> Measuring the temps of the hoses into and out of the radiator is > also useless without knowing flow information. Imagine - say > you have a 20 degree difference between the inlet and outlet of > the rad, and good flow. Your pyrometer/whatever would say 20 degrees > difference. But say you have a clogged rad so you are getting very > low flow, but still getting a 20 degree temp change. Generally a radiator clogged enough to cause overheating will have flow restricted such that what water DOES go through will come out much cooler than normal. A clogged radiator doesn't really lose any of its cooling capacity, it just loses its ability to pass enough cooled water back to the engine. > Also - you can't just take out the thermostat and run wihtout one to > see what happens, cuz (1) the housing will leak like a sieve and (2) > the thermostat does two things: it cuts off hot coolant recirculation > as well as allowing cooler coolant in from the rad. The thermostat's just an open-close affair at the end of the coolant return pipe from the radiator. The bypass pipe remains open either way. Usually the way you "take out" a thermostat to prevent leaks is to use an old one with the "works" snipped out of the center, basically just leaving an empty ring. |
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