Quick couple of questions

[David S]

So 1.5 years since the car failed its MOT due to emissions finally have it back together and a fresh MOT certificate issued. But I have two questions:

1. Hot running, I am sure I read a post about our cars running typically at the top of the temperature gauge. Mine runs between 95 - 100, has anyone come up with away to solve the hot running?

2. Underneath the car the bumper section has screw holes as does the front of the sub-frame which would indicate that between these sections there must have been some form of underside protection  - possible chicken wire or even a fibre glass/plastic section to stop road crud or stones. So the question is do you have any thing fitted between the bumper section and the front sub-frame?

David

[MkIV Lux]

1. Hot running, I am sure I read a post about our cars running typically at the top of the temperature gauge. Mine runs between 95 - 100, has anyone come up with away to solve the hot running?

David

David, I assume you talk about the gauge as read?
I do have the same issue on my MkIV Cobra: reading is constantly close to the 100°, but when checking temp with a heat gun at engine exit to radiator, it is generally around 88°.

[paho]

Hi David,
mine runs at a constant 90° independant of how warm it is outside. I did a run down from North Wales in the high 30's and then through Denmark and the South of Sweden in blazing sunshine all the way without any problem. I see from the service records that the oil cooler was replaced in 2003 due to a leak, no brand name but specifically for an Ace from Redline (16 row 5/8 bsp). The only problem I have with heat is that the oil cooler is mounted under the pasenger side wing by the air intake to the heater so its not so cool in the car at times.

Yes, there is a flat aluminium sheet which covers the area between the valance and about 4-5 inches from the sub-frame.
/Paho

[DGoose]

Hi David,

The under-shield between the front valance and the chassis is sheet aluminium, single piece on the 1994 car and three sections on the 1996 car - much better on the later car as the nearside section can easily be removed to gain access to the oil filter from below.
Relevant to your first query It might be worth considering a perforated material if fabricating a new under-shield as this would allow more air to get to the radiator and oil cooler.

I don't trust the temperature gauge on the red car as it read's far hotter than seems possible, you'll know when the car gets really hot as they tend to smoke slightly from oil and muck burning off around the cats, the smoke then vents out through the rear edge of the bonnet which can be rather disconcerting but soon stops once the grime has disappeared.

Glad to hear you're back on the road.

David

[paho]

Hi Guys,
my Ace is a 1995 model with the three panels as David describes. From what I've read on other forums the 302 running temperature is around 180 to 210F, thermostat is rated at 192/195F.

Does your car have an oil cooler? Is the radiator clear of bugs and other rubbish?
The attached photo shows the vents in the oil filter access plate and the bottom plate which is not ventilated (i.e. solid plate).
The whole construction from the grill to the radiator forms a closed duct.  My oil cooler is mounted sideways-on, i.e parallel with
the main chassis member together with the oil filter. If the central plate was missing then little or no air would pass over the oil cooler.

What effect an open duct has on the radiator cooling I would not like to guess, but I note that most of the cars I've looked at the radiators are not open between the grill and the radiator.

I found the access panel on my car impossible to remove as the rivet nuts had lost their grip and the slotted round head bolts had seized. I removed the flat panels on top of the inner wing under the bonnet but was faced  with the same situation with these panels, so I've drilled out and renewed the majority with replacement rivet nuts and hexagonal headed bolts.
BR /Paho

[David S]

On the hot running front the gauge was under reading so when showing 100 degrees was actually running 105 which is way to hot.

So have replaced the missing sheet metal running from front bumper to front of the sub-frame as we thought that we could be losing air flow by it dropping through this space. However, we could not get the car to run below 100 degrees still therefore we went back to the initial thought and removed the grill  - this seems to have worked and the car now runs up to 90 degrees the fan kicks in and drops to high 80's and stays in this cycle.
As the grill had the AC owners badge stuck on the grill will try and remove the badge and refit. In theory it will make a small difference, estimate that it is blocking approx. 30% of airflow. The grill and badge together we estimate blocks 70% of the airflow and I have heard to Lotus elevens having wire grill installed to stop stone damage and the grill actually blocked all airflow  - so this is not an easy problem to resolve.

Anyone else had same problem and how did you resolve

thanks David