Oil Cooler 4

Having fitted the oil cooler radiator in place, it is time to find a suitable method of fixing the thermostat in place. This is connected on both sides by two thick braided hoses one to the oil cooler rad and the other to the adaptor that fits between the oil filter and the engine.

The thermostat needs positioning so that the hoses don't foul on anything that moves or is hot and the ideal place in on a  bracket mounted to the nearside front chassis members that support the wishbone.

I made a template using thin card held in place then folded around the chassis members. I then cut along these fold lines to create a template that I could transfer on to a thin piece of stainless I had brought off a local stockholder.

The template was cut to size and clamped in place to mark the position of the fixing holes and then returned to the bench for drilling along with the holes required to attach the thermostat to the bracket itself.

Once I was happy with this I then clamped the bracket back in position and drilled pilot holes through into the chassis.

This is yet another job I should have done before the body was on as access was awkward to say the least!!!

After drilling the pilot holes, I then gradually increased the size until I cut fit rivnuts and attached the bracket.

The thermostat was then fixed to the bracket and the hoses attached. Overall I'm quite happy with the set up but I think the front hoses need to be shortened a little as they dont sit quite right at the front of the car. Ideally I would use some 45deg adapters to ease the angle at which the hoses connect but given the price of them I think I'll make do for now!!!!

Job Done

Oil Cooler 3

With a hour left before needing to head home for the day, I decided to fit the oil cooler into the nose section of the car. I could then determine the best fixing position for the thermostat and, if necessary, cut the hoses to a more suitable length.

I had bought a mounting bracket and fixing kit off GD rather than messing about trying to fabricate my own. As usual the holes in the bracket don't quite align with the holes in the cooler so these needed opening up.

To determine the position of the fixing holes which would be drilled in the undertray I marked a centreline on both the undertray and the oil cooler and lined the two up. I fitted the bracket to the top of the oil cooler and put this in place in the lip of the nose cone. I then marked the hole positions and drilled them in place.

NOw the GD fixing kit comes wiht spacers which are designed to be fitted between the undertray and the GRP below. With this in mind, I drilled right the way through the GRP but when I went to put the spacers in place this seemed pointless. The gap between the tray and the GRP was a lot bigger than the spacer and there were only spacers for two of the four fixing bolts.

I bolted everything up in place and to be fair it fits really firm and I cant quite see why I need to fix through to the GRP so I will probably leave this as it is now.

The only thing that needs sorting now is to get a couple more button heads as there were only 6 in the fixing kit and with my method of fixing I need 8. For the time being I have used a couple of socket cap heads to get the job done. No one will ever notice but I will know they don't match so I will have to change at some point - I've noted it on my snagging list.

Cooling System

Another simple task that isn't going according to plan is connecting the cooling hoses between the heater matrix outlets and the water pump and manifold.

Ken at EDA sent me some Speedflow connectors in black to match up with the other fittings using on the fuel line (just find the standard red and blue looks a bit blingy and I want to stick to my black &white/silver theme).

The blanking plugs were removed from the water pump and manifold but the taper thread seems too big, leaving the fitting sitting to high on the pump and then the 45 deg fitting fouls on the alternator adjustor bar.

Also the 45 deg fitting doesn't put the hose at the correct orientation from either the pump or the manifold so need to reassess this next week. Essentially I need to copy the set up used by STR on his iron block engine.

Taper thread doesn't screw in far enough

Fitting fouls alternator adjustment bar

Undertray

Something I started a week or two ago but didn't get around to updating on the blog was fitting the under tray.

I had decided, in my infinite wisdom, to completely remove the radiator when fitting the body as opposed to just loosening the top mounts as recommended by GD. The one advantage of this was that it was easier to fit the under tray this way. I had marked the position of the radiator bottom fixings and cut a slot in the under tray to to allow this to slot into place. Its then pretty much an interference fit under the front of the nose lip. 

As with all build jobs the tray didn't fit first time of asking. As I have decided to fit my fans on the front of the aluminium radiator the support bars foul the undertray so this needed a big of cutting with the Dremel to allow it to fit.

Twin fans mounted to front of upgraded aluminium radiator

Undertray cut around fan fixing bolt (both sides)

Once this was all in place the sides of the undertray can be left as they are or fixed to the inner wings. I prefer the idea of fixing to wings but there is a big gap between the wing and the undertray both sides and the rear of the undertray is much lower than the bottom of the inner wing (see photo). As it was getting late I decided to come back to this another time.

Note gap between undertray and inner wing and relative height of both parts

Oil Cooler 2

Having had a word with Andy at GD, I ordered a fixing kit off him for the oil cooler radiator.

This comprised of a stainless steel plate/bracket and a bunch of nuts, bolts and spacers.

Thought this would be a fairly quick job, so I decided I would fit it today but when I had a closer look it was yet another job that needs some tweaking.

The spacers seem redundant as the top of the oil cooler is already above the level of the bottom of the mouth of the car, the bracket seems to fit at an upward angle not flat and the small fixing holes need to be re-drilled in the correct position.

Once for another day given I'm a little short of time.

Washer Bottle 2

16th February 2013

The new stainless washer bottle reservoir arrived this week and I managed to get this fitted.

It was a bit of a faff getting it to line up with the header tank as, although they are the same diameter, they have different mounting brackets and are fitting onto a circular section of chassis.

The braket has to be more substantial for the washer bottle as this is all that will hold it in place, whereas the header tank has two top hoes maintaining its position.

Washer Bottle

14 January 2012

In Steve's blog, I noticed that he had had made a really fancy looking stainless washer bottle resovoir. I thought this looked really neat when positioned next to the header tank so I decided to have one.

The photos below show a steel rule in place taking down the various measurements. Sadly what I didnt cater for was how the body (inner wing) would sit in relation to the chassis so this caused some issues when we did finally come to fit the body... More on that later.

Radiator and Fans

3 January 2013

Decided to go for the stainless radiator upgrade with twin fans. Next decision to make was where to fit the fans, either to the front or back of the radiator.

Having looked at other builds and done some research, it appears they are more effective at the back but I cant help but think they look better fitted to the front - so I'm gambling that as I have gone for an upgrade that isn't technically necessary, then fitting the fans at the front will be fine.

GD now supply some strips of stainless steel to mount the fans to the radiator - this must be a new things as previous builders have spoken about having to source these strips. They just needed marking and drilling as did the radiator itself, taking care not to drill through into the core.

The fans have some pieces that are attached to top/bottom, left/right that have to be removed on the one side to allow them to fit side by side.

These were cut off using the dremmel but the fumes they created weren't pleasant at all so I would definitely advise using a hack saw or a mask.

Fans mounted to front of radiator. Inner flanges removed to all them to fit side by side. Cables tied together for wiring into main body loom

Once the fans had been fixed to the radiator, the whole assembly had to be fitted to the rolling chassis. This entailed cutting down some M6 set screws as I didnt have any really short ones (the bolts holding the radiator in place will go through the frame and right into the radiator core if this is checked carefully).

The top mounting are held in place by some rubber grommets in the frame - the radiator needs some flexibility hence it isn't fixed with bolts

All fitted to chassis