Some of you may have noticed my wanted ad in last month’s issue of the JDCQ magazine. I was chasing a 12 blade MK 2 radiator fan and a club member has responded with a couple of fans available. The story behind that ad is that the early MK1 2.4 cars only had a simple 4 blade fan which is adequate for normal use on the open road and general use but it is absolutely hopeless when caught in heavy city type traffic.

I attended Geoff and Gerry Underhill’s Australia day BBQ at Tingalpa on Sunday 23 January and it was a typical Queensland summer day with the temperature around the 30 degree C mark. I was travelling from Pine Rivers on the Gateway Arterial and sitting on the 100k speed limit with the water temperature gauge steady on 75 degrees. However I got caught in a surprising amount of traffic and a number of red lights around the Capalaba area and by the time I reached the Underhill estate the temperature was around the 100 mark.

Expecting the worst I let the car cool down and borrowed a bucket for water off Geoff [queries he - not another breakdown?] however it had not lost any coolant. The return trip home was uneventful with the temperature gauge sitting as before on 75 degrees.

I have had this problem before in my first MK1 2.4 in 1986 and the fix of putting a late model radiator fan on the car solved most of the traffic overheating woes. I expect it will make a major difference in this case.