81 Fiat owner new to website

[topbuddy]

Hi: I have a 81 Fiat Spider 2000 and love it. It is a car that is fun to drive and reasonable to work on. I am a retired Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot/Navigator who along with my wife, Lynn are full timing it in a Winnebago. We recently sold our home in Nova Scotia and are currently in a nice RV park in Palm Harbor FL near Tampa.

We are currently looking for a means of towing our Fiat with the Winnebago, but drove it all the way from Nova Scotia to Georgia and as it started overheating we rented a U Haul trailer and brought it the rest of the way to Florida. The car began slowly overheating as we drove it down until near the Florida state line it began to red line. Since arriving in Florida I have replaced the thermostat, the hoses and the water pump, plus I have blocked off the heater core. It is still overheating. The radiator appears normal and the fluid is clean, however what is left? Any ideas would be welcome.
Thanks

Sam

[steve8462]

you may need to burp the cooling system. trapped air causes the spiders to run hot. there are many threads on this site that go into detail on how to do it

[courtenay]

There are two temperature senders in the centre of the block on your motor. One, usually the one nearest the radiator, "pegs" the needle, the other measures the temperature shown on the gauge. Try disconnecting the one nearest the radiator and see if your problem goes away. You might also want to get an infrared temperature measuring gun to check the temperatures of the hoses and block when the needle is around 190 and when it spikes. Also check the hoses both before and after the t-stat. If the t-stat isn't working, the bottom hose will be cool while the top hoses will be hot - and indication that your t-stat is pooched.

[topbuddy]

Thanks to all for your response. I am still trying to solve the problem and will do another burping. I do believe that it is running too hot as when it redlines coolant is forced out of the water pump where it connects to the block. FYI, I have replaced the external thermostat (there is no internal thermostat, i checked), the water pump, the hoses and have blocked the heater core.

I will do another burping with more care to follow the recommended procedure and let everyone know how it goes, It makes me want to try and remove the thermostat, but does know how the connect everything up without it.

Sam

[narfire]

Hi Sam. When you try and "burp" the engine, make sure the heater levers are all the way forward. If there is air in the heater core and you have to use the heater , that air will get into the system and you are back to square one again.
If you don't have the "T" in the heater hose, just run the car with the rad cap off and wait about 10 minutes or so. When you look in the open rad and see the coolant flowing, all should be good and the fan should kick on at around 190 deg.
If no fan, check the rad temp wires down on the lower driver side, good conections? Fan does work with a direct conection to 12 V ?
Ex air force eh... going to do a dash mod and include more knobs, buttons and dials Thank god a Martin Baker won't fit..
( spider jim did that to his spider, think he was ex RAF)
Chris

[topbuddy]

Thanks Chris:

I finally got the temp to remain cool and the fan is working fine. I don't know if the burping did it or the fact that I replaced the new thermostat with the old one, but now all is normal once again. Many thanks for the assistance, and I agree that I won't need a martin barker seat. Take care.
Sam