James, The standard thermostat is 82C or 180F and that indicates just to the left of the E on the late model dash. Some gauges have a line there and some don't. On an early model dash I just forget where normal is, just to the left of vertical at an educated guess but I'm just not sure on that one, it's a long time since I was in a flip flopper. It's quite normal for the Temp gauge to move around about a 1/8" or so in either direction, especially if you have thermo fans etc. The voltage regulator in the 1600 dash isn't too flash either as it allows voltage fluctuations, turning lights on/off, heater on/off etc, but basically somewhere around the E is close enough. An L engine will run right up to P without any dramas, - we used to use Ford 192F thermostats in the rally engines all day with triple core radiators and the piddliest fan we could find and never had any dramas with them but these engines weren't idling in stop/start city traffic. We also found the L18 was the coolest running block of the L engines as they had a lot more water capacity than the L16, but a worked L20B also tends to strain the average 1600 cooling system a bit. Just don't run it cold, L engines are very grumpy when cold.
regards Terry -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of James Morrison Sent: Friday, 12 July 2002 10:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: water probs terry, Okay, i'll run it tomorrow and once it gets to temp i'll take cap off and watch for bubbles, just out of curiosity whats the best standard running temp to have? and what do L20's and L18's run at (or should run at i should say?) Cheers James --- "Terry Rudd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >James, > >Doesn't sound too good does it. One thing you shouldn't do is add water to a >hot engine when it's not running, or at least if you do then don't start the >engine for a good 10 to 15 minutes or so. Rapid changes in temperature reeks >havoc on metal components and head gaskets etc. It's quite normal for the >water in a cooling system to expand a bit and spill over the radiator during >warm up, especially if the thermostat is in good order. Once the thermostat >has opened a couple of times everything settles down. It's at normal >operating temperature that if bubbles in the radiator are expelled then it's >a gorna. > >regards >Terry > >-----Original Message----- >Wrom: VZCMHVIBGDADRZFSQHYUCDDJBLVLMHAALPTC >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of James Morrison >Sent: Friday, 12 July 2002 10:01 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: RE: water probs > > >terry, thanks. One thing i did notice was when i turned it off and filled up >the radiator, it would rise out over the top (this was without the cap on) >and about 30 seconds later a big bubble would come up and the water level >would go below the cap (where its supposed to) and it repeated itself 3 or 4 >times. Also when i got home and switched off the car there was a bubbleing >and draining sound coming from the engine bay, thats when i knew it was in >trouble :) ahhh i hate being the bearer of bad news!!! > >James > > > >_____________________________________________________________ >Get Your free Ozdat Email Account >---> http://www.ozdat.com > >_____________________________________________________________ >Promote your group and strengthen ties to your members with >[EMAIL PROTECTED] by Everyone.net http://www.everyone.net/?btn=tag > > _____________________________________________________________ Get Your free Ozdat Email Account ---> http://www.ozdat.com _____________________________________________________________ Promote your group and strengthen ties to your members with [EMAIL PROTECTED] by Everyone.net http://www.everyone.net/?btn=tag --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
