Hi Geof. I can concur that blocking my rad also appears to aid cooling. I had some strange goings on in my coolant system. It could just all be conjecture but I put the cause down to the coolant flowing backwards in the Duratec compared to a normal engine.
Doh! Just reading this again I should have said “flowing backward through the thermostat” rather than just “flowing backwards”.
Basically the stat is at the bottom of this engine so cooled coolant flows into the stat rather than uncooled as in a more conventional system. Normally it’s the uncooled coolant that regulates the stat or cooling system not the cooled as in the Duratec. I think that is right now if you get my drift…..
