Discussion
Car overheated on the motorway yesterday. Today we have drip, drip, drip, from the front. Pipes on the radiator okay, but somewhere the radiator is holed. Nothing to be seen from the front.
Not able to tackle it today so I thought I'd ask for general advice. Anyone got pictures of removal. Can it be done painlessly with the air con and oil in situ?
Re-core, or Radtec replacement experience?
One further question does the ACT stuff cure the kinked pipe over at the thermostat end. Always annoyed me that has.
I couldn't find any threads on it so could possible do a picture gallery if anyone interested
Not able to tackle it today so I thought I'd ask for general advice. Anyone got pictures of removal. Can it be done painlessly with the air con and oil in situ?
Re-core, or Radtec replacement experience?
One further question does the ACT stuff cure the kinked pipe over at the thermostat end. Always annoyed me that has.
I couldn't find any threads on it so could possible do a picture gallery if anyone interested
Removal is relatively straight forward, but be careful with the sharp edges on the paintwork. The most difficult task is draining the system without making a mess. The rad is shared with late Griffs, I was lucky to get a very cheap used rad from RedGriff. You'll want to replace the bobbins as well, check the alt parts thread.
You didn't search very well!
Look at my profile for topics
Try Calling Arron radiators for a good aluminium rad price circa £300 ish last I looked(a while ago)
I went to change the rad, ended up doing a front end refurb, bonnet hinges, rad, condenser, horns, oil cooler pipes etc
To do it bonnet off air box and f1 panel off.
To refurb air scoop off helps access to cooler front of condenser.
Be prepared to muck and rubbish to be washed off the nose area.
Look at my profile for topics
Try Calling Arron radiators for a good aluminium rad price circa £300 ish last I looked(a while ago)
I went to change the rad, ended up doing a front end refurb, bonnet hinges, rad, condenser, horns, oil cooler pipes etc
To do it bonnet off air box and f1 panel off.
To refurb air scoop off helps access to cooler front of condenser.
Be prepared to muck and rubbish to be washed off the nose area.
I've just recently changed my rad, hoses and pipes. Hoses and pipes are from ACT and rad was from Arron rads.It took me about a day to fit and 90% of the hoses needed to be trimmed to fit so it envoles lots of back and forth to get the pipes and hoses where i wanted them.
To fit the rad i needed to remove the left hand fan to give me enough clearence. All in all its easy enough what does help is have the car in the air so you can get access from below as well.
I also changed the ac condenser and drier while i was at it as the bottom of the condenser was corroded and didn't fancy removing it all at a later date.
hope this helps
steve
To fit the rad i needed to remove the left hand fan to give me enough clearence. All in all its easy enough what does help is have the car in the air so you can get access from below as well.
I also changed the ac condenser and drier while i was at it as the bottom of the condenser was corroded and didn't fancy removing it all at a later date.
hope this helps
steve
Radiator core is old Range rover easy to record if you have a decent local back street man who does these things because of the length to height ratio they tend to crack on the corners, much cheaper to get fixed if the rest of it is in good order than shell out on a megabucks Ali one the standard rad cools the car fine.
Check your fan connections while its out as they tend to get a bit furry if they haven't been properly protected, bleeding took longer than the rad swap!
Check your fan connections while its out as they tend to get a bit furry if they haven't been properly protected, bleeding took longer than the rad swap!
Can't use rad repair products. Stupid personal philosophy that grate against my OCD personality. Its probably sensible but when I start to do that to my TVR its time to give it to someone else.
Anyhoo, Rad is out. Not a tricky job. It dame out in about an hour. In true TVR fashion, its developed a list of ToDos while up on the ramp.
1) The bonnet hinge is now rolling around in its own manufactured hole, and could do with some sort of better system.
2) The metal water pipes are rusty and either need a good refurbish for the second time or I need to consider replacement
3) The radiator is quite rusty, so although a recore would be the sensible option, I'm wondering about the benefit of an alloy rad.
3) The rubber pipes are pretty damaged where the jubilee clips were on them.
4) With all the radiator removed, I am now looking at the steering rack which has had a gentle leak from the drivers side, and should probably come out for refurbish
5) Some spots of flaked powder coating on the frame need touch up but the more I look, the more I look at what it would take to remove the body for a full frame refurbish. It doesn't really need it but I'm starting to get a bit carried away, cos it would give me the ideal excuse to start with the 4.7 block that has been sitting in my garage.
Could be a big bill at ACT Pipes hoses and radiator, or £150 recore and refurbish whats already there.
I think ACT are expensive as I spent £1K last year on a full stainless steel rear exhaust, but it really does shine every time the car is up on the ramp, and the sound is spot on for me.
I need a verbal slapping.
Anyhoo, Rad is out. Not a tricky job. It dame out in about an hour. In true TVR fashion, its developed a list of ToDos while up on the ramp.
1) The bonnet hinge is now rolling around in its own manufactured hole, and could do with some sort of better system.
2) The metal water pipes are rusty and either need a good refurbish for the second time or I need to consider replacement
3) The radiator is quite rusty, so although a recore would be the sensible option, I'm wondering about the benefit of an alloy rad.
3) The rubber pipes are pretty damaged where the jubilee clips were on them.
4) With all the radiator removed, I am now looking at the steering rack which has had a gentle leak from the drivers side, and should probably come out for refurbish
5) Some spots of flaked powder coating on the frame need touch up but the more I look, the more I look at what it would take to remove the body for a full frame refurbish. It doesn't really need it but I'm starting to get a bit carried away, cos it would give me the ideal excuse to start with the 4.7 block that has been sitting in my garage.
