Upgrading radiator

[peterux]

That's cool.

(ugh...........sorry)

[Mike]

Patrick,
I've seen smaller lorry radiators!!!eyebrows:
That should certainly do the trick. I hope your fan has a lot of push/pull to make sure it can blow through a deep radiator?
Mike

[Patrick]

It should be OK, but I will probably get a bigger fan as well!

[Patrick]

First test fit of the new radiator

[Ace Ventura]Like a glove[/Ace Ventura] the fit is pretty much spot on, just needs a small notch in the mounting metal to clear the steering column.

At this height the cone goes on over it with pleanty of clearance. Only issue is that the oil cooler needs its pipes relocating as the rad uses up the space with were in.

More than enough room to fit a big fan behind to suck the air in. The oil cooler need some 90 degree bends so that it can sit back on top of the front chassis cross bar.

Marking out the position for the inlet pipe.

This is how far down the rad stick under the car. Not too bad still higher up that both the steering rack and sump. This may need some extra protection from any potential impact.

[Patrick]

What seemed like a big fan is actually quite small!

They've done a nice job on the welding, here the inlet and small pipe back to the header tank.

Outlet pipe

Drain plug, will be useful for draining the system. We will no longer need to take a hose off to drain it.

Mounted in the car.

The oil cooler needed relocated and the oil pipes running round the front of the chassis cross member.

This time we've mounted the oil cooler so it looks like it is sitting in the middle of hole at the front. It's actually off to one side slightly in relation to the chassis.

Here you can see the 90 degree oil unions in place, these allow the pipe to take a sharp turn around the chassis cross member.

The fit is very very tight, so tight that the top corners of the rad got a little make over with a bodywork hammer. The rad now just clears the cone when it is installed on the car.

The new pipe assembly now mirror the donor car. The top pipe has a joiner and the small pipe that take any trapped air away is now attached to the radiator.

A much cleaner look. The small pipe is just long long enough to fit in the new location.

[Patrick]

Been for a 45 mile drive today, and it's very warm out. Temperature hovers just over 80 on the gauge most of the time. At low speeds or stopped it does go up a bit. Highest was around 88 where it stayed nice and still at traffic lights. When we got back I left it on idle on the drive way and the needle on the gauge never moved.

On one of the hills where before the temperature go noticeably and quickly now the gauge stays where it is a bit over 80, probably around 83 - 84. Which is excellent.

So on the whole it's sorted it. It could probably do with a bigger fan to move more air through the rad at low speeds / stopped if the outside temperature is even higher than today.