Discussion
Next job of mine is to fit the leven cooling kit. Its all come in the post today - thanks very much Julie!
However, I'm thinking - I'd like to drain the system completely and re-fill it.
Q/ what do I put in? Tap water?, Distilled water, deionised water, Holy blessed water or some combination of these with antifreeze / coolant stuff!
Assuming the answer is probably 50/50 some sort of water and antifreeze, then how much coolant will go into a Chim 500?
If it is 5 Litres for example, do I just pour in 2.5 ltr of antifreeze stuff, then top up with blessed water or what?
Sorry for seeming dim, but someone must have done this :confused:
However, I'm thinking - I'd like to drain the system completely and re-fill it.
Q/ what do I put in? Tap water?, Distilled water, deionised water, Holy blessed water or some combination of these with antifreeze / coolant stuff!
Assuming the answer is probably 50/50 some sort of water and antifreeze, then how much coolant will go into a Chim 500?
If it is 5 Litres for example, do I just pour in 2.5 ltr of antifreeze stuff, then top up with blessed water or what?
Sorry for seeming dim, but someone must have done this :confused:
Coolant system capacity is 12 litres, anything between 1/4 and 1/3 anti-freeze should be okay (3 or 4 litres). If the car is kept outside for long periods in the winter, the concentration may need to be increased to 40% or 50%. Follow the instructions on the can. Tap water is okay from soft water areas, ie. those where the kettle doesn't fur up and your central heating system doesn't scale up. These are hard water areas where there are lots of dissolved magnesium and calcium salts in the water. My advice is to go for a blat up to the West Riding of Yorkshire (that's God's country 
) and collect some water from there - there's none softer on this island.
You're supposed to mix the solution first but I've never bothered - it'll soon mix itself. Just put the anti-freeze in first then top up with water.
) and collect some water from there - there's none softer on this island. You're supposed to mix the solution first but I've never bothered - it'll soon mix itself. Just put the anti-freeze in first then top up with water.
Yeah, will do:
my car always ran about 90 (on the gauge) in traffic, didn't take long to get up to temp and more recently its been getting hotter inside the car. On a coolish day (on the motorway) it would be around 80, but that would be the lowest!
I had a rolling road session with Mark Adams and the sensors showed that what I saw as 90 on my gauge was in fact 96 - 97 and despite the fans cutting in the temp wasn't getting lower. Mark suggested changing the thermostat, but I decided to fit the leven kit. Aparently its common for the gauge to read up to 10 degrees below the true temp
NB Where am I going to get this water from then? Perhaps I can nick a litre form the water dispenser at work every day
my car always ran about 90 (on the gauge) in traffic, didn't take long to get up to temp and more recently its been getting hotter inside the car. On a coolish day (on the motorway) it would be around 80, but that would be the lowest!
I had a rolling road session with Mark Adams and the sensors showed that what I saw as 90 on my gauge was in fact 96 - 97 and despite the fans cutting in the temp wasn't getting lower. Mark suggested changing the thermostat, but I decided to fit the leven kit. Aparently its common for the gauge to read up to 10 degrees below the true temp
NB Where am I going to get this water from then? Perhaps I can nick a litre form the water dispenser at work every day
2Munkys said:
I'd be interested to hear of the results from the fitting of this kit; make sure you update us on this one ian187.
I had it fitted a few months ago. Now the guage doesn't get beyond 70 when making progress and hasn't risen above 90, even in some pretty chunky traffic jams on hot days.
Brilliant kit for not much money
2Munkys said:
I'd be interested to hear of the results from the fitting of this kit; make sure you update us on this one ian187.
OK, I fitted the kit - sort of
The Otter switch was no problem - although I had taken the top hose off, so the water / coolant fell out of the swirl pot faster than ..... on reflection you'd be better doing the otter switch before you take anything off, then there'd be some pressure holding the water back a little!
Where the thermostat sits isn't the easiest place to get to - the one bolt is fine, but the other is a bit of a pig to see. I undid the housing, replaced the thermostat and tightened it all up (had to take the dizzy cap and a few pipes off and some re-routing of cables / wires) I put some water and coolant in - taking special care with the coolant 'cause it said DON'T get on the bodywork, so every little splash or drip I carefully wiped off and polished with my T shirt!!
Then I started the engine; to find the gasket wasn't in place properly - the bolt that was easy to get to, went through the hole in the gasket, but the gasket had pivotted down, so the other bolt wasn't going through the gasket, as a result the gasket wasn't making a seal and WHOOOOOSHHHH - coolant all over my baby
So I washed down the car - needed a new T shirt and took it all apart again. Sure enough the gasket wasn't lined up properly, but its difficult to see, you have to feel for it.
I put it all together again, dizzy cap, pipes and everything, filled it back up started the engine and this time SQUIRT!! not so bad, but again coolant spraying about
This time it was because the gasket had got kinked form the first try and wasn't making a good seal, even though it was lined up properly this time! So I took it all apart again and got some gasket sealant. Spread it over the gasket and some on both faces of the housing and spread it on my toast - the whole lot! Put it back together, tightened it up and felt pretty pleased with myself this time - confident that it was a good seal, I was just putting my tools away and then saw "THE THERMOSTAT" I'd forgotten to put it back in after taking it apart
Soooooo..... refusing to let this get the better of me, I took it all apart (again) cleaned off all the sealant and bought a new gasket, this time its back together and Pukka
It wouldn't be TVR if it was easy to do
Being as I spent a whole afternoon fitting a bl**dy thermostat, I thought I may as well do a few other bits, so I fitted a fan overide to a button on the cowling and put an LED in the cowling to tell me when the fans are on. Send me a PM if you want to know how I did it!
Driving my Chim now, it is a bit cooler, but in the process above I ran out of coolant and I havn't put the water wetter in yet! I'd say the temp hangs a bit over the 80 mark. I thought it would be cooler than that but its definately better than it was.
Having the LED in the cowling is great - gives you more things to look at when you get bored of staring at the dials, but its started to make me a bit paranoid at the moment 'cause it comes on more often - now that I've changed the otter switch. I used a red LED, should have used a blue or yellow one really 'cause it looks like a fault when it switches on, so I might change it.
>> Edited by ian187 on Monday 1st August 13:36
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