By Larry Harrell (Harrellee) on Sunday, December 02, 2001 - 09:58 pm: Edit

Hey Guys what is the correct operating temp for a rover V8 in degrees F. Thanks ahead of time!!!!

By Jaco de Klerk (Jaco) on Tuesday, December 04, 2001 - 03:37 pm: Edit

Same Q here.. I just had the radiator cleaned out (appearantly it was partially blocked)due to an overheating problem. Now the temp guage only just gets past the 1/4-mark.. is this normal? I was expecting it to get to 1/2.

ta

Jaco
'94 3.9L V8i

By PerroneFord on Tuesday, December 04, 2001 - 04:00 pm: Edit

Depends on Thermostat. Mine runs consistently at 180-190F while moving, and goes to about 200-215F when not moving. The marks on the stock gauge are useless for determining temperature.

-P

By Jaco de Klerk (Jaco) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 02:29 pm: Edit

Thanks.

Let me put it this way - right now my temp guage doesnt get past 1/4, so its miles away from overheating and therefor I don't need to replace the fan clutch, which I know is stuffed. It costs $300 (in South Africa)but since I had the radiator cleaned, it seems I wont need the fan any longer.

Q: Does anybody have a ±94 V8 of which the temp guage run at only 1/4 scale even @ 130km/h towing a trailer? I don't want to be the only one with a super-cool Landy.. (before rad was cleaned the guage ran from 1/2 to almost 3/4.)

thanks
Jaco

'94 3.9L V8i

By PerroneFord on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 02:38 pm: Edit

Jaco,

My v8 overheated 3 times while the gauge read dead center. On some vehicles (not all) the gauge bears little resemblance to what the actual engine coolant temperature is. I would be willing to bet that your gauge is reading almost 1/4 range low, so it was probably HONESTLY near the red before the cleaning but the gauge read low. Now that you have a normally operating vehicle, the gauge SHOULD be reading mid-way, but is likely still reading low so it looks like 1/4.

I took care of this problem by installing a mechanical guage so that I could see the real temperatures. Others have done the same and are quite surprised at how inaccurate the stock gauge is. One RR owner went through 5 sensors before he found one that registered the stock gauge properly.

Good luck,

-P

By Jaco de Klerk (Jaco) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 03:47 pm: Edit

Thanks Perrone, I can live with that.

Did you install the new gauge in the position of the stock gauge, or mounted elsewhere? And are you running it off the std sensor?

ta

By PerroneFord on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 04:04 pm: Edit

I wrote a diatribe about it here:

http://www.spanishtrailrovers.com/Technical_Section/Adding_Gauges/adding_gauges.html

In short, I added a mechanical gauge that uses no electronics, and mounted it on top of the dash, next to the mechanical oil pressure gauge I installed.

The site has pictures and instructions

By Gregg on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 04:18 pm: Edit

The other thing to keep in mind is that when you cleaned it, some debris might have been caught in the thermostat, causing it to stick open. When your thermostat sticks open, the rad fluid never quite reaches normal operating temp unless you are sitting still, as it is constantly circulating through the rad, not just when it reaches the temp for the thermo to open (usually around 180 deg C I think). I had this happen to me in my Audi after radiator a clean.

Read thermostat clean or replacement.

By lynden on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 07:14 pm: Edit

Jaco- mine runs smack in the middle during hot summers here (90 F) and now in the winter (32 F) its barely registering. Mine's running pretty cool, I imagine yours is too.
Lynden

By PerroneFord on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 08:11 pm: Edit

Its summertime in south africa lynden...

-P