Cooling the inside of my Tamora

[BrisbaneTamora]

Havent found this topic elsewhere, so please be patient with me.

I have a lot of trouble with heat in my car (I live in Brisbane, Australia) and have tried various methods to cool things in the cabin (the engine temperature is mostly fine). I dont have aircon and at this point I suspect that just going to be a patch on the problem rather than a solution.

So I heard a story from someone of a TVR where they had put a heat shield over the exhaust manifold (to stop the heat pouring out over the bonnet of the Tamora and into the cabin) and then drilled some holes through from the engine bay through to the crease in front of the (passenger's side) door to let the heat out.

Has anyone heard of this, seen it, or done it themselves? Does it help? Can you give me any more info/pictures?

Also, has anyone tried fitting electric airconditioning? Any thoughts on how well it works and whether it can be installed without being too conspicuous?

[clive f]

wrapping the manifolds and decating would help reduce heat in the car, I know someone once fitted a small electric fan down behind the passenger side headlamp to draw in fresh air which helped a little bit, might also be worth checking the heater flap position to see if its working properly, Graham Varleys manual has lots of info in which could help?

[RobertoBlanco]

clive f said:

... might also be worth checking the heater flap position to see if its working properly, Graham Varleys manual has lots of info in which could help?

Top tip. I have to do that myself this year as I've had up to 45°C in the cabin on hot days ventilation set on cold with A/C compressor off.
I would suspect, that the flap is stuck in a half-open position. I also tried to change the flap offset in the factory menu in the dash with little to no effect.

[nawarne]

RobertoBlanco said:

clive f said:

... might also be worth checking the heater flap position to see if its working properly, Graham Varleys manual has lots of info in which could help?

Top tip. I have to do that myself this year as I've had up to 45°C in the cabin on hot days ventilation set on cold with A/C compressor off.
I would suspect, that the flap is stuck in a half-open position. I also tried to change the flap offset in the factory menu in the dash with little to no effect.

Clive's suggestion is sensible.
I'd say biggest heat source for cabin is the catalysts. If you can remove them - fine. If you have to leave them in situ, then wrap or coat the exhaust to 'send' heat further to back of car.

I have a nagging suspicion that you're going to have to retro fit A/C, though.

Bye the bye, was in Brisbane 3rd through 13th January. Stayed with an old ship-mate who lives in Bulimba. It's a lovely city.
Nick

[V8 GRF]

There are some reasonably priced retro-fit air conditioning units available.

Have a look here: http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/search?q=air...

Might give you a starting place and some ideas?

[RobertoBlanco]

Derek, do you always suffer from too hot cabin temperatures? Or only on hot summer days?
Can you locate the heat source?

My problems can be located to the dash and the vents, not necessarily from the prop shaft tunnel itself. So, if you get heat from the prop shaft tunnel, its most likely heat from the exhaust and the cats.
If your ventilation always blows hot air (hotter than ambient) into the cabin, you most likely have to look for the heater flap problem.
I also have a small self made panel on the passenger side beneath the radiator to channel the air flow to the ventilation system and reduce hot air from the engine compartment. Not sure if it really helps, but I was told it should.
The Sagaris' inner fender shape prevents false air into the ventilation. T350s lack this little improvement, hence the panel. What about the Tamoras?

[BrisbaneTamora]

Thanks for the info guys. I have had the exhaust manifold ceramic coated and the pipe has been thermal wrapped. I have also fiddled with the flap settings to get the coolest possible air out the fan. The car is always reasonably hot, although the often 30 degrees+ weather we have here, coupled with high humidity makes it unbearable at times.

The issue for me seems to be the heat that comes out of the vents on the bonnet which pour hot air off the manifold straight into the cabin. There also seems to be a certain amount of warm air bleeding into the cabin from somewhere. I dont get much problem with heat 'soak' from the transmission tunnel.

So anything I can do to reduce the hot airflow out of the bonnet vents and into the cabin would be a huge benefit.

[BarnFind]

I have a Chimaera which has no precats or main cat,i run a Clive F, Y piece,brilliant piece of kit,i have cermac coated the manifolds,wouldn't dare touch the Y piece,it shines like a musical instrument.at the same time i fitted a Leven Aluminium radiator,all this has seriously dropped running temps and obviously cabin temps,i might even be running a little too cold in winter here in Ireland,this may help.....

[SteveSPG]

Does switching the fans on blow hot air into the cabin? on my car there was no plate separating the fan pickup (behind the passenger headlight) from picking up hot air from around the rad, so it always leaked hot air into the cabin,m and turning the fans on made little difference

I made a simple flat panel which boxed off the inlet, and it made a huge difference. fans now have cold air picked up from the front of the rad instead of hot air from behind the rad

[RobertoBlanco]

BrisbaneTamora said:

Thanks for the info guys. I have had the exhaust manifold ceramic coated and the pipe has been thermal wrapped. I have also fiddled with the flap settings to get the coolest possible air out the fan. The car is always reasonably hot, although the often 30 degrees+ weather we have here, coupled with high humidity makes it unbearable at times.

