cooling system

[Richard Hudson <richard.hudson@domain.elided>]

Ladies and gents

Help please..

Last Friday I got stuck in the traffic jam from hell, it took me 2 1/2
hours to cover just 8 miles. Despite the nice warm weather the car never
got over 1/2 way on the temp gauge and the car behaved itself
impeccably. Even after standing for 10 mins, shutting off the engine (to
save fuel) and restarting 10 mins later the gauge went to 2/3rds then
dropped straight back down to 1/2 way.. 

Anyway when I eventually got to the M4 motorway, I hoofed it for the
next 15 miles. (Not saying how fast but it was fast!!) I know that the
engine will run at a slightly higher temperature when running at speed
and the gauge seemed pretty happy at just over the 1/2 way mark. However
when I came off the motorway the gauge soared upto the 7/8th mark (just
about 2mm off the red sector) and only turning on the heater seemed to
get it back down which took ages.

As I rebuilt the motor year before last and have done about 7,000 miles
on it so far, I am not a compulsive gauge watcher but I would like to
know if this is normal behaviour from the Stag. If so is there any way
around this feature I thought maybe it was heat from cast exhaust
manifolds, stainless exhaust etc that could be causing the build up of
heat in the engine bay ???..

At no point did the engine feel any different, oil pressure was spot on
and hadn't dropped a bit. 

Your comments will be appreciated.

Richard Hudson
73 Auto White Stag

P.S. the engine runs so much smoother after a good thrashing, silky
smooth

P.P.S. I am not in the habit of thrashing it around..