[alfa] spider thermostat questions

[Jon Pike <jhpike@xxxxxxx>]

Hello Digestians..

Was putting a new thermostat in the intake manifold of my rebuilt 2L 
motor,  and noticed a few things.

In the thermostat housing on the manifold, there's a inner hole that 
goes to the smaller hose below the main one. (bypass?) 
I understand there is supposed to be a disk on the bottom of the 
thermostat that closes it off.  Both the old thermostat and the new one 
have disks on their bottom ends, but both seem to have something like 
1/4" of space before the port.
Was there some rubber fitting or something, that should go over that 
internal part of the manifold, so the disk could work?  Or, (just 
thought of this) does the thermostat get "longer" as it opens and reach 
that last distance?

Another thing, call me compulsive, but I put both thermostats in a pan 
of water to measure when they open.. Why??  Because I can!!  One of my 
multimeters has a temp probe.. what the hey.. 
So I put them in a saucepan to measure opening points..  (don't tell 
Marcia..)  Heating them yielded a result of the newer one opening fully 
by 90C, and closing by 85C.  The older one was open fully by 85C and 
closed by 80C.
This raises the point of what is the "proper" temp for a mid '70s Spica 
Alfa.  I could look in my copy of Wes Ingram's Spica manual,  but I 
can't find it at the moment. (don't tell Wes..)  I've put in the newer 
one, because it's newer,  until someone comes along to tell me it should 
be cooler.

The third thing I was wondering about,  the new thermo came with a 
rubber gasket that seems way too big.  Thermostat in question is a Behr 
Thermo-tronic from IAP,  and the gasket is like an O-ring,  but with a 
cut in it which gives it a C shaped cross section.  It goes around the 
outer edge of the thermostat, and sure dosen't look like it wants to fit 
in my housing.  I put in the thermo without it, like the one I took 
out.  Looks like, between the fit and the paper gasket, it should be a 
good seal.

Anyway,  thought it might stir up some useful information and discussion..

Off to wash and hide Marcia's saucepan..

Jon and Marcia
77 Spider
Irvine, CA
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