Rad muffs

[ColinP]

It's going to be the Law soon !

erm, when? where? I can't see any notice of this - is it going to be just Scotland?

I know there are some places where there are road signs advising to turn engine off (e.g. Ford level crossing in W Sussex).

Any links etc welcome - else it goes into the rumour bin.

Colin

[Cam]

Just switch off - and save fuel. It's going to be the Law soon !

Not really a solution in slow moving motorway jams is it? Besides which, all that heavy starting is likely to drain the battery if you are doing it for long periods every minute or so...

With the heater running the engine is unlikely to overheat at idle

Well, if Chris experienced it with only part of the radiator blocked off then I'd think you'd also experience it with all of it blocked off (equivalent to no fan when stationary).

but you would want a temperature gauge fitted to keep an eye on it.

Yes, a temperature gauge is a very useful device and I'm glad you see the sense of it now as opposed to just having an oil pressure gauge and not needing to bother with a temp gauge as you advocated in some of your earlier posts.

For many years I ran my 948 Minor all year round with no fan fitted. But I guess there wasn't so much traffic about as there is now.

Yes, no fan is fine if you can keep on the move but for those of us who live in cities and regularly experience traffic jams and slow moving traffic it's really not a good idea.

[Gareth]

I've put a piece of thick card betwixt the rad and grille for the cold weather, and it seems to be doing ok. The car warms up nicely, and the heater is up to something like warm within a few miles. It's not a very large piece of cardboard - maybe about 10" the same as Matts, with a piece of string looped through and hung over the radiator cap. It made an entertaining picture for the after-school club as I decamped to the staff carpark armed with string, scissors and an old copier paper box!

As I said, it works well. There's a slight leak on my radiator which produces some strange effects - now the radiator gets up to temperature, the moisure that collects on the rad is more likely to turn to steam if there's sufficient humidity in the air... the first time I fitted it, I reached home in a Flying Scotsman-like cloud of steam! Hasn't happened for a while, though, and YES, I have checked the water level... ;) It seems to cope with slow-moving and stationary traffic pretty well, too - as my 45 minute crawl home through the snow yesterday...

[aupickup]

i have a proper rad muff that works just fine, first time i have used it and its good.
must be colder this year