[alfa] alfa cooling saga part 2

["Christopher Keen" <ckeen74@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Although plenty of folks have said it before, thank god for the digest.

I got lots of useful suggestions on the problem. To answer some questions:

1) The fan is blowing the right way - I verified this by holding a leaf up 
against it. The leaf got sucked towards the engine.

2) I have the Hayden adjustable temperature sensor. It's set to come on at 
185.

3) IIRC, I'm using BP7ES plugs on the spider, which run a bit cooler to (in 
my mind) prevent detonation and keep things cool.

4) Stan suggested Water Wetter (or whatever that stuff is called), and Dean 
Cains suggested running a mixture of 20% premium coolant to 80% distilled 
water. But the key for me was that both said that running a bit hotter (as 
most modern cars do) was not bad, and Stan even cited Fred as a source for 
this idea.

So I think for the meantime I'm going to keep an eye on the temp. gauge 
(going to Concorso on Friday if I can fight off my sinusitis) and see 
exactly what happens. I've never allowed it to go past 212 - even though I 
realized that wasn't the boiling point for water+coolant, it worried me 
since the car normally only went to 185. If I notice it going above 212, 
I'll try the additive or the 20/80 mix.

Hope to see some of you all at the show. I'll be the guy with the white 
spider with the rust patch on the right and the cracked driver's seat, 
license SPINNE8. It's getting a little dog-eared, but we're closing in on 
200K.....

Chris Keen
'77 spider
Los Altos, CA

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