Ian's S4s refurb

[Chillidoggy]

The coolant radiator is all complete, and being painted right now. The charge cooler radiator should now be only about 10 days away, so I've made a bit of headway with removing the old, powdery, heat-reflecting foil from the GRP. I've got some Thermal Velocity heatshield to go on in its place, same as the engine bay.

 

 

[silverfrost]

Nice work Ian, I may have a look into some of that Thermal Velocity heat shield, who sells it. ?   Hope you get her back on the road soon.

[Chillidoggy]

Funnily enough, it's sold by a company called "Thermal Velocity".

[Chillidoggy]

Anyway, after a solid hour with the drill and a rotary wire brush...................................

 

After I'd done that, I ended up grinding off the doubler plate rivets, the headlamp motor support bolt fixings, the condenser pipe brackets and the brake-pump support bracket fixing to get a flat surface.

I'll put new ones in later, but I also looked at the headlamp motor base bracket bolts. Just a look, and I knew they were going to be trouble with a capital 'T'.

 

I've had enough now, but the grinder will be out again tomorrow for those little gems. Which then begs the question: Do I look at the headlamp lift mechanism while they're loose? Seems sensible, I have to disconnect the brake lines to fit the new front brake kit, so I might as well go the whole hog.

[Chillidoggy]

Having ground off the bolt heads for the headlamp lifters, I found that the fastenings are rubber-cased Rawl nuts, I'll be replacing those in due course, and using stainless bolts with some Duralac smeared on them. After a conversation with Pete at PNM, I decided not to remove the motors in the end, I couldn't find anything wrong with them, they're all OK, and the large drain holes were still clear, despite an accumulation of pine needles, sycamore 'helicopters', and general rubbish.

I managed to finish off replacing the Lotus tin-foil rubbish with the Thermal Velocity heatshield. I was considering running a bead of Sikaflex around the edges of the material to make sure it doesn't come off, but to be honest the stuff sticks like shit to a blanket, and I reckon it'll be there for good. To be sure, I checked the engine cover I did last year, and it's still perfect.

It was one of the most painful jobs to do though, my arms and neck are in a right state now! If anyone else decides to do this, then it's a good idea to have some assistance like I did. It's a difficult task to get the shapes correct, the material has some give in it, but not much. It will generally form in one plane, but it doesn't like compound curves at all. I made paper templates for the smaller pieces, it's quite difficult to form and once the backing is peeled off, and it's stuck, it's difficult to remove, too.

 

[Sparky]

Have you confirmed whether it's 4 or 8 pot?

[Chillidoggy]

No, not yet.

I was intending to post here to ask if someone could tell me, as I can't be bothered looking for myself.

[Chillidoggy]

Be obliged if anyone let me know what is supposed to hold down the ABS plastic brake pump cover?

The car came with nyloc nuts, which is a bit inconvenient if you need to look at the relays in a hurry. The parts manual shows nuts A075W3020Z, and a knurled nut A082W6468F. I think they're M6, but is the knurled nut a regular, or thin type, and is the other nut a full, or half nut?

[sailorbob]

When I bought my car it was missing the OE nuts and knurled covers so I bought a couple of A082W6468F and they came with the nuts already embedded in the covers.

Edited March 25, 2016 by sailorbob

[Chillidoggy]

If I'm reading this right.......is there a hex socket in the knurled cover? And is the cover nylon, or steel?

[sailorbob]

I cannot remember if there's a hex recess in the underside of the knurled cover but it's made of nylon.

[Chillidoggy]

Ok thanks, Derek. I can visualise that now.

[Chillidoggy]

Still on the preparation for the new rad-pack, I tackled a job I'd been putting off for a while, removing the coolant hoses. I don't know what kind of job that is on earlier models, but on the S4s it's a pain to get to. Incredibly, the rusty old jubilee clips came off easily after a dose of release oil I'd sprayed on them a few weeks ago. I then used a long pry-bar with an angled end to ease the hoses off the alloy pipe ends. As expected, there was the usual white powdered remains, however one thing I didn't expect was two more jubilee clips further down the pipes, and the end of a double clip secured by a rivet to the body. I can only imagine they are there to prevent the chassis pipes from moving longitudinally, however the dissimilar metals has caused some corrosion around the pipes. Having tried levering the alloy chassis pipes, it became clear they weren't going anywhere (I couldn't move them at all), so I decided not to put the clips back and chance it.

I used the Chinese silicone pipes I'd bought off eBay ages ago; the other ones I've used around the engine have proved to be very good. I did put some blue Hylomar around the pipe ends to aid the sealing, and reclipped with stainless jubilees. NB: This job is much easier once you've removed the entire radiator pack!

The clip, minus the additional jubilees -

 

And the Chinese silicone pipes. Don't let the angle fool you, they're sods to get to!

