Small front number plate

[BreakingBad]

I am putting my own reg. number on the Griff and, as it's a 5-digit plate, thought I would put a smaller (legal) plate on the front to allow more airflow.

Trouble is, I'm now wondering if the standard size plate protects the radiator and if I were to fit the smaller plate, am I likely to get stones through the rad?

I have looked at loads of pictures and pretty much every Griff has a standard size plate - anyone have any knowledge or experience of such problems?

Thanks in advance.

[Hedgehopper]

I've got a narrow 5 digit plate on my car but I also have what appears to be a factory fitted wire mesh grille so no stone damage problems.

Edited by Hedgehopper on Tuesday 5th August 14:35

[lockhart flawse]

I have had a small number plate on the front of the car for 4 years. I keep the full-size one in the boot for MOTs (if required - never has been). The main benefit is the greatly reduced running temperate on my car.

I have had no problems with stones and no-one seems to have noticed it.

[Bluebottle]

I used to run a small number plate and no number plate on track with no problem.
Had to give up the illegal plate size (3/4 size) when Highways Authority were so kind enough to send me a photograph of my P&J....with a note saying I would lose my private reg. if I did it again
As I upgraded my cooling system (ali rad etc) I had no need of it anyway. But I still remove my plate on track days.
As I now have 4 no. rads in the nose I did make up a mesh grill for it.

[MikeG]

I have legal small 5 digit plate on my Griff and have never had any problems with stones damaging the rad. I do have a mesh grille in front of the rad however which may be helping. Car runs cool on road and track.
Mike

[BreakingBad]

Thanks for all of those replies, folks.

Looks like there shouldn't be any problem but the mesh is a good idea - just in case . I suppose securing the mesh to the horizontal bar before affixing the number plate should do the job, allowing the air in and the stones out. Might look ok, too.

[popegregory]

I was thinking about a small plate on the Cerbera, where is good to get them from?

[TVR Beaver]

How much cooler do you think a small plate will make things?.. got to say that over the last few weeks, mine has crept up to 90 and has stopped there until i've realy opened her up or put the fans on... it's like heat soak thats so hard to shift...
I was thinking smaller number plate or even putting vents in the rear edge of the bonnet?... (yes I have a splitter fitted )

[BreakingBad]

popegregory said:

I was thinking about a small plate on the Cerbera, where is good to get them from?

I have just ordered mine from Craig's plates - mostly because they do the translucent rear plates - bu they do narrower width plates with legl font etc for 5-digit and 6-digit reg numbers.

[BreakingBad]

MikeG said:

I I do have a mesh grille in front of the rad however which may be helping.

Did you fabricate this yourself or are mesh grilles available off the shelf somewhere? I have had a search but can't find anything other than sheets of mesh. I was just thinking that getting access to measure / template correctly to cut mesh into the right shape then to fix it could be pretty difficult. How did you do it Mike?

[WinstonWolf]

TVR Beaver said:

How much cooler do you think a small plate will make things?.. got to say that over the last few weeks, mine has crept up to 90 and has stopped there until i've realy opened her up or put the fans on... it's like heat soak thats so hard to shift...
I was thinking smaller number plate or even putting vents in the rear edge of the bonnet?... (yes I have a splitter fitted )

5/10 degrees. The main difference is you can get the temp down again after a period of heat soak which you can't with the standard plate.

[MikeG]

Paul,
My Griff (95 500HC serpentine+T5) had a wire square mesh panel fitted from new sandwiched just in front of the radiator and held in place by the foam rubber packing on the rad. This mesh has approx 20mm square holes. I have added to this with a finer 10mm galvanised mesh (see your local wicks) to give further protection to the rad. I also added additional foam packing along the top edge of the rad to stop fixings etc from being dropped between mesh and rad.
Hope that helps
Mike

[MikeG]

TVR Beaver said:

How much cooler do you think a small plate will make things?.. got to say that over the last few weeks, mine has crept up to 90 and has stopped there until i've realy opened her up or put the fans on... it's like heat soak thats so hard to shift...
I was thinking smaller number plate or even putting vents in the rear edge of the bonnet?... (yes I have a splitter fitted )

John,
I guess that the thermal mass of the engine and gearbox surrounded by all that insulating fibreglass makes it better to do something before the temp gets too high - not that 90C is too high but good. I also double check my engine temp as recorded by the ECU with Rovergauge - just for peace of mind.
The "cooling" airflow through the engine (aided by the splitter) is via the rad to under the bonnet and then down past the engine to under the car when travelling. So I guess that bonnet slots would interrupt this path but help when sitting in traffic. Incidentally, I am not sure that radiator cowls help much as the type used on the Griff seem to block a high proportion of the normal air flow though the rad instead of a normal cowl with a smooth transition shape - does this mean that the fans are on more?
Mike

[BreakingBad]

Thanks for that, Mike. I will have to take a closer look to see the best way to apply and secure the mesh as it seems that there isn't a readily available, off the shelf solution (which would be my preferred option).


