Overheating when idling/crawling traffic

[6carjon]

Did you borrow or buy an infra red thermometer gun. They are really useful. Point the red dot at the rad and the block to check real temp and compare against your gauge. Remove gauge anxiety ☺http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DRAPER-Handheld-Infrared-Digital-Temperature-Thermometer-Non-Contact-Gun-31910-/371285699723?hash=item56725a2c8b:g:Oi4AAOSw7aBVCqK3

This is an example there are lots from under £10.

It might save your blood pressure and cooling system pressure. Even if it's not the solution you can use it to check improvements ?

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

They're damned useful for all sorts of trouble shooting!

Think you're running on three of your four cylinders, (or seven of eight), then use the IR gun to measure the top sections of the exhaust manifolds branches, a non running cylinder will show as being much cooler than the others!

[Kezman]

I got an IR temp gun from advice on here and I think they are a great tool in the arsenal. Maybe the more expensive ones are better, but mine is a cheaper one and the accuracy of that is pretty much on the money too, as I've tested it compared to other known good thermometers.

Dave..... Regarding your example with testing cylinders with a gun on each manifold branch. The one nearest my rad seems to lag behind, temp wise for a bit but then seems to catch up after 10-15 mins running. Is that considered normal or not?

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

It doesn't seem uncommon to have some slight variations like that - the ecu's most of us use with injected cars aren't normally sophisticated enough to provide trims for individual cylinders, and even where they are, it's very unusual to see it implemented.