S Series radiator options.
Discussion
If anyone fancies a new alloy Impreza radiator, but doesn't want to do the work themselves, Heath at X-Works just fitted this one for me at a cost of £234 including VAT, plus labour. I don't know how much the labour was, as it was all rolled up in a bigger servicing bill, but a quick call to him will get you that information.
Heath reckoned the size is about 10% bigger than the original unit. I collected the car on the hottest day of the year a couple of weeks ago, and once fully warmed up, at idle his laser-gun thermometer showed the rad and nearby pipes were running at 74 celsius.
BOB
Heath reckoned the size is about 10% bigger than the original unit. I collected the car on the hottest day of the year a couple of weeks ago, and once fully warmed up, at idle his laser-gun thermometer showed the rad and nearby pipes were running at 74 celsius.
BOB
To clarify, by "fully warmed up" what I meant was that I had to drive back to the garage after collecting my car because the fan wasn't cutting in when the temp gauge needle went past the 90 mark in slow-moving traffic - which was obviously worrying. Heath removed the switch and checked it, and after a few more checks, suspected that the gauge was mis-reading. The laser gun showed that the radiator and pipes were at 74 degrees when the gauge needle was clearly above the 90-degree line.
Sorry, I don't understand "Can you check where he's joined that small hose into for me please bob". Heath did modify the hoses to add an extra one, which he said was an improvement, but I'm not a mechanically minded person so I don't know what this was supposed to do.
BOB
Sorry, I don't understand "Can you check where he's joined that small hose into for me please bob". Heath did modify the hoses to add an extra one, which he said was an improvement, but I'm not a mechanically minded person so I don't know what this was supposed to do.
BOB
Edited by frontfloater on Wednesday 7th August 14:21
frontfloater said:
Sorry, I don't understand "Can you check where he's joined that small hose into for me please bob".
No, neither do I, only the two large hoses onto a standard S radiator?frontfloater said:
but I'm not a mechanically minded person so I don't know what this was supposed to do.
Fair play to you for running a nearly 30 year old TVR 
frontfloater said:
Sorry, I don't understand "Can you check where he's joined that small hose into for me please bob". Heath did modify the hoses to add an extra one, which he said was an improvement, but I'm not a mechanically minded person so I don't know what this was supposed to do.
BOB
In that picture you show, the top RH of the radiator, there is a small (cerca 8mm id) pipe, that is not on the standard tvr radiator, that has been joined into the standard hose routing somewhere, im guessing near the swirlpot?BOB
Edited by frontfloater on Wednesday 7th August 14:21
Thanks
christianyoung said:
i'm in the process of doing this to my car, from what i understand (im not with the car atm) there are two pipes coming from the thermostat to the swirlpot (3&7), which do you join in too, or are they obviously different sizes?
Sorry, I didn't check in here yesterday.Join into line 7, it's the lower one of the two small diameter hoses at the top of your swirl pot.
3&7 are very different, 3 is around 15mm and feeds into the swirl pot around 1/2 way up, this is the one you re-route to the bottom hose if doing Griffinr's mod, capping the spigot on the pot itself.
HTH,
Carl.
Edited by Ceejay73 on Wednesday 7th August 22:53
In brief, as I understand it:
The 15mm hose is a bypass hose allowing some coolant flow when the thermostat is closed.
In the original arrangement this coolant is fed to the swirl pot and then the rad thus preventing the thermostat performing it's purpose correctly as it still allows quite a lot of coolant flow through the rad even when the stat is closed.
This in turn leads to extended warm up times and in extreme conditions could lead to overcooling.
Moving this hose from the swirl pot to the bottom hose means that, when the stat is closed, there is still flow so that the pump is not pressurised but it is not being cooled again when it isn't required. This means faster warm up and no overcooling providing the stat works and is correct (better for the engine).
The now unused spigot on the swirl pot should be capped off.
As Stated, this mod was Griffinr's idea,not mine but I have applied it in my car and it seems to work with no problems encountered.
Cheers,
Carl.
The 15mm hose is a bypass hose allowing some coolant flow when the thermostat is closed.
In the original arrangement this coolant is fed to the swirl pot and then the rad thus preventing the thermostat performing it's purpose correctly as it still allows quite a lot of coolant flow through the rad even when the stat is closed.
This in turn leads to extended warm up times and in extreme conditions could lead to overcooling.
Moving this hose from the swirl pot to the bottom hose means that, when the stat is closed, there is still flow so that the pump is not pressurised but it is not being cooled again when it isn't required. This means faster warm up and no overcooling providing the stat works and is correct (better for the engine).
The now unused spigot on the swirl pot should be capped off.
As Stated, this mod was Griffinr's idea,not mine but I have applied it in my car and it seems to work with no problems encountered.
Cheers,
Carl.
I replaced my genuine radiator by a genuine Impreza one. Modifying it to be able to fix it properly is quite easy. In fact, the main problem come from the cockpit venting hoses (fresh air). The Impreza rad is about 30mm wider than the genuine one. There is just enough space to place a 55mm outlet diameter hose between the inner wing and the radiator with the genuine one. With the Impreza rad, the available space is about 35mm.
So I found a solution by 3D printing adapters to convert a round surface of 50mm diameter into a oblong surface, 30mm wide, with the same area. Some sleeve clamps to fix hoses, some MMA glue to fix the ABS adapters to the radiator plastic tanks .... and it's OK.
So I found a solution by 3D printing adapters to convert a round surface of 50mm diameter into a oblong surface, 30mm wide, with the same area. Some sleeve clamps to fix hoses, some MMA glue to fix the ABS adapters to the radiator plastic tanks .... and it's OK.
I went the other way and used a vertical flow rad. This makes it slightly narrower as well as flowing better and using space above and below the rad that was wasted otherwise. The extra width was just enough to box in a cold air intake on one side and fit an oil cooler on the other side. Having both sides blocked up also helps reduce hot air recirculation in conjunction with a duct in front of the rad.
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