It's only gone and blown the hose off!

[missfixit70]

I'd say 88 on mine is halfway between 12 oclock & the end of the scale line on the Mason modified gauge. My sensor for the temp gauge is on the top hose stub clamped under the end of the hose & the bit remaining exposed has a jubilee clamp on it & high temp silicon to reduce any cooling effect due to wind. The sender for the Mason modded gauge has been removed & cleaned with a wire brush & very importantly the electrical connection on top was cleaned up, that definitely dropped it a bit too, may even be worth remaking the connection, I had to as mine broke with all the messing about trying to get resistance readings etc, so yours may be giving false readings.
Same with the fan switch, cleaned up at both ends (didn't remake the electrical connection though) switches somewhere around 92 at the top hose, but again this'll depend on the relative flows around heater circuit, my rear heater conns are blanked off rather than looped, so I only have the front heater circuit, which seemes to have "speeded up" the reaction time slightly, but this is a subjective view & difficult to verify as I had been having weeping silicon hose issues so there were a few variables in there before & after doing the rear heater removal.

[Mountain]

Yeah, I think my sensor is probably reading on the high side. Sometimes it does vary a lot more than the top hose sensor. Been a few posters pointing out that it's best to replace it after a boil.Time for a clean up at the weekend....then a new one at some point.

My extra temp gauge is on the vertical part of the top hose. First fan kicks in at 87C without fail.

My rear heater is bypassed with a loop rather than blanked.

[Mountain]

Well flushed.
New rad on.

Guess what?

Temp gauge at 11 'o' clock most of the time. 80mph or long steep hills 12 'o' clock

Top hose 77-80C.

If I leave it ticking over...hot sun today and yesterday.....it will very slowly creep up to fan temp. I mean half an hour or 40mins. fans come in and knock it back to 78C-ish in seconds.

How pleased am I

[Northern Bongolow]

could do some corny pun right now but i will not.
glad you have reached the sum$*t,

congratulations.
regards ady

[missfixit70]

Really chuffed for you lets hope you can just get on & enjoy it now
Out of interest, what rad did you buy/fit?

[Mountain]

Yep, driving like a new vehicle....time to get out in this good weather
Got a load more crud out with the mega-flush too

Had it up on the lift today and gave it a really good once over.

Very tidy underneath, could do with droplinks and front wishbone bushes at some point but not urgent.

Apart from that there's just that bloody power steering seal leak

Here's the rad. I didn't go for the cheapest but opted for this instead. Build quality was good and it exactly matched the one removed with the 'fins' etc.

I've fitted 2 Nissen rads in previous vehicles before and they've been fine. My dad's fitted a few too as a mid-range option....in fact my brother and brother in law are driving around with them at the minute.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LIFETIME-RADIATOR ... 5ad24a9fdf

[Mountain]

could do some corny pun right now but i will not.

radiator based puns are welcome

[mikeonb4c]

Great news Mountain - I was really hoping (and thinking) that a new rad. might make all the difference. Sounds like (fingers crossed) it has

[Mountain]

Well, the new rad has certainly made a difference.

After my 'lost the header cap' experience, I've just done a bleed as It spat a bit of coolant out.

Now getting it hot enough for the stat to open takes an age. It just does not want to go over 80C. Took over an hour for the stat to open and the top hose to get to 84C...which seems to be equivalent to 82C at the stat end.

More disapproving 'why does that idiot keep revving that van' glances from the neighbours

Proves the cooling system is working well.