The issue for me seems to be the heat that comes out of the vents on the bonnet which pour hot air off the manifold straight into the cabin. There also seems to be a certain amount of warm air bleeding into the cabin from somewhere. I dont get much problem with heat 'soak' from the transmission tunnel.

So anything I can do to reduce the hot airflow out of the bonnet vents and into the cabin would be a huge benefit.

If you'd have an A/C in the car there would only be coming cold air from the two middle vents, not the topside and footwell vents. At least its like that on my car.

I have the impression that warm air is leaking fron the dash itself. Basically the dash should be hollow and the air is just poured into it from the heater matrix, where also the heater flap is. I still have to investigate this further, but it seams like its leaking hot air somewhere around the steering column or dash pod. I'm getting warm air somewhere from there, so even closing all the vents doesn't help much....

On a side note: Do you also get a hot cabin when roof is down? Meaning, that hot air comes in from over the windscreen into the passenger compartment? At least you can open her up... Opening just the windows on a T350 isn't helping much, I can tell you that. :-)

[BrisbaneTamora]

SteveSPG said:

Does switching the fans on blow hot air into the cabin? on my car there was no plate separating the fan pickup (behind the passenger headlight) from picking up hot air from around the rad, so it always leaked hot air into the cabin,m and turning the fans on made little difference

I made a simple flat panel which boxed off the inlet, and it made a huge difference. fans now have cold air picked up from the front of the rad instead of hot air from behind the rad

It's a bit of a moot point in Brisbane. When it's 35 degrees outside it always blows hot air into the cabin :-)

[BrisbaneTamora]

RobertoBlanco said:

If you'd have an A/C in the car there would only be coming cold air from the two middle vents, not the topside and footwell vents. At least its like that on my car.

I have the impression that warm air is leaking fron the dash itself. Basically the dash should be hollow and the air is just poured into it from the heater matrix, where also the heater flap is. I still have to investigate this further, but it seams like its leaking hot air somewhere around the steering column or dash pod. I'm getting warm air somewhere from there, so even closing all the vents doesn't help much....

On a side note: Do you also get a hot cabin when roof is down? Meaning, that hot air comes in from over the windscreen into the passenger compartment? At least you can open her up... Opening just the windows on a T350 isn't helping much, I can tell you that. :-)

Yes, the hot air comes in with the roof down. Again, when's it's 30+ outside and the sun is hot enough to fry bacon, you dont want to put the roof down

[BrisbaneTamora]

BarnFind said:

I have a Chimaera which has no precats or main cat,i run a Clive F, Y piece,brilliant piece of kit,i have cermac coated the manifolds,wouldn't dare touch the Y piece,it shines like a musical instrument.at the same time i fitted a Leven Aluminium radiator,all this has seriously dropped running temps and obviously cabin temps,i might even be running a little too cold in winter here in Ireland,this may help.....

Thanks for the info Robert. Where did you get the 'Leven' radiator from? I havent heard of that one.

[HarryW]

So being pragmatic here, what ever you do to the ducting etc, if it's 35 degs outside and you have no air con then the minimum temperature you can expect inside the car is 35 degs? In practice it will be warmer? Seems to me you should explore fitting an after market air con....

[BarnFind]

BrisbaneTamora said:

Thanks for the info Robert. Where did you get the 'Leven' radiator from? I havent heard of that one.

Leven are a company that make loads of aftermarket Aluminium goodies for TVR's

www.leventechnology.co.uk/

Edited by BarnFind on Sunday 22 March 20:17

[MethylatedSpirit]

I have the opposite problem in scotland, the heater can't keep up with the cold air leaking in

I'm sure you can get an after-market air con fitted but will cost $$$

[BrisbaneTamora]

BarnFind said:

I have a Chimaera which has no precats or main cat,i run a Clive F, Y piece,brilliant piece of kit,i have cermac coated the manifolds,wouldn't dare touch the Y piece,it shines like a musical instrument.at the same time i fitted a Leven Aluminium radiator,all this has seriously dropped running temps and obviously cabin temps,i might even be running a little too cold in winter here in Ireland,this may help.....

Thanks for the info Robert. Where did you get the 'Leven' radiator from? I havent heard of that one.

[BarnFind]

BrisbaneTamora said:

Thanks for the info Robert. Where did you get the 'Leven' radiator from? I havent heard of that one.

www.leventechnology.co.uk