Help, Radiator Dont Fit

[itllbedonesoon]

Help, i bought a 2B+ and the radiator that was supplied by RH seems a tad on the large size.

 

I have looked at quite a few of the members cars on the web site and the radiators all seem to be the square black type that sit on/just behind the front bottom cross section. (ie the lower front wishbone mount cross section) and look as though they are mounted almost vertical.

 

Mine on the other hand is an ally rectengular radiator. The width will fit through the chassis members with a wiggle but...... it is so long that even when touching the cam wheel, the bottom still sticks out the front beyond the bottom cross section.

 

This presents the problem of opening and closing the alligator style bonnet. ie. i cant because it would take off the bottom of the radiator.

 

hopefully i am doing something wrong as the only solutions i can think are

1/ buy a smaller radiator (expense, overheating??)

2/ dont use an alligator style bonnet (not confident of cutting up my bonnet)

3/ set the whole thing on fire and claim off the insurance (as you can see i am a bit miffed :boohoo: )

 

sorry for the long post, any ideas?????

[Grizzly]

I think most of us have the Colman Rad. I've attached a pic of mine. If you do a search though, you'll see that quite a few people have sourced alternatives from scrappies which work just as well. Do you have any pics of what you have?

[Guest mastarforth]

get hold of a coolman radiator (sold on the lolocost website of robin hood) or a coritna radiator from Ebay.

 

The one supplied with my kit was just o long and even if I could have made it fit, It would not have looked very good.

[Guest Jaffer]

Hi John,

 

Like Grizzly and Mastarforth say, lots of us were supplied with the long Ally rad..... and lots of us didn't use it!! Personally, I considered it a non starter as soon as I opened the box! Yes it can be fitted and yes as I understand it can be made to cool effectively, there are guys who post on here that have done it. I bought the Coolman Rad from Lolocost, its easier to fit, looks right and being more upright than the Ally one would fit I would expect it to work at least as well, probably better!

 

There are some alternatives shown on the NW RHOCaR sight that may help.

 

Jaff

 

PS Don't set it on fire.... it will make such a mess!

[Guest timswait]

As I understand it (and I'm not sure that I do..) the ally ones have to sit back at much more of an angle than the black cortina or coolman ones, almost horizontal, such that the top of it is almost in contact with the cam belt cover on the engine. I saw some fitted to cars at Newark, so they do fit, hopefully someone will have a photo... The other alternative is to scrap it and get hold of either a Cortina (which is a bit inadequate), Capri or Coolman one, all of which fit easier and free up under bonnet space.

Grizzly: I'm just in the process of replacing my Cortina rad with a Coolman one, and have had a bit of bother with getting the bottom hose to fit, basically the steering rack mount is in the way. I'm currently trying to fit a 90 degree elbow onto the rad, I was wondering how you've done it, do you have a close up of where the bottom hose fits the rad?

[Grizzly]

Hi Tim,

 

I'll post some more pics tonight that may help.

The direct route for the bottom hose is through the belt, but I didn't want to do this becasuse replacing the belt would mean having to remove the bottom hose (not something you'd want to do on the roadside eh?)

The pics should explain.......

[Grizzly]

Pics as promised Tim.

In the first pic, you can see that the bottom hose goes under the fan belt.

[Grizzly]

... and in this pic, you can see where I've spliced in some 35mm copper (painted silver) to extend it up to the rad. I have some spare 35mm copper if you'd like some?

[Guest chris brown]

1/ buy a smaller radiator (expense, overheating??)

2/ dont use an alligator style bonnet (not confident of cutting up my bonnet)

Point one. There is no problem in fitting a smaller rad, in fact one of the cars at Le Mans last week had a VW Polo rad fitted and he had no trouble (and it was very hot) but did say he had fared it in so as all the air that went through the fan went through the rad.

 

Point 2. Tape the nosecone in place then the bonnet (both halves bolted together) now using a dry marker (whiteboard pen) mark across the bonnet where you think the cut should be. Now stand back and look at it. Does it look right? If not rub the line out and try again. When you get it to your liking then either using a jigsaw or (my proffered method) use the angle grander with a narrow stainless cutting blade. Yes I agree with you it does seem a daunting job but once done you will wonder why you were so worried about it. Once cut you will find it so much easier to make a good firewall that will actually seal .

[eddieH]

Hi,

 

we fitted the big radiator that came with the kit, although we now wish that we'd bought a Coolman one. The problem is that we wanted to make sure that the nosecone wouldn't foul on the bottom of the rad that sticks out forwards, so we didn't mount it especially low down. We're struggling to find an expansion tank that fits under the bonnet and has enough expansion space above the level of the top hose (otherwise loads of water would overflow when it warms up and air will be sucked in to the system as it cools). I think we're going to have to get a custom header tank made - it probably won't be much cheaper than buying a new Coolman though. Best wishes,

 

Edward

[Guest elwe]

You could run a pressurised system rather than an expansion tank.

 

I have the big radiator as supplied with the 2B/4 and I run a pressurised system with a Rover 416 water bottle and cap. It was fine running down in Le Mans. Stuck in traffic going into the city center it didn;t go above half way up the normal.

[itllbedonesoon]

i think a smaller radiator may be the way forward.

picture of the supplied radiator

[Guest timswait]

Cheers Grizzly, I can see you've cut a notch in the steering rack mount to clear the bottom hose, I had come to the conclusion that that was what needed doing, but it's nice to see someone else done the same!

[Guest Guy]

itllbedonesoon,

 

Don't forget that the bonnet/nosecone has some height to it so you'll be able to get your rad more upright than that. The more of the car the radiator blocks up the more air will flow through it i.e. if you get a smaller one you will have lots of air going round the outside and not cooling the water down.

[Guest chris brown]

if you get a smaller one you will have lots of air going round the outside and not cooling the water down.

I feel regardless of which rad you fit it does need a cowl to ensure that all air that goes through the fan then goes through the rad this is even more important with a rad that is not upright as the air will try to cross the face of it and spill over the top and round the sides.