Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2013 17:56:40 -0400 From: Joseph Jacob <[email protected]> Subject: [alfa] Spider Overheating
At that age, with that many miles I would do two things. Replace the water pump and replace the thermostat. The other thing that I am not sure about on the newer cars that is a problem on the older cars (70's cars) is the check valve in the water pump by pass hose. People tended to remove them thinking that the car would run cooler when it had just the opposite effect and caused them to run hotter. As I say, though, I'm not sure the newer cars had the same setup. Good luck. Kirk Fergus 74 Spider 74GTV 75 Spider 88 Milano Learned Alfisti, I bought my 1989 Spider Veloce in 2000 with around 80K miles. It currently has 107K on the odometer. Since the day I acquired it it has always run hot. Shortly after I got it I had the radiator re-cored, which helped considerably; a couple of years ago I had the radiator boiled out and had some minor leaks fixed. This helped as well. However, in the 13 years I've owned it, a three-hour trip was about its maximum cruising range before the temperature gauge approached the red zone. Then it would gradually get worse. This morning a 20-mile trip had the coolant boiling. It does not lose coolant, and I see no evidence of the coolant mixing with the oil. The fan on the engine side of the radiator is fine, though the one in front of the AC radiator doesn't work. As far as I know the water pump has never been replaced. I would love to able to drive her for a couple of hours without having to worry about the temperature. Any suggestions on how to proceed? Joe -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