Could be a big bill at ACT Pipes hoses and radiator, or £150 recore and refurbish whats already there.
I think ACT are expensive as I spent £1K last year on a full stainless steel rear exhaust, but it really does shine every time the car is up on the ramp, and the sound is spot on for me.
I need a verbal slapping.
All I can say to this is "now is not the time"
Summer is nearly upon us, surely taking the car to bits is a winter job so mid October would be about right.
Get a slot booked at Willow for the chassis to be done, while it's away build the engine and send the rack off for a refurb, get the silicon hoses and stainless coolant pipes you know you want and built it all up intime for the spring.
Sorted:-)
Summer is nearly upon us, surely taking the car to bits is a winter job so mid October would be about right.
Get a slot booked at Willow for the chassis to be done, while it's away build the engine and send the rack off for a refurb, get the silicon hoses and stainless coolant pipes you know you want and built it all up intime for the spring.
Sorted:-)
julian64 said:
still musing, spoke to ACT who said he had no idea that the bleed pipes were in the wrong place on the radtec, and not had anyone comment on this to him
Anyone else got a radtech to comment on?
I've fitted several (one to my own Cerb too) and not had any issues. I ran it through sizzling hot summers while living in Cyprus and never saw over 90 degrees....Anyone else got a radtech to comment on?
Hello Julian
You know my car very well and I changed all the hoses to Act, water pipes to Act then tried to bodge up the leaky radiator and over heated in Rouen on the way Le Man , over heated in Le Man , over heated on the way home guess what I have fitted now, great bonnet hinge mod as well but I don't think you can get them anymore, undo one nut each hinge and bonnet comes off
You know my car very well and I changed all the hoses to Act, water pipes to Act then tried to bodge up the leaky radiator and over heated in Rouen on the way Le Man , over heated in Le Man , over heated on the way home guess what I have fitted now, great bonnet hinge mod as well but I don't think you can get them anymore, undo one nut each hinge and bonnet comes off
julian64 said:
Yep, I understand. Only was really going to be one answer when posting on this forum.
Deals done, bits on their way
Want to have a laugh, all the hoses come cut to size fitted all the ones below the engine and the last ones was to the expansion tank and I reached in bag and picked out what I thought was the last one and it was way to long so what did I do cut it to fit then saw another old pipe and though hang on they have left me short went back to the bag, guess what there was another nice blue silicon hose and I took the old pipe off and it was twice the size of the nice new blue silicon hose left Deals done, bits on their way
I was, then it dawned on me the nice blue silicon hose that I had previously cut to fit which was way too big was the one that should have fitted the one that is now too short 
anyway I put a plastic connector in and that never worked it just got too hot and collapsed so I had buy another nice shiny blue silicon hose to fitSo the moral of this story is lay them all out as they are made to fit and do not cut them in half
Well just updating this thread after a long time of the car being off the road.
Car passed MOT yesterday including emissions, yippee, just in time for winter driving. Has pretty much been off the road since the last thread update.
Tim at ACT was a complete star. It required three tries from radtech before they supplied a radiator to fit, but in the end it was a perfect fit below the later panel (unlike pmessling) no alteration to the panel was needed.
Complicated by the fact that once the radiator is out you can't just put it back with all the rusty stuff, so I put new ACT stainless steel pipes and hoses at the same time, and the steering rack was refurbished by kiley clinton.
Speedy cables took a further two and a half months to repair the broken water/oil gauge.
Completely destroyed a summer of driving but worth it in the end.
And just as a final icing on the cake I finally put brummies pads in the car. That meant the drive to the MOT station needed to be a bit spirited to bed the pads in as the first few brake attempts did nothing
Screaming up bluebell hill at warp factor nine to heat up the cats and get a long braking session to bed the pads prior to the mot, my heart sank as I noticed two batternburg cars on my side of the road with two high vis vest looking at me. So I was currently sorn with no tax and no mot, and thrashing the car.
I toned down the exhaust note far too late, but as I trickled past them expecting hte inevitable one of them gave me a thumbs up.
Kinda made my day.
Car passed MOT yesterday including emissions, yippee, just in time for winter driving. Has pretty much been off the road since the last thread update.
Tim at ACT was a complete star. It required three tries from radtech before they supplied a radiator to fit, but in the end it was a perfect fit below the later panel (unlike pmessling) no alteration to the panel was needed.
Complicated by the fact that once the radiator is out you can't just put it back with all the rusty stuff, so I put new ACT stainless steel pipes and hoses at the same time, and the steering rack was refurbished by kiley clinton.
Speedy cables took a further two and a half months to repair the broken water/oil gauge.
Completely destroyed a summer of driving but worth it in the end.
And just as a final icing on the cake I finally put brummies pads in the car. That meant the drive to the MOT station needed to be a bit spirited to bed the pads in as the first few brake attempts did nothing
Screaming up bluebell hill at warp factor nine to heat up the cats and get a long braking session to bed the pads prior to the mot, my heart sank as I noticed two batternburg cars on my side of the road with two high vis vest looking at me. So I was currently sorn with no tax and no mot, and thrashing the car.
I toned down the exhaust note far too late, but as I trickled past them expecting hte inevitable one of them gave me a thumbs up.
Kinda made my day.
Gassing Station | Cerbera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff