Fun Sunday with the Radiator

[Jonathan]

Thats it, from now on the car goes into the garage.

What an absolute PIG of a job to get this thing out, I could have even broke into a little swearing session.

So whats with the clogging ?

Having just had a C service shouldn't that be nice and clean ?

Suprised it had any air flow through it - not suprised it burst either !

Bit more restoration to do and more Stainless prefabbing - the 2 support arms are busted (they hold the cowl and chargecooler in place) but I'm not payng

[lottylotus]

Snap,well nearly,i started to sort my fans out today,the fan cowling disintigrated,i think its around

[Simon350S]

That is a very familiar sight nigel.... Not seen an intact one, its a common problem as both of mine are busted and so was BigBoys....

Simon

[madmezza]

I changed the radiator a while back (still haven't got the car on the road yet!), but SJ made a mistake when sending me the parts and I ended up with 2 passenger-side radiator support stays.

I paid just over

[superdavelotus]

Hi Jonathan,

This happened to my V8. After many tries of cleaning which doesn't work. Blasting ari doesn't do anything as I got PNm to try. I even tried jet washing it but all this does is damage the fins. This technical bullitin from Lotus is a load of rubbish. Basicallt the fins are too fine and once it's clogged up you have to take the rad out to get unblock it. Once you've spent the labour in doing this then you might as well refurb the radiator and go for triple core.

It's not an easy job doing the radiator, a lot of pulling and pushing to get the frame out.

Regards,

Dave Walters

Thats it, from now on the car goes into the garage.

What an absolute PIG of a job to get this thing out, I could have even broke into a little swearing session.

So whats with the clogging ?

Having just had a C service shouldn't that be nice and clean ?

Suprised it had any air flow through it - not suprised it burst either !

Bit more restoration to do and more Stainless prefabbing - the 2 support arms are busted (they hold the cowl and chargecooler in place) but I'm not payng

[Jonathan]

Yeah Dave it's a bastard for sure - going to make some cuts and crops here and there to allow that to get in and out quicker.

The car's just been C serviced and part of that was to clean the radiator but as you can see....500 miles later....yeah right.

Might make the supports out of stainless - easy peasy to make.

So what would you go for a refurb or a new rad ?

It's in pretty rusty condition ? I take it they can treat the rust and do something nice for it ?

[Jonathan]

LOL just found this on LEW - EXACTLY the same as mine.

http://www.lotusespritworld.co.uk/Old%20News/news_Aug05.html

TBH if this is carried out on EVERY service there shouldn't be a problem, mine's got stuff in there which has clearly been in there AGEs and I've had the car serviced 3 times although I would have thought in the C service this would have been done propperly...

The biggest issues I can see is there is all the dirt going to go ?

You can't blow (jet wash !?!?!?) it out as all the crap will just hit the CC radiator and sink to the bottom of the cowl so within a few miles you're back to square 1.

You could vacuum it out but that's going to be slightly hard - the only way is to take the whole thing out and clean it properly.

Nice job.

Another picture :

I would check this out as a matter of urgency - might save you a hefty bill !

[internets]

Just replaced the chargecooler rad and had my radiator refurbished, but have also noticed that the 4 ally pipes (2 for heater matrix and 2 for chargecooler) that run along inside the bottom of the frame have corroded leak. They seem to go where the pipes go through the rubber gromits in the frame. Worth checking while you are under there. Part no A082P4200F

Edited December 18, 2007 by internets

[gwilhelm]

Just replaced the chargecooler rad and had my radiator refurbished, but have also noticed that the 4 ally pipes (2 for heater matrix and 2 for chargecooler) that run along inside the bottom of the frame have corroded leak. They seem to go where the pipes go through the rubber gromits in the frame. Worth checking while you are under there. Part no A082P4200F

[Jonathan]

Holey schamoly - did an elephant stand on that charge cooler red ? (lol thought mine was bad with a few bends).

So do they simply re-core it or can they upgrade and enhance it when they repair ?

Not that I'm overly bothered it's just while it's out if an upgrade can be had, I'd rather spend the few extra quid.

[Vulcan Grey]

Had to do mine as well a few years ago, I think at around 70,000miles

http://vulcangrey.lotuscolorado.com/galler...umName=radiator

my cc rad wasn't bad though, considering that colorado is mostly rock, and we sand our roads in the winter...

[wiseraven]

Given how common this seems to be, has anyone looked into fitting an easy to remove fine wire mesh in front of the rad?

