Re: Radiators

[j.eklund@domain.elided (John Eklund)]

Ian,

I have also seen that the stag has some trouble getting rid of heat into a
hot environment. On some of the very hot days we have had here lately (35
deg) and when crawling in traffic my temp needle goes right up to the start
of the red. (I have a standard radiator with cowl and a new temp sender).
The temp will only slowly go down if conditions change, such as driving
faster. It helps to put the heater on (doesn't help me much though)

I'm considering a set of thermo fans and take off the normal fan.

All I can add to your level A physics recollections is Newton's Law of
Cooling: that once the car is off, the radiator's rate of change in
temperature is proportional to the difference between its current
temperature and that of the surrounding air (so it's actually exponential).

JoHn



>I see that other people are probably as confused as I am over the best
>radiator to fit. Last summer in the UK (temperatures > 25 C in the
>shade), my Mark 2 Stag ran consistently with the temperature gauge
>needle up near the red on long (100+ miles) trips at 70+ mph. The
>position of the needle seems to be entirely dependent on ambient
>temperature - it's fine now at 10 C - so I believe that there is no
>overheating problem as such but that the radiator is just incapable of
>getting rid of the heat to a high temperature environment. I seem to
>remember from A level physics that the rate of heat loss is proportional
>to the temperature (absolute ie degrees Kelvin) ratio to the power of
>four. Everyone (Tony Hart, SOC Tooling, Brighton Stag Specialists etc
>etc) seems to offer their own variation on the theme but I want to make
>sure I make the right choice. All opinions and especially experiences
>welcome.
>--
>Ian Soady