T57 thermostat wax.

minime · **Joined:** Tue May 12, 2009 9:48 pm **Posts:** 114

Hello all,

I am trying to repair/reproduce the radiator shutter thermostat for a T57.
For the moment none of the parts suppliers I know has them on stock.
Actually it is a quite simple setup with a spring loaded piston in a wax chamber.
The only technical challenge, which is also the failure reason for my original part is to get it leak proof in order to keep the wax in its chamber.

The biggest problem to complete this project is the sourcing of the Thermostat wax.
There are suppliers for this material in China but they count in container loads. :shock:

Thermostat wax seems to be very specific according to what I can read on different places.

I tried to drain the wax out of some modern cooling thermostats of the 70 degrees range but the the recuperated quantity is too low.
Is there someone in the forum who knows which wax will work or who has a source where I could get a reasonable quantity of the right stuff from?

Thank you very much for any suggestion that might help.

Greetings:

Minime

Udolahr · **Posted:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:31 pm

there must be other options than the historical wax. Can you give me the exact specification of this wax .for example the expansion coefficient .Do you have a drawing ?

Herman · **Posted:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:38 pm

I found this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_thermostatic_element

where they claim that it was invented in 1936 (??) but there are some links at the bottom which could be nice.

Would wax from a lava-lamp work?

minime · **Joined:** Tue May 12, 2009 9:48 pm **Posts:** 114

Hi,

No, I have no drawing but I disassembled the original (most probably already a reproduction part which was made some years ago during a restoration) and I took all the necessary measurements.
I'm just rebuilding a new part and I will try to test different wax types leaving my original part as is.
Actually I'm not the only one looking for some thermostat wax as most of the Bugatti parts suppliers I contacted seem to know the same difficulties.

Greetings:

minime

minime · **Joined:** Tue May 12, 2009 9:48 pm **Posts:** 114

Herman wrote:

I found this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_thermostatic_element

where they claim that it was invented in 1936 (??) but there are some links at the bottom which could be nice.

Would wax from a lava-lamp work?

Someone told me that bees wax might work although on Wikipedia they state that it is especially distilled wax.
The thermostat that is contained in the water circuit as it is still in use today might well have been invented in 1936 but the automatically operated shutters were already used on Bugatti's and other vehicles well before 1936.

Greetings:

Minime

Udolahr · **Posted:** Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:18 pm

wax was used in engines bevor 1900 .

minime · **Joined:** Tue May 12, 2009 9:48 pm **Posts:** 114

Hi,

I managed to get the correct wax and I completed the new thermostat that I made in my workshop according to the original part.
I tested it in a cooking pot while measuring the water temperature with a thermocouple and it opens at about 75 to 80 degrees.
It has a full travel of about 3 cm which actually could be reduced as only 1 to 1.5 cm are necessary to open fully the shutters but it leaves some adjustment flexibility.
I tested it on our car today and it regulated well the temperature around 70 to 80 degrees which is exactly what I tried to achieve.

Greetings:

minime

Herman · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:10 am

The big question: where did you get it?

minime · **Joined:** Tue May 12, 2009 9:48 pm **Posts:** 114

Herman wrote:

The big question: where did you get it?

Hi,

Well it wasn't that easy and it took me several weeks to source it although I'm working as development engineer in automotive business.
So if someone is in desperate need, I might be able to help. :mrgreen:

Greetings:

minime

Udolahr · **Posted:** Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:37 pm

I think the question was , " Where did you get it " ?

minime · **Joined:** Tue May 12, 2009 9:48 pm **Posts:** 114

Udolahr wrote:

I think the question was , " Where did you get it " ?

Exactly right I fully understood what the question was dear Udo.

If someone needs to know where to get it from he can contact me by PM.

I have bought 1 kg of that stuff which is probably enough to fill about 100 thermostats or even more as each thermostat contains about 7ccm.
It wasn't cheap, as shipping and bank transfer charges already added up to 80 Euros (plus material cost) but that is still a bargain compared to the cost for a finished thermostat someone offered to me. :shock:

Greetings:

minime

Udolahr · **Posted:** Thu Sep 15, 2011 12:07 pm

you can get the wax from , Zhejiang Taizhou Tu-Poly Co., Ltd.
but you also can buy the ready thermostat element with the seal .

minime · **Joined:** Tue May 12, 2009 9:48 pm **Posts:** 114

Thanks for the info.

I didn't know that they have a Bugatti T57 thermostat in their program but I should have checked twice before going through the exercise of building it or I should have asked you.

At least I haven't found anything on the net looking close to what is installed on the T57.

Greetings:

minime

minime · **Joined:** Tue May 12, 2009 9:48 pm **Posts:** 114

Hi,

And here the finished part.

Greetings:

minime

T57 thermostat wax.

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