Reliant Scimitar Coupe - cooling issues...

...when I ran one of these it was OK except in the worst traffic, but it had all of its baffles around the rad. Lots of info in the club resources on cooling issues, well there were 10 years ago anyway! The most radical solution I heard of was to make a duct to take hot air out from the bay behind the front wheels and out thru the wing, have also heard of jacking the trailing edge of the bonnet up but you get oil on the screen. The questions to ask are 1. is the engine overheating (timing, carburation, head gaskets, water pump, thermostat etc), 2. is the colling system correctly configured, people do try to improve it!, 3 can I find a way of getting hot air out of the engine bay, given that the original design was not too good in this respect.

enough hot air for now.

What is the actual temperature of the coolant and that is measured with a calibrated thermometer in the top of the radiator.

There are times when we assume that the gauge is reading correctly which on occasions its not - the gauge only reads about 20C total and if the sender is inaccurate we see these sorts of panic situations of high operating temperatures.

rm

It's summer. They all (well, all the early ones) run warm in summer, but this sounds extreme. You certainly want the fan on all the time if it's doing that.

Solution I'd recommend is a good thermostatically-controlled fan, which was certainly the Reliant solution by '70 with the GTE. It'd probably be worth him talking to one of the specialists to see how best to go about it - I'd recommend Denpart in Derbyshire (see

As a last resort, I've seen a numnber of V6 coupes with ventilation slots. a la Jensen Interceptor or FF, opened up in the front wings in a desperate attempt to get more air in & out. People have been doing that since the things were new, so it's *almost* authentic.

Good luck getting it sorted.

Andy, owner of a '70 GTE

Use the electric fan. Overheating was a serious issue. My old man got the radiator re-cored with larger cores and it helped tremendously. Not cheap though.

Sounds to me as if it has the wrong temperature transmitter hermistor) --- the transmitter has to be matched to the dashboard instrument to give the correct reading Ford used different ones to other UK manufacturers and the engine is fitted to a Reliant not a Ford --- check the temperature at the thermostat elbow with a digital probe.

"undercover elephant" wrote

comfortably

Sell the car. They're dogs.

As a non Reliant person who had a lot of contact with one through a customer's car I can say you are wrong about that, very well engineered motor car not to my taste but the only fault was the Ford V6 -- The early Essex V6 was a disaster although it got better in the early 70s and the Colonge V6 while better still wasn't a great engine..

R Strong wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Likewise, I know it's each to their own, but why do you dislike them so much?

A capable, relatively economical and totally different car, that doesn't rust (much) and has a great exhaust note for under three grand - I can't think of anything else that can match it to be honest!

He is twenty years old (as am I), trust me, it's a damn sight better than some crap like a 'jumped-up' Nova

Max

"undercover elephant" wrote

Where do you start?

I owned one for 2 years and it broke down or was otherwise unreliable around

As well as persistent overheating, the brakes regularly failed, as did the electricals and the windscreen wipers; the engine went off tune every 100 miles or so and as a result it did about 12 to the gallon; it used batteries every 1000 miles or so, the tyres constantly deflated, it rattled, it grounded its exhaust on speedbumps....the list goes on. I cannot think of a single good point about it except its rarity, but that's really a consequence of its undesirability.

I would seriously recommend to the OP that he acquire a cheap second car, a £200 Escort maybe, as a spare for all the times the Reliant will let him down.

snip

All of which tells us a lot more about your or the person who maintained the car mechanical knowledge (or rather lack off ) than the car. The mechanicals on the Scimitar aren't rocket science just typical mid-late

Flush out the cooling system, change rad cap and thermostate. and always allow it to tickover for a few minutes after a hard run to stop boilover after engine is switched off. the temp gauge should read 90 if it gets hotter than this the coolant will discharge out the cap. It worked on mine anyhow..