Are you sure the head gasket is ok? - Might be pressurising the system? Where have you got your guages plumbed into?
What coolant resevoir have you got? If it's the round one (newer type one) I THINK it needs to have a blue screw cap as the black ones don't seal properly?
cooling sounds like an air lock if u have no heating inside, has it got one of those strange valve things fitted b4 the matrix? Worth checking the flow thru the matrix, sometimes I've had to run the cars up and down the road (not far) then let to cool down to clear air locks. 115 oil temp and 95 water during track use is what I would expect.
It does have the blue cap and I've removed the valve things before the matrix now too. However i think I have found out the issue. Like I said I removed the water pump, took it apart and on the face of it looked ok, but when compared to a new one it was clear that the impeller has moved and even has scrape marks where it's been rubbing. So basically not working as efficiently as it should which explains the symptoms. I'm going to put it all back together later today or tomorrow and try it out. I'll report back.
I can confirm that the water pump was at fault. Replaced it today and put a drilled thermostat back in and the car slowly raised up to temp, fan kicked in, heat inside the car and no boiling over. Added some water wetter in too. Thanks everyone for your help. Cheers Adam
Redline water wetter works very well in my race car. I saw a definate drop in temps compared to normal anti-freeze type coolant. It's not as effective if you just add it to your normal coolant, you have to drain the system & refill with water & 1x Bottle of water wetter. Definately worth the 12
You shouldnt see a difference in temps on the gauge.. The thermostat controls the engine temp no matter what! - However! It increases the waters surface area over a given surface due to less air/gas molecules being in contact with that surface, reducing heat spots etc. Making the fluid more efficient. Making your cooling system more efficient. If you run with No stat, or holes in your stat (race car applications) then you may well notice a difference!
as henry says, my understanding of water wetter is that it is supposed to reduce hot spots around the cylinder head, not to reduce the overall temperature of the coolant. what's the thinking behind removing the stat or putting holes in it?
I run holes in mine, runs slightly cooler as even when the stat is closed there is water running through the rad. The stat is rarely/never closed in full race conditions to be fair though....