out and refuses to restart until it cools down long before it has a chance to actually overheat. :wink:

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1976 Triumph Dolomite 1850HL "Trevor, the Tenaciously Terrible Triumph" - Rotten as a pear and dissolving into a field in rural Aberdeenshire.
1977 Triumph Dolomite 1300 "Daisy, the Dilapidated Dolomite of Disaster" - Major resto, planned for completion 2021.
1983 Triumph Acclaim L "Angus, the Arguably Adequate Acclaim - On the road as a daily driver.


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