[Chillidoggy]

Having taken the decision to remove all the old tin-foil from above the rad-pack and re-cover with decent heat shielding, I'd also decided to remove all the fittings that were in the way. All went well with replacing them with new stuff, apart from the horribly rusted bolt heads for the headlamp lift motor bracket, that I'd ground off.

Being a pedantic sort, and hating anything rusty, I thought it would be a simple task to replace the Rawl nuts in the aforementioned brackets. Not so. It requires access to the other two bolts (also utilising Rawl nuts) that are located at the rear of the headlamp recess. And those of you who have already been there will know that getting to them is right, royal pain in the arse. I could see them, and they're also rusty, but at least they're secure.

So, in spite of my best efforts, it beat me, and I've been forced to improvise. Using the wad punch and some 3mm rubber jointing, I cut out eight rubber washers, and tomorrow morning, I shall get the wife to lay underneath the car with a spanner, while I tighten up the bolts.

[swindon_alan]

53 minutes ago, ian29gte said:

tomorrow morning, I shall get the wife to lay underneath the car with a spanner, while it tighten up the bolts.

That's interesting. I usually get my wife to lay down when I want to tighten my nuts too.

[Chillidoggy]

How is she with front brake upgrades?

[Chillidoggy]

My original ABS cowling and fan assembly is going to be surplus to requirements. It's all been cleaned, and in very good condition. I bought all three fans new, they cost me over £150, and they've only been on the car for maybe 1,000 miles. The steel fan shrouds have been removed, shot-blasted, etch-primed, repainted, and re-riveted.

PM if you're interested at £100, otherwise it'll be on eBay when I get round to it.

[Chillidoggy]

I collected all the new heat exchangers and coolers yesterday. Serck Motorsport rebuilt the coolant radiator, and the charge-cooler rad came from Pro-Alloy (see my other thread) and should prove to be much more efficient than the old units.

Serck also supplied and fitted the three 11" Spal fans at the same time as manufacturing a new outer frame to replace the rusted old one.

Having got the rotten old condensers back as well, I heated up the pipe unions with a torch, and managed to free them all. As usual, some alloy thread came with the unions, but it disappeared after a soaking in caustic soda solution. They're a bit rusty in places, but look as thought they will clean up.

The centre support is in good condition at the top, but not good at the bottom, so I'm toying with making a new one. The side mounting brackets are also in good condition, and overall it looks as though I will stick with the standard condenser set-up for the time being, otherwise I would have to dispose of the two new condensers I bought, and I can't be doing with that right now.

 

[Barrykearley]

@ian29gte where did you source your silicone pipes from ?? The only sets I can find on eBay are £500+

[Chillidoggy]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Red-silicone-radiator-hose-for-LOTUS-ESPRITS-SE-S4-S4s-300-GT3-910-1989-1999-/121501185084?hash=item1c4a08f43c:g:bsQAAOSwD0lUeCvE

These are the ones I bought, Barry.

[Barrykearley]

Cheers - just emailed them to see if they do a set for the v8

[swindon_alan]

4 hours ago, ian29gte said:

I collected all the new heat exchangers and coolers yesterday. Serck Motorsport rebuilt the coolant radiator, and the charge-cooler rad came from Pro-Alloy (see my other thread) and should prove to be much more efficient than the old units.

Serck also supplied and fitted the three 11" Spal fans at the same time as manufacturing a new outer frame to replace the rusted old one.

Having got the rotten old condensers back as well, I heated up the pipe unions with a torch, and managed to free them all. As usual, some alloy thread came with the unions, but it disappeared after a soaking in caustic soda solution. They're a bit rusty in places, but look as thought they will clean up.

The centre support is in good condition at the top, but not good at the bottom, so I'm toying with making a new one. The side mounting brackets are also in good condition, and overall it looks as though I will stick with the standard condenser set-up for the time being, otherwise I would have to dispose of the two new condensers I bought, and I can't be doing with that right now.

 

Ian, not sure what you think but I would suggest that get a shroud for the fans? @Alex Carter made one up for his, perhaps if you ask him very, very nicely he might fabricate one for you too? It looks amazing...

 

[Chillidoggy]

Thanks Alan, but as previously stated, I believe a flat shroud is more likely to restrict airflow than aid it, given the Esprit rad-pack configuration.

[Alex Carter]

im pretty sure it adds to the flow its the same as a commercial jet turbine shroud making the air channel out instead of just spraying everywhere its gives the engines more blow .

 

[Bibs]

I think the shroud is more for coverage than airflow. Stuck in traffic you'll have hotspots as pictures above (eg the areas without fan on them!) but if there was a shroud, air would be drawn through 100% of the core keeping it all cool.