Joe, Check to see if you're getting circulation in the radiator. With the engine up to operating temperature, the top of the radiator should be hot to the touch (be careful). The bottom of the radiator should be warm, not cold. (Be careful of the fan. You can shut the engine off to avoid getting wacked by the fan). If the bottom of the radiator is cold, you are getting no circulation. If the bottom is just as hot as the top, then you're not getting any airflow through the radiator (the AC heat exchanger is the radiator/electric fan assembly in front of the radiator).
You also need to check why the AC radiator electric fan is not coming on. That is an auxiliary to the water pump fan. It should come on when you switch on the AC or the under-hood temperature gets too hot. Good luck! Charlie Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2013 17:56:40 -0400 > From: Joseph Jacob <[email protected]> > Subject: [alfa] Spider Overheating > > 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 > > ------------------------------ > > End of alfa-digest V10 #2705 > **************************** -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
