Do you have a radiator cowling fitted?
Discussion
97 model with cowls fitted.
For what it's worth, years ago when I worked for a living, we removed cowls fitted to a Cummins engine in a mobile crane which immediately ran over temp, amazed at how much difference it made in that circumstance. We just got too lazy to refit thinking it wasn't going to make much difference (and was a nuisance to remove and refit), how wrong we were. But, if yours was designed and runs without then ....... Happy days!
For what it's worth, years ago when I worked for a living, we removed cowls fitted to a Cummins engine in a mobile crane which immediately ran over temp, amazed at how much difference it made in that circumstance. We just got too lazy to refit thinking it wasn't going to make much difference (and was a nuisance to remove and refit), how wrong we were. But, if yours was designed and runs without then ....... Happy days!
The Horse said:
Old thread I know, but is it possible to fit a cowl to an aluminium radiator I've just ordered from Aaron radiators (which seems to be well respected here on PH) ?
Cheers
David
Quite often the ali rads can be had with an ali cowling ...Cheers
David
If it has the appropriate threaded holes then there's no reason you can't fit the standard cowlings but I'd check that it has them...
Phil
Can someone explain how blocking off parts of the radiator to make sure the fans pull air through a certain bit of it - which they would already have been doing anyway - helps to improve cooling.
I'm not an engineer by a long measure, but I really don't understand the theory of how this works.
I'm not an engineer by a long measure, but I really don't understand the theory of how this works.
It's not actually blocking off part of the rad ... the cowling allows the fan to draw air from an enclosed area behind the radiator (enclosed by the cowling) which means that more area of the radiator is actually having air pulled through it by the fans when they are running (as opposed to just the area covered by the fan).
When you're moving and the engine bay is actually overcooled then the cowling restricts the free airflow and allows the engine to keep heat in it better.
Adding cowlings to my '94 (and better fans) is on my todo list...
Phil
When you're moving and the engine bay is actually overcooled then the cowling restricts the free airflow and allows the engine to keep heat in it better.
Adding cowlings to my '94 (and better fans) is on my todo list...
Phil
I have cowls, and with a decent new rad (not aluminum in my case) my fans stay off 90% of the time.
Even in traffic my staged fan system only needs to run fan 1 most of the time, with the second only needed during extended periods of idling on a hot day.
This avoids any voltage drop spikes that can occur when both fans chime in simultaneously on the standard setup, there's no getting away from the fact that two fans coming on at the same time is a big load.
While it never actually promoted a stall there was often a monetary drop in RPM when both rads chimed in together (at idle) that sometimes felt like the car may just stall out. This usually happened to me when I was on full lock maneuvering around a car park with people watching
Staged fans eliminated this trait.
I still swear the Chimaera doesn't actually need a fancy schmancy radiator upgrade, the standard cooling system (when maintained properly) is perfectly adequate.
And personally I've seen too many split ally rads to trust them completely even though there is quite a nice weight advantage which is their only real advantage in my opinion.
The truth is the only Chimaera cooling system that's genuinely inadequate is one that either leaks or is blocked with silt, they're the ones that'll get ya.
A standard rad certainly does the job just fine and from what you hear seem to be more physically robust than the lovely light weight aluminum ones.
Just my observations you understand, and I would still fit the cowls if it were me.
Even in traffic my staged fan system only needs to run fan 1 most of the time, with the second only needed during extended periods of idling on a hot day.
This avoids any voltage drop spikes that can occur when both fans chime in simultaneously on the standard setup, there's no getting away from the fact that two fans coming on at the same time is a big load.
While it never actually promoted a stall there was often a monetary drop in RPM when both rads chimed in together (at idle) that sometimes felt like the car may just stall out. This usually happened to me when I was on full lock maneuvering around a car park with people watching
Staged fans eliminated this trait.
I still swear the Chimaera doesn't actually need a fancy schmancy radiator upgrade, the standard cooling system (when maintained properly) is perfectly adequate.
And personally I've seen too many split ally rads to trust them completely even though there is quite a nice weight advantage which is their only real advantage in my opinion.
The truth is the only Chimaera cooling system that's genuinely inadequate is one that either leaks or is blocked with silt, they're the ones that'll get ya.
A standard rad certainly does the job just fine and from what you hear seem to be more physically robust than the lovely light weight aluminum ones.
Just my observations you understand, and I would still fit the cowls if it were me.
The Horse said:
Old thread I know, but is it possible to fit a cowl to an aluminium radiator I've just ordered from Aaron radiators (which seems to be well respected here on PH) ?
Cheers
David
I should hopefully be picking up my rad from AARON this week. They pressure tested my Aly rad for me last week and found it was cracked.. So they are going to take the cowling off my old rad and fit to my new one.Cheers
David
My old rad with cowling https://goo.gl/photos/5AZXUkFRSDKrnWLy8
Radiator & fan upgrades are still on my to do list. Drove the car in heavy Tokyo traffic last week, and while it behaved with sensible driving, it was always running just under 90 in the city and around 85 with free flowing traffic on the open road. Once you get silly with the throttle it very quickly heads north of 90. I want that extra cooling capacity for when I do get stuck in some of the very long traffic queues in hot weather.
Oh yeah, the weather..... currently a little over 38C here at 80% humidity. Not your usual environment for a British sports car
Oh yeah, the weather..... currently a little over 38C here at 80% humidity. Not your usual environment for a British sports car
dazee said:
Radiator & fan upgrades are still on my to do list. Drove the car in heavy Tokyo traffic last week, and while it behaved with sensible driving, it was always running just under 90 in the city and around 85 with free flowing traffic on the open road. Once you get silly with the throttle it very quickly heads north of 90. I want that extra cooling capacity for when I do get stuck in some of the very long traffic queues in hot weather.
Oh yeah, the weather..... currently a little over 38C here at 80% humidity. Not your usual environment for a British sports car
If you go with staged fans bringing the first fan in early around 73/75 degrees or even lower, then the second fan just finishes the off the job and in many cases never comes on at all.Oh yeah, the weather..... currently a little over 38C here at 80% humidity. Not your usual environment for a British sports car
This would be ideal in your very hot climate.
You can easily buy otter switches with different values making tuning your fan operation relatively simple. If possible select values that cross over so you will have both fans running simultaneously for a period.
Better still use a proper staged fan controller like this one from Davies Craig:
https://daviescraig.com.au/product/digital-thermat...
https://daviescraig.com.au/media/637/1426833574.04...
Starting the cooling process early with one fan is usually just enough to keep you ahead of the game, this way you're not trying to remove all that heat in one go when things are already heading towards critical.
It's also worth using something like Rover Gauge to see what your true coolant temps are, the truth is the TVR gauge is a long way off being even remotely accurate. TBH it's not really to be trusted at all, especially in tropical climates where an under reading gauge could mean disaster.
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