Discussion
Considering moving to South africa and of course want to take the Noble with me. Spoke to a few people on last visit and they have heard of the cars. Is there anybody on here that owns a Noble in SA and knows anything about servicing etc. Of course body panels wont be a problem will just be able to collect them from the factory!
There are specialist tuners/service shops, but the numbers of Nobles here has never been that large. If you're moving to the Johannesburg area, then you would have the best options. Cape Town, where I am, less so. But routine work is not an issue, and as you say, I've always been able to get bits from the factory.
Cheers
Ian
Cheers
Ian
My Noble lives in Cyprus where it gets to 48deg in summertime, not sure what temperatures will be like in South Africa but if they are similar or hotter then you will need to carry out quite a few cooling mods to keep it running optimally, but they do in general handle hot climates quite well considering that cars like Lotus run at 115deg over here with coolant temps.
Performance
Intercooler - the standard intercooler will get heat soaked very easily, i got mine custom made but i would reccomend a replacement from pro alloy.
Exhaust - get it heat wrapped.
Exhaust manifolds - heat wrap or ceramic coat inside and out, strengthen the seams while your at it.
Turbos - get heat jackets for them
Fuel tank and lines - lag all fuel lines with heat insulation and wrap fuel tank in heat reflective material, otherwise after stopping the car after a hot run you will get fuel evaporation.
Radiator - if it still has the old radiator this will not be running optimally as it is, but the radiator will need upgrading to the pro -alloy 50mm core.
Oil cooler - take coolant temps down by adding a front of side pod mounted oil cooler, if side pod mounting i would also recommend adding fans.
Intercooler Box - put heat shields and heat insulating material on the underside and front to stop heat from soaking through from the turbo, exhaust and engine bay.
Tunnel Cooling - take two pipes from the front side air scoops and direct them into the tunnel, things can start to cook in the tunnel in hot climates and it will also help airflow into the engine bay and keep the cabin cooler.
Coolant system - Check the entire system for spongy pipes and small leaks, if the pipes are original they may well have lost their properties and will break apart and crack when you squash them, any slight defect in the coolant system will cause the coolant temperatures to creep.
Temperature sender - if you add a new temperature sender and bypass the ECU then you will get an accurate reading, this is important or you will not know if the car is overheating or not, the ECU tries to hold the temp at 90deg which is a lie, the fans do not kick in until 98deg, the optimal running temp is 96deg, this is what you need to aim for, and you need to know what the coolant temps really are in order to spot any problems with the coolant system.
Coolant mixture - use only 30% coolant and mix with deionised water, the coolant increases the boiling point but does not disperse heat as fast as water, hence why a mixture containing 70% water is better for hot climates.
Airflow through engine bay - as below there are many body modifications you can carry out in order to improve airflow through the engine bay, you need to get that hot air out as efficiently as possible.
Wheel arches - cutting vents in the rear wheel arches, reduces airflow from the wheel arches which was stalling airflow coming through the engine bay.
Vent the whale tail - not only does the inside of the whale tail act like a parachute but it collects and traps hot air.
Fans - i am in the process of adding fans to pull the hot air out of the engine bay when stationary, this will be put on a timer to run so many minutes after the car is stopped or the ignition turned off.
Moving air filters - many disagree with this modification but i move the air filters behind the rear window, this stops them stealing air which was meant for cooling the intercooler and also when moving gives them better outside air flow, the airflow into these scoops behind the window is fairly good, but when stationary the air filters can pull in hot air from the engine bay, not that i have found that to be a problem because as soon as you are moving again you are pulling in the oustide cool air again and it is evened out by the intercooler doing a better job, i have found performance to be good with this mod and the intercooler works more efficiently, you can also position them down into the side pods. Moving them also enables you to carry out further cooling modifications to the IC, like spray bar cooling systems, or scoops over the rear wheel arches that direct air into the IC box where the air filters used the enter.
Fans on intercooler - this is one mod i have not done, as it only really benfits whilst stationary and when moving they can block airflow and have a negative effect, i personally think a spray bar system is better, and has much more of a cooling effect when needed, water tranfers heat 25 times faster than air, but if you have moved the the air filters then seen as though the IC box is sealed from the engine bay, quick blast of Co2 will have the IC ice cold ready for any traffic light start.
Performance
Intercooler - the standard intercooler will get heat soaked very easily, i got mine custom made but i would reccomend a replacement from pro alloy.
Exhaust - get it heat wrapped.
Exhaust manifolds - heat wrap or ceramic coat inside and out, strengthen the seams while your at it.
Turbos - get heat jackets for them
Fuel tank and lines - lag all fuel lines with heat insulation and wrap fuel tank in heat reflective material, otherwise after stopping the car after a hot run you will get fuel evaporation.
Radiator - if it still has the old radiator this will not be running optimally as it is, but the radiator will need upgrading to the pro -alloy 50mm core.
Oil cooler - take coolant temps down by adding a front of side pod mounted oil cooler, if side pod mounting i would also recommend adding fans.
Intercooler Box - put heat shields and heat insulating material on the underside and front to stop heat from soaking through from the turbo, exhaust and engine bay.
Tunnel Cooling - take two pipes from the front side air scoops and direct them into the tunnel, things can start to cook in the tunnel in hot climates and it will also help airflow into the engine bay and keep the cabin cooler.
Coolant system - Check the entire system for spongy pipes and small leaks, if the pipes are original they may well have lost their properties and will break apart and crack when you squash them, any slight defect in the coolant system will cause the coolant temperatures to creep.
