Coolant heat storage ???

I am bringing this up again to try to resolve these perplexing questions that continue to occupy my thoughts. I will grant that the car is cool running, but I have never observed high coolant temperatures either at the SS Thermos bottle drain or at the radiator cap or overfill tank. So is it possible that the 3 way, the thermos bottle and the thermostat are all not working according to design fashion? To include the full pressure that would be exerted on the radiator cap and the overflow container when running at a thermostat design temperature ( something less than 200 degrees F ) ??? The warning about draining the thermostat bottle seems ludicrous since it is hardly ever more than luke warm. Has anybody ever burned themselves??? And if the system never worked why did Toyota continue to make the cars with this system until Generation 3??? The concept of having a prewarmed up cooling system is a good one. Can anybody think of what could be done to make it work??? Take out thermostat? Lower thermostat opening temp. Remove 3 way valve? In reality the Heat Storage Tank could be removed , as it is not storing HEAT!

 

TY Pat, I will invest in a IR thermometer, I remember seeing one at Harbor Freight. After writing post # 1, I returned home about 20 miles and travelled between 55 and 65. Upon arriving home I left the car in ready, the engine would run periodically and the fans would come on also. I got a thermometer and the temperature was 106 F. I squeezed inlet/outlet radiator hoses, a change in level at radiator cap was noted and temp of hoses was the same at either overflow or radiator cap postion. It seems after a drive like that the coolant temperature shoud be something < 200F. The car warms up quickly, within 3-4 blocks. Put it on max heat and the system will burn you out. When I changed coolant and the inverter all drains were not burning hot. In other words I could touch all of the draining water at each point without being uncomfortable. At the time I did not use a thermometer, but suspect it was around 106F. As I remember from past experiences 110F was uncomfortable to the touch. Does this all sound like normal operation for a car that is supposed to retain 3 quarts of coolant at hot and dangerous temperatures at the storage tank. I drive every day so the coolant according to the warnings is supposed to remain hot. 106F is not hot but a thermostat at 199F IS.!
Pat: After your car has warmed up suficiently what temperature do you read ( F ) at the thermostat housing ?

 

Thanks for the input. I'm sorry but I will have to speak in Farenheit. To reinsert my point, I don't think that one should measure 106 F if the thermostat opens at 82C, I'm not sure what that is, but it should be around 190F. According to my Bently Repair manual the thermostat is wide open at 199F. It doesn't make sense to me that the design operating temperatures of the Gen II should be between 106F ( that I measured ) and 199F. Now the thermostat could begin to open at 178 F (Bently) but that is still a pretty big spread. 72 degrees! :cheer2: In reviewing what you said, 40 degrees C probably is about 106 F ( exactly what I'm reading )

 

I am attempting to speak of actual temperatures after a complete road trip. 20-40 miles.

 

I'm not really sure what you mean by ambient. My interpretation of ambient temperature has always been the temp. of the air around you, or within a particular open space. Not in any case ever referring to a controlled environment. Unless that is the design, then it's really not ambient but design temperature. Back to subject: When the car is completely warmed up, what is the highest temp. that you read? ( F ) Sorry I don't have a scan guage. :cheer2:

 

TY I'll look for that at HF.Thanksgiving day they have 25% off.

 

So......that may equal the same temps I am reading after full warm-up, at the radiator cap..... 106 F ( sound right? ).

 

Good, now did you ever perchance measure the temp at the radiator or overflow at that time??? Because if you also read 106F or thereabouts, then there is a quick, unexplained drop in temp OR my cooling system and others are malfunctioning. TY

 

All very interesting, now we are getting somewhere, I know not where precisely, but.........Thanks also for the conversion, from years of being in Europe and Japan I approxmate in my litte head. TY

 

Unlike other cars I have had, it appears as tho there is a wide, no, a very wide span of operating temps within the various spaces of the Prius. ie: cabin heater, CHS, engine, overflow tank and Rad fill point. This is definitely one crazy car! TY