It may reduce the peak airflow a bit, but if it stops the rad from clogging and protects the vanes from damage it would surely increase the useful life of the rad.

[fjmuurling]

Very encouraging pictures as I have a new CCradiator/Condensor waiting to be fitted as one of the parts for the AC repair/conversion.

Freek

[lotusshaney]

Given how common this seems to be, has anyone looked into fitting an easy to remove fine wire mesh in front of the rad?

It may reduce the peak airflow a bit, but if it stops the rad from clogging and protects the vanes from damage it would surely increase the useful life of the rad.

I've though about making a removable front mesh just like me Elise. All thats needed is two small holes for pegs on the grill to go into and you can use the bolts that are already there.

Would anyone be interested in them ???

[superdavelotus]

Hi Daniel,

I've already drawn complete plans for this idea last year. Just couldn't find anyone to make it at a price that would interest owners.

I've designed lots of new stuff for the Esprit but I was shafted a couple of months ago, so I find it difficult to dedicate/waste my time on new stuff anymore.

Hi jonathan,

Just get you old rad recored/refurbished with a triple core centre. They clean up and paint the frame. It will flow better than before. Not sure whether the GT3 had double or triple core centre>

Dave walters

[Jonathan]

The prob with the new grille is that the wire would have to be so fine to make up for the aperture decrease.

I was going to re-do the grille this winter because mine is all knackered and it's the ideal time to do it really, naturally in stainless B)

Interestingly the oil cooler rads are spotless...

So what % coverage do ya think is acceptable ?

Dave's example is just under 71% open (if thats 1.5mm x 8mm sqr aperture)

I mean I can get some stainless weave 1m sqr 1.5mm dia wire and 6.8mm aperture which has a 65% open area for

[wiseraven]

Judging from the photos, the rads seem to still cool reasonably well with what looks like 60-70% blockage, so I'd have thought that any of those meshes would be fine. When the blockage is actually at the rad, that part of the rad is not contributing anything to the cooling, whereas blockage by the grille still leaves the entire rad free to work. E.g. with 40% of the rad blocked, you've got 60% of the rad using 60% airflow. If the grille blocked 40% of the air, you'd still have 100% of the rad working with 60% of the flow, so it has to be better.

The smaller the mesh, the better in my book. Ideally, it needs to be smaller than the rad's mesh, otherwise we'd be little better off. We only want to let through stuff that's small enough to pass through the core. As long as the grille is cleaned regularly, there should be no change in performance over time, which has got to be good.

[Simon350S]

Just a note....

The standard dual core radiators are more than capable of efficiently cooling the Esprit even on the hottest of days..... as long as the fins are not clogged and the cores not blocked....

A recore with tripple innards makes the core too wide to fit in the radiator frame and the supports to be replaced..... someone has done mine in the past and now braised the rad to the frame, a pain in the ass if it ever needs redoing....

Also, don't really see the point in the extra expense of the alloy units, they cost a fortune and really are not required.....

I know this doesn't answer the question here, but just thought I'd post as it seems like most people think the standard setup in inadiquate...

Also you weight freaks out there...... triple core.... more metal and more water....

Simon

From Shrewsbury with Love x

Edited December 19, 2007 by Simon350S

[Jonathan]

Makes sense :yes

Time to take the plunge !

[Simon350S]

Yours doesn't look all that bad in the photo Jon.....

I'd just take it out the frame, derust and repaint everything.....

Check to ensure the fins between the cores are in good shape, give it a good clean with a vacuum/ soft brush and a gently jet wash from a distance so not to damage the fins....

Flow test the rad to make sure it aint blocked...... err..... using your garden hose pipe, providing you've got good mains water flow rate and pressure...

Blow it over with a little black paint to protect them from the elements.... only a fine dust as you dont want to effect the cooling effactiveness....

Refit the rad to your sparkly clean rust free frame and stick it back in the car with all Stainless steel fixings and don't worry about it for another 4-5 years.... then take it off and clean it again..... only an afternoons work with all your nice corrosoin free nuts and bolts...

[ragingfool35]

http://www.c4dhr.com/c6_products.htm

i'm gonna buy some grills from this place

they sell DYI material or will custom make for your car

i like the framing

[Guest Troy Halliday]

Nigel I have a cowling here it is a bit cracked but in far better condition than yours. If you are interested I will check on Malcoms list and see how much he wants for it.

Oh I have the fans aswell.