Temperature sender - if you add a new temperature sender and bypass the ECU then you will get an accurate reading, this is important or you will not know if the car is overheating or not, the ECU tries to hold the temp at 90deg which is a lie, the fans do not kick in until 98deg, the optimal running temp is 96deg, this is what you need to aim for, and you need to know what the coolant temps really are in order to spot any problems with the coolant system.
Coolant mixture - use only 30% coolant and mix with deionised water, the coolant increases the boiling point but does not disperse heat as fast as water, hence why a mixture containing 70% water is better for hot climates.
Airflow through engine bay - as below there are many body modifications you can carry out in order to improve airflow through the engine bay, you need to get that hot air out as efficiently as possible.
Wheel arches - cutting vents in the rear wheel arches, reduces airflow from the wheel arches which was stalling airflow coming through the engine bay.
Vent the whale tail - not only does the inside of the whale tail act like a parachute but it collects and traps hot air.
Fans - i am in the process of adding fans to pull the hot air out of the engine bay when stationary, this will be put on a timer to run so many minutes after the car is stopped or the ignition turned off.
Moving air filters - many disagree with this modification but i move the air filters behind the rear window, this stops them stealing air which was meant for cooling the intercooler and also when moving gives them better outside air flow, the airflow into these scoops behind the window is fairly good, but when stationary the air filters can pull in hot air from the engine bay, not that i have found that to be a problem because as soon as you are moving again you are pulling in the oustide cool air again and it is evened out by the intercooler doing a better job, i have found performance to be good with this mod and the intercooler works more efficiently, you can also position them down into the side pods. Moving them also enables you to carry out further cooling modifications to the IC, like spray bar cooling systems, or scoops over the rear wheel arches that direct air into the IC box where the air filters used the enter.
Fans on intercooler - this is one mod i have not done, as it only really benfits whilst stationary and when moving they can block airflow and have a negative effect, i personally think a spray bar system is better, and has much more of a cooling effect when needed, water tranfers heat 25 times faster than air, but if you have moved the the air filters then seen as though the IC box is sealed from the engine bay, quick blast of Co2 will have the IC ice cold ready for any traffic light start.
R0162 said:
Fans on intercooler - this is one mod i have not done, as it only really benfits whilst stationary and when moving they can block airflow and have a negative effect,
My car has a fan on the intercooler - and the latter part is also uprated. (Both fitted by a former owner). The fan is controlled off a thermostat switch mounted on the intercooler and even in the UK on a hot summers day it doesn`t take much to bring the fan on. I`m not sure I`d agree that it restricts the airflow - when it`s on - and when it isn`t on it doesn`t really matter as the compressed air temperature is low enough not to reduce power significantly.BobE said:
My car has a fan on the intercooler - and the latter part is also uprated. (Both fitted by a former owner). The fan is controlled off a thermostat switch mounted on the intercooler and even in the UK on a hot summers day it doesn`t take much to bring the fan on. I`m not sure I`d agree that it restricts the airflow - when it`s on - and when it isn`t on it doesn`t really matter as the compressed air temperature is low enough not to reduce power significantly.
That is a fair point Bob 
I had never thought about it that way, but you have to also take into consideration that the fans may be coming on while traveling due to them blocking airflow, maybe the air intake temps would be lower when moving if they were not there? I.e. travelling at 70mph the air passing through may cool more efficiently than fans, so it may be that the fans are creating the problem in the first instance which means they come on all the time in order to make up for the poor airflow.We did a diagnostics on my car and took it for a drive on a hot day,linked up to a laptop with sensors all over the car, we found that the custom intercooler did a very good job at lowering air intake temps whilst moving, but the problem was when standing still and temps started to slowly rise, i do not remember the numbers but i remember the conclusion was that the IC was working very efficiently.
Now this may also depend on the efficiency of the intercooler, mine was custom made with 50% more cooling area but only 25% more internal volume, we acheived this by having more area of cooling fins between the bars. So it could well be that our intercoolers do actually perform differently, different horses for different courses and all that
But saying that, i still think that replacing the fans with a Co2 spray bar system linked to a thermostat would still offer the best cooling solution.
R0162 said:
snuffy said:
48deg - I think you are confusing Cyprus with Death Valley there.
I wish i was wrong Snuffy , it gets far too hot, it hardly drops below 40 deg in August, its not 48 deg all the time but it does hit that temp a bit too often for comfort.But I'll grant you it's hot, I got married in Cyprus and even in October it was very warm.
Those temps are ambient, i.e taken in the shade, i stated actual temps taken from whilst on the road.
When not in shade and the road surfaces and everything else have been absorbing heat all afternoon, it makes a difference, and i'm sure you will appreciate that if the localized ambient temp was 46deg sat under a tree, then the ambient temperature will be slightly higher on the roads or around a swimming pool. Anyway its only a 2deg discrepancy, lol and either way its still too damn hot 
When not in shade and the road surfaces and everything else have been absorbing heat all afternoon, it makes a difference, and i'm sure you will appreciate that if the localized ambient temp was 46deg sat under a tree, then the ambient temperature will be slightly higher on the roads or around a swimming pool. Anyway its only a 2deg discrepancy, lol
and either way its still too damn hot Plumber1 said:
Were Nobles officially imported to South Africa or are the ones there imported by individual people?
Nobles are/were manufactured here in South Africa by Superperformance in Port Elizabeth on the east coast of South Africa. They werent imported. South Africa is not that hot as many may think. Its unlikely your going to go drive your car in the Namib desert or Karoo [where it does get hot]Rossion Q1 is now made in same factory .
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