engine woes

[overtontriumph]

Hello everyone.
After a great summer using the 2000, including a drive on the hill climb at Carfest South, I now have some problems. Before I start to pull things to pieces I thought I would run this by everyone here first for some advice where to look first.
Last Wednesday after a quick trip to Basingstoke and back, I left the car running on the drive way for 5 minutes while I grabbed some paperwork to deliver elsewhere. After setting off again the engine developed a misfire, the temperature gauge shot up and the amp gauge dropped. The car stalled several times before I was able to get it back home. With the bonnet up, it was apparent the engine was running a lot hotter than normal. It started easily every time, the fanbelt was still in place etc.
After allowing to cool, the engine ran well with no misfire and no overheating.
Does anybody have any idea what could be the problem?

Regards
Phil

[tony]

Fixed fan or a viscous one ? Without airflow through radiator with car not moving I wonder if fan is not working correctly or radiator partially blocked ?
Tony.

[Clifford Pope]

Sticking thermostat?

[johnconradlee]

Assuming there wasn't any steam (and therefore the coolant hasn't escaped), I'd start with something cheap and replace the thermostat and inspect the water pump whilst I had the coolant partly drained.

[Steve G]

The amp gauge bit makes me wonder if the drive belt is slipping. This could be down to a faulty alternator of water pump possibly.
The missfire might just be down to fuel vaporisation with the pipe running round the head getting too hot or possibly the coil overheating.

[Mike Stevens]

You mention ammeter so I assume this is a Mk1?

It just sounds like an over heating issue. See if you can get/borrow etc an infrared thermometer. These can be used to 'target' different bits to see what their termperatures are. The top of the thermostat housing should be around 90C, radiator top a bit less, radiator bottom and bottom hose a lot less. This would tell you the temperatures around the engine. Nothing should be hotter than 90 - 100C.

Ammeter reading low. Do you mean in the middle (zero) or right over to the left, I.E heavy discharge? The former sounds right for a dynamo as it doesn't do much at tickover. A heavy discharge doesn't sound right though as that would mean headlights, fan etc on unless you have a fault.

Sort the apparent heating out first, thermostat (my first choice!), blocked radiator a possibility, pump unlikely unless its bearings are making a noise.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Mike.

[CAR]

My own experience of this sort of thing has been a radiator covered with 'fairies', the seed pod things from wild flowers. A carpet of these had blocked the radiator on the way to the BMC day at ferry meadows one day and the pi boiled up after being in the queue to get in. Hand in through the large intakes in the valance and brushed them away, problem solved.
When we got the estate the water pump was leaking, occassionally you would see steam but it was not easy to see where from. Water leaked from the small hole in the casing low down once the car had stopped running, a minute or so after switch off. Perhaps yours has done this and left you with less coolant than you assumed.

Colin