From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Cold weather engine cooling issues involving thermostats, radiators, and the use of radiator shutters.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 38\2\ Scan128 | |
| Date | 28th January 1921 | |
| Contd. -2- Jan. 28, 1921. Mr. Claude Johnson, has Mr. Hives/had some experience with this already, and Mr. Belnap has had so much experience with it on his Cadillacs during the last six years, that he regularly locks the thermostat open as soon as he receives delivery of the car. We have heard of other cases in which it has been impossible to retain the alcohol in cars fitted with a bypass thermostat. (2) Next in order of importance is the danger of freezing the radiator while running, on cars fitted with a bypass thermostat. While we have not actually frozen the radiator on 4.EX we have found it very difficult to strike the correct amount of baffling on the radiator to keep it reasonably warm when running in zero weather. There appears to be only a narrow margin between having the radiator excessively cold and having it boiling. This trouble might be overcome by the use of Allen radiator shutters, with which Mr. Hives is familiar. A member of the Bosch Magneto Corporation, who has just spent three days in Boston, reports that in these three days running on a Nash car fitted with a thermostat control similar to our own, he has boiled off five or six gallons of alcohol, and during the same period has frozen the radiator four or five times. (3) Carburation trouble in cold weather is worse when a bypass thermostat is used, because the air is not warmed by passing through the warm screen of the radiator and therefore for a given engine temperature, the temperature inside the bonnet is lower. The use of an Allen shutter would help this feature also. (4) The Lafayette and Lincoln cars, both expensive 8-cyl: cars produced last year, have shutters on the outside of the radiator operated by a thermostat. The Columbia, a cheaper car, has had this feature for years. The Lincoln is remarkable because the Leland company which is building it, was the originator of the Contd:- | ||