Cooling (part 2)

[sgrant]

Are the hoses and the radiator all standard Midget parts, or are they Westfield inventions?

Thanks,

stephen

[erictharg]

Radiator should be standard cross flow Midget. Pipes / hoses are all Westfield. Hoses easily source elsewhere as they are all 25mm 90 deg elbows. Std Westfield installation does not get enough airflow through the rad and relies too much on the fan for cooling, so when pressing on you may find any kind of uprated engine starts to run too hot. What you don't get is the increase in airflow you need with increasing speed to kkpe things under control. Easy to fix though...

[sgrant]

Thanks - i've not had any overheating problems yet (perhaps my engine isn't souped up enough!), but i've got a persistent drip from where the bottom hose meets the radiator. I've swapped the jubilee clip, but I think it's probably a replacement hose jobby. Think i'll get a silicone replacement. I was wondering what the diameter was though, so thanks for that; i'll check tonight and order a replacement if it's still dripping. Maybe a good time to do the heater tap plumbing at the same time....

[Westfield 129]

Here in Sunny Caifornia, where everyone drives Westfield XIs all year around, we have found a way to fix the cooling problem.

First, remove the fan from the front of the radiator. The fan motor blocks 30% of the cooling fins when it is mounted in front of the radiator.

The fan mounting shrouds another 30 % of the cooling fins, so get rid of that.

Now, you can angle the radiator forward a bit, and slide the fan BEHIND the radiator, and attach it with the plastic fan attachments that go through the core matrix. Install carefully, and you wont have any problems.

Make a duct so that ALL of the air goes in through the front, goes through the radiator. This means putting a floor inside the lower frame in front of the radiator, and installing some side ducting to fill the void between the edges of the radiator cooling fins, and the new floor that you put over the top of the lower frame rails.

Check the rest of the cooling system, and your engines' timing. Take a look at the plugs to see if it is running too lean. Put a volt meter on the battery with the engine running to check the alternator output (if it is putting out too many volts, the points burn, the timing advances, and the engine runs poorly, and overheats). Make sure that you have a good thermostat, and that you have an automatic thermostat switch for your fan.

If your radiator is in good shape, your engine should be running about 30F cooler. My car, with a 120 HP engine (fitted with a 14 row oil cooler), runs around 78C most days, 85~90 on the hottest, during a climb, behind a slow truck. It is often around 30C or hotter here, so the combination works reasonably well.

However, I am not quite satisfied. I am having a new rad built. This one is a double pass (both inlet and outlet on the same side, which really cleans up the engine compartment) racing radiator. It is about 5X more efficient than the stock Spridget X flow. It measures 16X11", and should fit angles back behind the steering rack, with a fan on the back, the air exiting beneath the car. as in the original Lotus 11. It's an expensive part, but the idea of better under hood aero has been a project for the last couple of years.

That said, properly set up, the stock Spridget X flow will do the job if you put the fan in the back, and get rid of that sheet steel fan mount that blocks all the air from going through the radiator.

erictharg wrote:
> Radiator should be standard cross flow Midget. Pipes / hoses are all
> Westfield. Hoses easily source elsewhere as they are all 25mm 90 deg
> elbows. Std Westfield installation does not get enough airflow through the
> rad and relies too much on the fan for cooling, so when pressing on you may
> find any kind of uprated engine starts to run too hot. What you don't get
> is the increase in airflow you need with increasing speed to kkpe things
> under control. Easy to fix though...

[erictharg]

I've used a Austin / MG Metro rad (£20 on eBay, new and unused). Sits right out in front, and needs angling back a little to clear the bonnet line. But the best bit is I'm running at not much over 70deg C on the road (18 deg ambient) and stay well below 80 deg racing. And that's without water wetter or any ducting. You need about £50 worth of silicone hoses to connect it, and can use the std ally water pipes.

[Westfield 129]

I have mine set up to run around 80C. I find that the engine produces a bit more power at 80~90C so my thermostat and fan are set to maintain that temperature.

The MG Metro radiator sounds like a good idea. Too bad there aren't any here, other than my buddiy's Metro Group B car.

[11admire]

Having taken the camera out I had to take some more pics. so here is the radiator, watertank, stainles pipes and Samco hoses

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