On the subject of engine temperature generally, at a recent service they changed the fan switch for one which brings the fans on at a lower temperature - where before, the gauge would show 90 to 100, it now sits resolutely below 90, even in traffic on a hot day. A quick, easy solution for about a tenner!

[Pete Mac]

BreakingBad said:

Thanks for that, Mike. I will have to take a closer look to see the best way to apply and secure the mesh as it seems that there isn't a readily available, off the shelf solution (which would be my preferred option).

Paul, I thought the following photos of my two Griff 500s might help. One (the road going Griff) with a large number plate, the other with a smaller plate (the nut and bolt rebuild). Both Griffs were fitted with 'basically chicken wire' mesh to protect the rad and you can see how they are fixed (self-tappers into the GRP). I assume that this was standard fitment to all Griff 500s, can't talk about the 4.0 and 4.3 as they didn't come with a front opening I believe (anybody want to confirm).

My plan is to buy some stainless steel mesh and cut new grills. I was planning to fix using rivnuts, stainless button head screws and stainless penny washers. Can't see this is going to be too hard to be honest. The following is the mesh I was planning to buy:

http://www.meshdirect.co.uk/Woven-Stainless-Wire-C...

I was going to use this mesh as the holes are small (5.45mm) but it still has a 74% open area so should retain the airflow over the radiator.

I reckon you could get 3 or 4 grills out of one of those 1.2m x 1.0m sheets and all I have to do is take the old grill off the Griff being rebuilt to get a template.

Happy to knock a few grills out together on a wet Saturday but now is not a great time, perhaps September on my next off-shift from Kazakhstan.

As for splitters, cooling etc. there was a recent thread on this that I contributed to, perhaps a month or so ago.

Hope this helps, Pete

[LordGrover]

My precat was 3/4 size, but it's clearly still possible to read from a distance.

[BreakingBad]

Thanks Pete, that is very helpful and very kind of you to offer to "knock out" a few grilles (do you think we might have found a gap in the market here? ).

Mine is an early 500 ('93) but no grille or mesh fitted or sign that there ever had been one so I am reckoning on making one (or giving it a damn good try, anyway) so I have already bought some mesh from the Bay to give it a go.

Are self-tapping screws the best option? I'm a bit reluctant to make holes in the nosecone and was wondering about fabricating a couple of brackets to fix into the back of the "splitter " on the ends of the number plate screws. Might do a mock-up to see if this would be strong enough to hold the mesh in place, when it arrives.

[Barreti]

They're really interesting photos Pete.

I have the mesh on my pre-cat but it has never looked quite right to my mind.
Its screwed to the bottom opening rather than at the diagonal yours seems to be - which would make more sense.
I can feel another job coming...

I have a 3/4 sized plate and a full sized plate for when I need to worry about being 'legal'
The running temp difference is 5-10C lower with the smaller plate.

I have a pre-cat but with a 500 front end. One of the interesting pieces of the history of the car.

Edited by Barreti on Wednesday 6th August 13:48

[Pete Mac]

BreakingBad said:

Are self-tapping screws the best option? I'm a bit reluctant to make holes in the nosecone and was wondering about fabricating a couple of brackets to fix into the back of the "splitter " on the ends of the number plate screws. Might do a mock-up to see if this would be strong enough to hold the mesh in place, when it arrives.

I was going to use stainless steel Rivnuts into the GRP and then use stainless steel button screws with stainless steel 'penny' washers. Cheap as chips from Toolstation or Screwfix. I have a rivnut gun and you can buy stainless steel rivnuts. Not a bad investment if you plan to do some mods on the GRP body here and there - we are not talking big money here, or you can borrow mine but I suspect you may be on the other side of London from me (I'm in Pangbourne, just west of Reading). Pete

[Pete Mac]

LordGrover said:

My precat was 3/4 size, but it's clearly still possible to read from a distance.

Oops, has somebody been a naughty boy.......?