Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing 2003 4 seater water temperature

A friend has a 2003 4 seater RHD with the ZETEC motor.
When running the stabilized temperature is 110° C. I find it a bit high and the fan is quite always on. I know that Smiths instruments are not always accurate, but...

On my PLUS 4 the temperature is between 90/95°C. The fan has 2 stages (Owner's Handbook) :

stage 1 : fan on at 105° and cut at 96°
stage 2 : fan on at 110° and cut at 100°

He does not have the Morgan Owner's Handbook for his 2003 4 seater. Could you have these informations for a 2003 ZETEC?

If you have a copy (pdf by exemple) of the 2003 4 seater, could you send it to me.

Thank a lot

Sounds high, could be air lock in system, or possible thermo-static valve sticking and not releasing water to radiator, not sure if ZETEC has one as not familiar with the engine, although most cars do have one in some form.

Hi
My 4/4 Zetec (1999) runs at 80C consistently. When in heavy traffic, the fan comes on at 90C and goes off again at 85. Usually, the fan will bring the temperature down to 85 even when remaining in traffic.
Hope this helps

Thank you all for your replies.

Jethro, what kind of radiator have you, brass or aluminium?

In fact my friend had a leaking aluminium radiator which cannot be repared and has changed it with a brass/copper radiator which is easier to repair in the future.

Ford France has checked the motor and the thermostat and says there is no problem with the temperature, but it is far aways of your temperatures 80/90 which are closed to my PLUS 4.

Another English friend who has a 2002 4/4 with the ZETEC has often his fan on when running normaly. His car has an aluminium radiator. I suspect the thermo contactor for the fan.

I've got the 2000 silver top Zetec 1800 4 seater and my temperatures are near exact to Jethro's

i.e. it does seem to run quite cool at between 80-90C

Mine is the original aluminum rad

Tell your friend to experiment by removing the thermostat and see if the engine runs cooler. It will take longer to warm up though. If it runs cooler, then either replace the thermostat, or if this doesn't help, drill a small hole in the thermostat to bleed cold water through.

Do NOT remove the thermostat- an engine relies on a positive pressure within the coolant system inside the cylinder head to prevent localised boiling of the coolant.

The 2002-2005 "black top" or "Focus " zetec engines are a bit of a law unto themselves.
They have the smallest radiator fitted, and the generic engine calibration map seems a bit hit or miss dependent on when the engine was fitted- and there's no rhyme or reason to it.

The engine map is not an automotive map- and was designed for stationary engines - ie those used as water pumps or similar....

Some engines run fine- others are lumpy and have poor response or off throttle RPM drop
Some run hot, others dont.....

There is no right and wrong here; however continued running at 100 degrees C plus may eventually "cook" the heat treatment out of the alloy cylinder head and lead to perpetual head gasket failure etc

This is one of the reasons we have recently redesigned our aftermarket radiator for this model to use a much larger core than standard to prevent any possibility of overheating under normal circumstances

Simon at Mulfab

Thanks for that Simon.
Colin (Jones aka Spanner Juggler) mentioned some of it yesterday at lunch.
Fortunately mine is not affected...

My apologies for the incorrect advice, and Simon, thank you for the correction. It sounds as if I have been lucky in the past when I have removed the thermostat to check on temperatures then?

I suspect not a problem on earlier cars Paul (like my '76).