HOW HOT DOES YOUR BUG RUN?

well, mine is running at 120 celsius, im thinking of doing a cooked brekky on the cylinder heads.

80∞-105∞C is good, 110∞ is a bit high.........Full English please.

Moby5153 said:

80∞-105∞C is good, 110∞ is a bit high.........Full English please.

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What sort of head temperatures are normal?

about town, my car runs at around 80 degrees to 100.

its when its on the motorway, for a sustained time, that it gets hot.

it was reading 120 on the way to blackpool on saturday.

having said that, it was low on oil, and the oil light only came on at low revs, not when blasting down the road, Ive topped it up so hopefully this will make some difference.

having said that, it was low on oil, and the oil light only came on at low revs, not when blasting down the road, Ive topped it up so hopefully this will make some difference.

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Um, I would investigate this before blasting down the motorway again!

The oil light measures oil pressure, not oil level (sorry if I'm telling you something you know). [Edited to add: It really takes an extremely low oil level to make the light come on, not just 'a bit low on the dipstick' sort of low.]

If the oil light comes on at low revs, you have a problem. It may be just a faulty oil pressure sensor, or it may be something more serious.

Would help to know more - stock engine, stock cooling, or something modified?

Stark said:

What sort of head temperatures are normal?

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Bit difficult cos the Autometer senders are hard to fit into the heads anywhere. There are a couple of places to jam the sender into, but not to sink deep into the head to get a core temp reading. If it's jammed in the reading won't be as accurate as a sedner in a tapped hole.

Someone prove me wrong - Love to have my sender reading a little more accurately.

M.I.B said:

Bit difficult cos the Autometer senders are hard to fit into the heads anywhere. There are a couple of places to jam the sender into, but not to sink deep into the head to get a core temp reading. If it's jammed in the reading won't be as accurate as a sedner in a tapped hole.

Someone prove me wrong - Love to have my sender reading a little more accurately.

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Just wondered on this one, cos my oil temp usually sits between 180f and 210f, depending on the air temperature, but i have touched the heads with the oil temp as above and they are bloody hot, if you spit on em, it sizzles

tonyhedge said:

Um, I would investigate this before blasting down the motorway again!

The oil light measures oil pressure, not oil level (sorry if I'm telling you something you know). [Edited to add: It really takes an extremely low oil level to make the light come on, not just 'a bit low on the dipstick' sort of low.]

If the oil light comes on at low revs, you have a problem. It may be just a faulty oil pressure sensor, or it may be something more serious.

Would help to know more - stock engine, stock cooling, or something modified?

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since i have filled it up, (it was very low, it drips from the rocker covers, and it has been stood for months) the oil light has not come on again. at low or high revs.

its a stock 1200, with stock everything else.

the problem at the moment is that there is a wire coming out of the dipstick, that doesnt allow enough room for movement! so i cant really take it out, i know this sounds ridiculous, but ive not had time to investigate further, as work has been busy this week, and ive not had time to extend the wire,so the dipstick can come out.
i though about just snipping it, but since the oil light had recently come on, i decided against it. do all dipsticks have a wire out of them? ive never seen this before....in fact ill go and take a photo.

Mine runs at 180 Farenheit - pretty well all the time - constant 70 thru 95

I guess the reading varies with cooling surface available, and some engine characteristics eg - advance/retard, valve overlap, carb settings (dumping a lot of fuel in will keep it nice and cool) exhaust characteristics and not least - where the hell is the oil temp sender

That's a home made job! Must have taken so much effort and planning - wierd cos dipstick senders are not that expensive.

Stark said:

if you spit on em, it sizzles

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There's no oil cooling on the heads - the oil is there to lube the rockers. Air alone does the cooling.

As gob is 99% water which boils at 100C it's no coincidence that it sizzles when you gob on the heads.

Bit worried if you can gob on the heads with the engine in - got no head tins on?

do all dipsticks have a wire out of them?

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No! That looks like an oil temp sensor that uses the dipstick hole, but to be honest I'm guessing! Wiring looks like it's seen better days!

I run a Gene Berg temp sensor (not a proper gauge, just tells you when you exceed a certain temp). That doesn't have any markings on the stick. I keep the dipstick somewhere safe (now, where did I put it?) for checking the oil level.

Defo home made. VDO ones are 1o" tall above the dip hole and have a chrome finish to them. At the top is a blue box ( about 1/3 the size of a *** lighter) with 2 male terminals for spade connectors. one marked G to go to the guage and the other goes to a local earth.

At the bottom is a black plastic ring with a felt washer below it. the ring has a small screw on it to allow it to be altered for different depths ( the senders are fairly universal).

M.I.B said:

Defo home made. VDO ones are 1o" tall above the dip hole and have a chrome finish to them. At the top is a blue box ( about 1/3 the size of a *** lighter) with 2 male terminals for spade connectors. one marked G to go to the guage and the other goes to a local earth.

At the bottom is a black plastic ring with a felt washer below it. the ring has a small screw on it to allow it to be altered for different depths ( the senders are fairly universal).

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You are describing the current production VDO dipstick temp senders, the early ones were like the one in the picture.
BTW, that engine will probably overheat if run on M'way with that missing air hose on the left side, it's allowing a lot of cooling air to escape.

Laurence Fletcher said:

You are describing the current production VDO dipstick temp senders, the early ones were like the one in the picture.
BTW, that engine will probably overheat if run on M'way with that missing air hose on the left side, it's allowing a lot of cooling air to escape.

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yeah, i just found a picture on samba, like the one above.

good point with the air hose though, didnt think of it like that, i didnt replace it cos there is no heat exchanger to body hose on the car, so havn't bothered replacing it...i will get onto that asap

so....if the wire from the top goes to the oil gauge (presumably, as its working...)

what are the spades on the side for?

If you are not using the heat exchanger, just block off the air outlet on the fan housing, (the top off a big fabric conditioner bottle will screw sraight on), also block the hole in the tin tray with a metal jam jar lid, (it gets a bit hot there), to prevent heat rising into the 'cool zone' of the engine bay. Oh, and while you are at it, clean all the crap off the engine, it's disgusting