Lifespan of refurbished Austin 7 engine

[Bob Culver]

It does act a bit like a thermosst but not enough. Even the humble Bradford with no fan had a thermostat, although I guess it does or did get very cold in UK. Pre war when doctors did home vists their cars were noted for extreme wear. Taxis were the opposite.
Many boat engines wore rapidly. It was observed that cars prone to overheating wore less. And air cooled bikes. The combination of a pump and no thermostst and oils of the time accounted largely for the 40,000 mile rebores common to 1950s.

[Tony Griffiths]

On the subject of warming up - I have wondered whether the thermosiphon acts a bit like a thermostat. The water in the block is not going to move out of the block and into the radiator in significant quantities until the block has warmed up. It wouldn't be as positive as a thermostat, but may be facilitating a faster warm up than a pumped system with no thermostat or a failed thermostat.

Yes, that's a very interesting point; I'd never considered it.

[Dave Mann]

It is interesting that there is no mention of the lack of an air filter, particularity on cars with updraught carburetors with the intake sited to collect all the dust thrown up by the FNS wheel, I notice with all the present dry weather my wheels don't need washing just dusting. The RAF soon found they had a serious problem in WW2 in North Africa with all the dust thrown up when taxiing aircraft inducted the dust into the low intake of Merlin engines where it made an excellent grinding paste. I had procrastinated over the fitting of an air filter for years before finally biting the bullet ten years ago and am amazed how frequently it requires cleaning in dry weather.    

[Andy Bennett]

On the subject of warming up - I have wondered whether the thermosiphon acts a bit like a thermostat. The water in the block is not going to move out of the block and into the radiator in significant quantities until the block has warmed up. It wouldn't be as positive as a thermostat, but may be facilitating a faster warm up than a pumped system with no thermostat or a failed thermostat.

Yes, that's a very interesting point; I'd never considered it.

Yes that is exactly what happens. A while back I took step by step thermal pictures of my engine heating up which shows this. I will try to dig them out of my picture archive and post here later.
Andy

[Bob Culver]

It always surprises that efforts were not made to fit air cleaners early on in motoring history. In 1929 NZ had very high car ownership, after only USA and Hawii, but only 3 % of roads were sealed. Near all cars had open updraught carbs.

When driving through short dust clouds I coast as this reduces the draw through the cleaner. Some argue that oil wetted gauze just spreads the ingestion. On my Seven with the export "filter" far more dirt accumaulted on the front. Some sort of shield  would seem helpful.

[Dave Mann]

I've been on the look out for a bray engine heater for some time with no success
  bray.jpg (Size: 74.66 KB / Downloads: 129) eventually I found a modern equivalent      which is fitted in the lower radiator hose. Unfortunately it is American and is 120 volts but at 600 watts it gets the engine nice and toasty in an hour. This is something I've wanted to do for ages because all the engines we built at work were pre heated prior to starting.

[AustinWood]

A renault 5 thermostat can be fitted in the top hose with a little ingenuity. Works very well.

[andrew34ruby]

I've been on the look out for a bray engine heater for some time with no success eventually I found a modern equivalent  which is fitted in the lower radiator hose. Unfortunately it is American and is 120 volts but at 600 watts it gets the engine nice and toasty in an hour. This is something I've wanted to do for ages because all the engines we built at work were pre heated prior to starting.

120 volts. Mmmmmm, buy 2 and wire them in series, heat up the car twice as fast!