SKCC - Southern Kit Car Club. A Club for kit car owners across Southern England. Kent, Sussex, East Hants, Surrey, Berks, Middlesex, London

Hi all, am just wondering if anyone has had to fill the gaps around their radiator in their 7's between the rad and the inside of the nose cone?
I am assuming that it needs to be removable to allow the nose off for somethings and I am wondering if anyone has found a great way to achieve this ?

Jason

It's quite a common mod with something fabricated from sheet aluminium but I've never had the need. I've had two Westfields and neither have struggled with cooling even on a track day. Are you having issues then?

Hi Steve, when i drove mine for about 40 mins last week doing a test run around local roads using a set of trade plates to make the car legal on the road, it warmed up quickly and even though it was still cold and about 8degrees during the drive time the car stayed hot and I could hear the fan running lots of times. So i think it could do with some gap filling just to help the situation i think. I've seen some rubber trim in CBS, Boot and Door seal that is about 42mm high, so that may well help possibly ?
Am just after ideas of gap filling rather than changing the rad brackets to make it more upright towards 90 degrees to the road.

Hi Jason. Is it actually getting hot on the gauge? I wouldn't necessarily trust the fan, it may just be set to come on at too low a temperature.

If it is getting too hot in these temperatures, then unless you were really thrashing it, I'd say there is more of an issue with the cooling system. Could be an air lock.

But I think fitting ducting around the radiators is really beneficial - made a big difference on my zetec car, and totally sorted the oil over-heating at sustained RPM on my hayabusa car.
Also consider if you can actually enlarge the nose cone openings at all to allow more air flow in, and then consider how the air can escape after it has passed through the radiators.

Here's some pics of the busa ducting I did last year - made several templates in cardboard first, then in aluminium sheet. It's a lot of trial fitting, cutting and filing to make sure that the nose cone can be removed, while still getting the closest clearances possible.



Steve

Top piece of ali fits into nose cone's top void so just above grill. Side pieces of rubber matting fit down the left and right sides. Here the air feeding in from the front grill pushes the rubber to the outer sides of the nose cone making a seal. At the bottom, my rad is close up to the bottom of the nose cone but you could use a piece of ali. My nose cone pivots forward and lifts off for full access. You can see the pivot points in the bottom photo.

Should have added I had loads of issues with cooling until I discovered a blocked rad. Now I struggle to keep the engine warmer than the 85 degree thermostat even in standing traffic on a very hot day. My fan rarely comes on and not for long either.

My rad is a thick 80mm core so will give good cooling but then I have a 5l V8.

I decided to make my rad two way and it made a very big difference. All you do is weld in a baffle plate half way across the header to seal it off. Then move your outlet to the top and block off the old outlet. Now the water flows down one side, across the bottom and up the other side. This gives you over twice the cooling.

Without this, water comes in top (say left) and goes straight to the other side via the header as there is no resistance and down to the outlet. The fan and indeed the air flow will only cool a small bit in the centre but your hot water goes down the side so missing the cooling. Use a temperature gun and you will see this happening.

It is an easy mod - just cut a slot in top, insert a plate and weld it up. Cut off the old outlet and reposition at top and weld a plate over the old outlet. If you can't weld ali, loads of people can.

Richard,

Many thanks for those pics, they look really good so I think I'll try something very similar this weekend hopefully probably with just cardboard first before i get some ali and rubber sheets like yours

Jason

FWIW i've never had a problem cooling 'tweaked' zetecs - whether on spirted runs, tours or track.
the first with just a polo rad, and this one with a beefier triple core rad.

One thing I recall reading somehere in the distant past was the effect of the type of grill material/shape etc which can cut down air to the rad massively.
But as Steve says, if you're hearing the fan and going by that alone would be worth double checking the actual temp.

Thanks, my grill is a plastic one that looks like a hex mesh metal type instead so may restrict the flow a little, Sadly with the car not being able to drive it around yet to see if it was any better before or after any mods i can try.
Jason

Sorry to state the obvious, but the fan is blowing the correct way isn't it?