Zetec running temp

[BigSkyBrad]

My silver-top runs in the early to mid-90s celcius and almost 100 in town is this normal for this engine, or on the high side? The car has a V8 nose cone and radiator, and the fan comes on. One of my winter jobs is to replace the glycol, as I have no idea when the previous owner did it, and that may drop the temp a little.

[Kit Car Electronics]

Sounds perfectly normal

[Thrustyjust]

Zetecs run OAT, the pink stuff. So if its fitted with blue, then give it a damn good flush out before replacing. As for temps, there is always varying factors, such as thermostats and how its plumbed. I would say 85 to 90 deg is a safe spot when running, but dont dismiss gauge calibration too.

[Warren Till]

Mine runs in the early 90's according to my temperature gauge and more if I'm late leaving for work.

They need to run 'hot'. Apparently if the oil runs too cool it accelerates engine wear. I read that somewhere.

[Kingster]

Mine sits at 92, occasionally gets up to 95 and then fan kicks in to bring it back to 92.

[chriss1455]

When i had a silvertop in mine the tenperature used to be around mid 90s and the fan cut in at 100.

Never went above or caused problems so didnt investigate it any more

[dombanks]

Siunds about right 90-92 normal. Goes highwe in town amd very slow traffic

[BigSkyBrad]

OK, thanks. I too read somewhere they like to run hot, just needed to know I'd read it right. It's never gone over 100, but we were away in our camper on the weekend and that sits all day around 85, so thought I'd better ask.

[Thrustyjust]

85 deg is optimum temperature for power. Modern cars run hotter , mainly just for the reason of running cleaner . Thats why race thermostats are lower temp than the road versions.

[BigSkyBrad]

@Thrustyjust That's good to know - coz my camper is a VW LT35 non-turbo diesel stomping out a whopping 74hp! - she needs all the help she can get!

[6carjon]

It's also the case that modern production cars are designed to display "Normal" until steam escapes and they shut down from overheating 

Less knowledgeable owners get concerned about a needle that moves and visit dealerships if it ever moves. So the manufacturers make sure it shows normal until it's way past normal and you need the AA.....

Maurici may care to comment ?

Sounds like yours is normal.

My temperatures even increases when i accelerate hard and then drops when i lift off and coast !

 

[Stuart]

5 hours ago, 6carjon said:

It's also the case that modern production cars are designed to display "Normal" until steam escapes and they shut down from overheating 

Less knowledgeable owners get concerned about a needle that moves and visit dealerships if it ever moves. So the manufacturers make sure it shows normal

 

Didn't know that.  Often wondered why my tintops have never fluctuated but my kitcars always have

[DamperMan]

Recently changed cars and after picking up my 320d i though after while the temp looked a bit high.  100 degrees which is actually mid guage and took ages to warm up.    Then I spotted the oil can symbol.  It does not even have a water temp gauge only an oil temp gauge.   To be honest it makes more sense from the when to give welly point of view.       I'm not convinced by the "display normal until steam is flying" comment.  As mostly the gauge on modern cars is controlled by the  a sender just like a westfield and is seperate from the ECU/Canbus systems.         But "normal cars"  do have a lot more frontal area for larger radiators the coolant flow has been balanced  with correct diameter pipes and lengths etc for optimum stability and control.   Not just a small polo rad and some hoses which we can get to fit.          

[Thrustyjust]

6 hours ago, 6carjon said:

 

My temperatures even increases when i accelerate hard and then drops when i lift off and coast !

 

Sounds like your cooling system is struggling to cope under load to me. Mates V8 had an extra rad plumbed in the back to keep it down , that was a JE 4.6l lump

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Once got hold of a copy of a dealer level (of detail) workshop manual for the C20XE engine, it included parts of the original car’s manual too, I can’t remember now if it was the Astra or the Cavalier, I suspect the latter, as it described trouble shooting an analogue dash, with conventional looking instruments. Bearing in mind that would be an early nineties car.

It described in depth how the gauges could be tested. One thing that always stuck in my mind was the water temp gauge; I forget the specifics now, it was years ago, but essentially at least the centre half of the gauges travel covered a tiny range, in degrees. Deffinately less than ten, and I’ve a feeling it might have even been half that, while a small portion at one end covered 0 to wherever the centre part started, and the other went up to the typical 120 degree maximum, so the intentional behaviour, was to only ever get big movements outside the main operations range.

I remember asking a mate at the time, who’d worked for a few different main dealer groups (parts manager, etc technician), over the years if he’d come across this, and he reckoned it had become really common over the previous few years. (I’m guessing mid, maybe late, eighties onwards?)

And of course, all this pre-dated data busses etc. I guess it began sometime after the move from fully discrete instruments, to more complex gauge panels?