Long time indeed! I always thought that one of the many beautiful aspects of Alfas from the 30's was the radiators: http://www.boldride.com/ride/1930/alfa-romeo-6c-1750-gs-spider#gallery/4
True works of art. Most cars of that era were water cooled and had radiators. I honestly don't know what, if anything, they used as a thermostat. If could have been something rudimentary like a driver controlled lever, or it could have been something resembling a modern thermostat. No idea. For what it's worth, the heat lever in your mid 70's Spider is a simple thermostat, if controls the flow of coolant passing through the heater core that's under the dash. That heater core is a small radiator. I'm sure there was plenty of leaking going on and people getting scalded left and right. bs On Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:42 PM, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: Hi guys, Long time no hear! You guys know me from my wacko questions in the past, and I have another one. It is an ancient history question -- maybe Alfa related, maybe just generally automotive related. You guys always have such a fount of knowledge I thought certainly you'd have an answer. I have been translating some old letters from Swedish to English. In one of the letters, from the 1930s, the writer starts talking about cars. What I want to know is how water was used in engines from the 30s -- were they water cooled, air-cooled, etc.? Did they have thermostats? Was there anything special about cold weather? The writer is describing how to avoid a certain kind of accident where you burn yourself from boiling water -- he doesn't say whether in the engine or in the radiator. But apparently whatever procedure they are doing, it is a procedure one might encounter routinely. Did people routinely add water to the radiator in those days? I've been trying to think of a situation where I would regularly come in contact with hot water in my 'modern' (1980s) cars. The thermostat deals with that. Thanks for any ideas! Tess in Bellevue, WA USA -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected] -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
