Gauge is marking hot

[Fiatnut]

I have a 1979 spider done some work on it last year .It was running and still is running fine only issue is that the temperature gauge marks that the engine is hot well over 200 but in fact its not the fan kicks in and out properly and the hoses are not extremly hot?I have both sensors on the head replaced .At the end of last summer when the car went to storage after installing Marks distributorless component and rebuilding the rad with a triple core it was running at 170 -175.what do I look at next?

[socaltino]

You mention the two sensor on the head, so maybe you might be suffering from the same thing that happen to me a few years ago. I personally have had my temperature gauge go from 190 to well into the red and back to 190. Yet the car is running fine and the fan is kicking on as it should. I found that my grounds on the various sensors were quite dirty. I also found that there are four sensor in my fuel injected car that can make the guage dance up and down. Two in the head, one under the intake manifold another at the radiator tee. I'm not sure if the sensor at the fan switch is somehow connected to the temp gauge or not. Anyway, a good cleaning of the grounds cure my problem.

[fiat218]

I have a 1979 spider done some work on it last year .It was running and still is running fine only issue is that the temperature gauge marks that the engine is hot well over 200 but in fact its not the fan kicks in and out properly and the hoses are not extremly hot?I have both sensors on the head replaced .At the end of last summer when the car went to storage after installing Marks distributorless component and rebuilding the rad with a triple core it was running at 170 -175.what do I look at next?

Where did u get your radiator at,I'm looking for triple

[tartan18]

Mark Allison has a triple row cross flow radiator -- that is where I got mine. Vick Autosport also has one available that I believe is a 3 row as well.

[majicwrench]

Just over 200 is not a problem. There are NOT 4 sensors that can make the gauge dance up and down. If fan coming on and going off, cooling system has things under control.
"But in fact it is not"..........how do you know it's not getting over 200? Feeling hoses not a good way to tell diff tween 190 and 210.
Cleaning connections, making sure engine is well grounded to battery good. Just take a jumper and run tween battery neg and engine block. If gauge moves at all, you need some work on the grounds.
Keith

[bradartigue]

I have a 1979 spider done some work on it last year .It was running and still is running fine only issue is that the temperature gauge marks that the engine is hot well over 200 but in fact its not the fan kicks in and out properly and the hoses are not extremly hot?I have both sensors on the head replaced .At the end of last summer when the car went to storage after installing Marks distributorless component and rebuilding the rad with a triple core it was running at 170 -175.what do I look at next?

One of the two sensors in the head - and FIAT would change which one does what so there is no hard and fast rule - ONE of them sweeps the temperature needle, one of them pegs it. Find out which one pegs it and disconnect it (and keep it off a grounding surface). Run the car up to temperature. If it stays in the right zone (190-195 when the fan kicks on) then your peg sender or gauge may be bad. If not then your sweep sender or gauge may be bad. In either case you may have air in the head.

[Fiatnut]

If there is air in the system how do you remove it?

[4uall]

http://wwwe.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopi ... on#p151872

http://youtu.be/8DtcIlkt4BY

[bradartigue]

If there is air in the system how do you remove it?

Here is the official procedure, which simply says keep dumping water into the system with the engine running until it comes out of the little brass nut in the front of the head.

http://www.artigue.com/fiatcontent/serv ... /104-6.pdf

Best way to bleed air is to add a flush-and-fill "T" fitting to the heater hose on the back of the head, then fill the radiator, then loosen the little brass bolt in front of the head and fill from the T until water comes out of it, then close the bolt, then fill the T until it overflows. With the heater valve open and the engine running is best.