CURING A HOT ENGINE

NZ Truth, Issue 1142, 20 October 1927, Page 13

CURING A HOT ENGINE

Job For Spring Months

With the coming of summer many motorists will begin to think of boiling 1 radiators and seized engines. In many cases of persistent over-heating no single cause seems to lie at the root of the trouble.

ciently to account for the whole trouble of over-heating.

WITH the idea of assisting owners whose cars are liable to the an-

noying trouble of over-heating, "N.Z. Truth" here gives a fairly complete list of causes which lead to this trouble and their remedy. Naturally, the first thing to do in overcoming the devil g£ overheating is to thoroughly clean out the radiator. The correct way of going about the business is flrst of all to fill the radiator with water and add about lib. of washing soda in solution. The. engine should then be run at a fair speed until the water boils and should ,the/i be allowed to run slowly for about 'ls minutes. At the end of this period the engine should be stopped and the water drained off. The radiator should then be removed from the chassis, placed upside down with the cap removed, and thoroughly flushed . out by a hose for I a period up to I ten minutes. This ] flushing will re- | move quite a large f quantity of mat- | ter, softened by i soda, from the in- i terstices. 1 The radiator \ core itself should j also be thor- \ oughly cleaned i out, flushing it I with a hose as | hard as possible. | It is frequently 1 found that the 1 metal surface is | caked with dirt, I which acts as a | heat insulating | skin, preventing | the air draught | from fulfilling its = function. The radiator should then be replaced, but before the connections are fastened the engine block should also be given a thorough hosing out for some minutes. The next job is to clean out the silencer and exhaust pipes. Much the best way is to remove the exhaust manifold and clean away any deposit of carbon. Sometimes it will be found that the whole of the outlet passages and the silencer itself are choked quite suffi-

Even a small amount, with other causes, will play a large part in overloading the engine and leading to its running hot. The fan should then be given attention. The blades of the fan should be set at an angle of about 45 dergrees. to give the most effective air blast. Any looseness of the fan belt should be corrected to ensure that no slipping takes place. The next job is to make sure, by means of experimental setting, that the carburettor is not running on too rich a mixture. This can readily be corrected by means of experiments with various sizes ot* jets or air valve settings. The last job is to make certain that the spark is running fully advanced when the lever is = set in that posi- = tion. 1 'It is not infre- | quently found | that sufficient = wear has taken 1 place in the varis ous couplings bei tween the spark I lever and the 1 make and break = to limit the I amount of travel I to such an extent \ as to render it i impossible to take \ full advantage of \ the advance per- = mitted. I This trouble can \ be quickly remeI died, either by ro- \ newing the joints, = or by altering the 1 control rods t o take up the slack. After these jobs are completed, any engine should keep cool under ordinary conditions, providing that the engine itself is not over-carbonized, in which case of course the head would need to be removed. As a general rule it can be taken for granted that over-heating is caused not by one thing alone, but by several, and if they are dealt with in the manner suggested the trouble should be overcome.