This is where my temp gaue is at Max temperature, is it low and I am wondering if the termostat is working correctly. This phot was taken after racing down my street after the car has warmed up for 15 minutes. Also the car takes forever to get to this temperature. Any ideas?

 

When new your car came with an 88ēC thermostat....so it should run at leat 88ēC. That would be *just* touching the green section on the gauge

I'd replace the thermostat....make sure you get the correct one with the rear bypass disc.

Use caution with the thermostat housing bolts. Sometimes they've seized/corroded and will break. Sometime you can patiently ease them out.....lots of back-n-forth action needed. Other times they break no matter what you do, Other times....they come right out with no problems

Cheers
DD

 

Try cooling spray on the housing. Then hairdrier at full tilt followed by cooling directed at the bolts. Repeat a couple of times. I have yet to break a bolt or stud following this procedure where alu is involved.

 

Everything on the car is original. The thermostat is the one that came with the car and has 17,000 some miles on it. Not sure if age just affected it but it does seem to be running cool. I am going to see if Welsh sells one.

This one shows 180F ??
http://www.welshent.com/product_info.php?sku=JLM9632

 

Thats where the needle sits on my series 3, exactly. I mean to the millimetre! I always wondered why it stays so low but i reckoned its better than overheating?

 

For ages and ages Jaguar has used/offered a couple different thermo ratings, usually 82ēC (180F) and 88ēC (190F). The USA cars used the 88ē. You can use the lower rating if you want.

180F is out of the "cold enrichment" range of the fuel injection system

Cheers
DD

 

Trouble is gauges can lie!!! A way to verify is needed so as to determine if correction action is needed and what kind. An external RF guage is slick. I got one at HF. Neat.

So, is the heat gun I got there. I just did some wiring and it was real nice to almost instantly shrink the shrink wrap tubing. My hair blowers, that is the ones borrowed from my late wife never did that at all.

Not much trouble with cold weather condensation around here, but that heat gun oughta be the thing to dry out wet connectors. Only once since 75 when we came here has it gotten cold enough to freeze the water in exposed pipes. Ours did! A heat gun would've been slick. I used my acetylene torch. The propane torch might have done it. But, it was freezing so I hit it with the big stuff....

Carl

 

Do you mean something like this?

I would think I would aim it at the thermostat housing?

 

Yup!

For guage verification, s close to the sensor as possible. Seek to read what it reads.

For other information. Various places within the system. Upper radiator should be hot. Lower part should be cooler. if so, radiator is cooling.

Even measure as the exhaust gases leave the head on the manifold to determine a cold cylinder!!
Fun!

Caveat. Running an engine cold increases wear a lot.

Carl

 

So what should the temperature be near the thermostat? 180F or more?

 

Agree with all posts so far.

You need to externally check the gauge. The IR gun is a good idea.

Agree about the bolts in the T-stat housing. I broke one of mine :-(

My car has a 82deg stat in it and I am running 1 "notch" further up than your gauge. This corresponds to around 175~180 as measured using an IR gun on the top rad hose.

I have bought a 88deg stat and will fit that soon to see if it makes a difference. I think being slightly warmer may improve the idle quality of the car a little bit.......

PS : Not to highjack the thread, but is your wood original ? It looks great

 

PS : Not to highjack the thread, but is your wood original ? It looks great[/QUOTE]

Yes, thank you, the car only has 17k original miles.