I am having my rad upgraded by Pro Alloy to be triple pass, in chatting to Wayne and whilst the front is off I am considering getting him to make me up a pair of replacement oil coolers whilst the front is off, what are peoples thoughts? He did say the Lotus cores are actually quite good already, that did surprise me!
The Lotus coolers work really well when you put a gauge in the oil.
If you really want some made, make sure that the cooler fittings come off first though. Lotus use an alloy rad, with steel pipe ends, so can pull the threads off the coolers and stick in the end unions.
Stick with the Lotus ones, they work well.
Good advice I will leave well alone then. Ta
Yep the Lotus ones are more than good enough (too good sometimes). The only real issue with them is their location, they are easily prone to damage with a slight knock on the front corners. Not a major problem unless your racing (I’ve had it happen twice now so have gone over to a triple pass and Laminova).
If you were going to do anything I’d put a Laminova on in place of them, you loose some weight and also get around the problem of leaving a ltr of oil in the system when you do an oil change.
I was starting to have hot running problems this year at Spa, this is why I am going triple pass, I think it was also down to running a laminova for the gearbox oil, I really don’t want to add the engine oil in as well, I do wonder about doing something similar to Frank’s set up with the cooler above the diffuser with a fan on it, plenty of cool air there, I just don’t have the fabrication skills and equipment to make all the stuff, and as with all one off items it would be expensive. Then I could use the oil coolers as extra charge cooler rads 
Im running 2 laminova’s on mine off the front triple pass rad, no probs. It’s the same set up as the factory GT4 2-11 with over 300hp… Trying to run a Laminova off your std rad is probably the problem.
mine wasn’t a standard rad it was a ProAlloy one, just an early non triple pass one, I would also have to ask JSR if there was still space to run another laminova considering he fitted the gearbox one. Also I do still have air con and Proalloy charge cooler rad
Being dense but what’s the significance of the gauge? Does it add any benefit or just provide evidence that coolers work well?
The later of the two. Highest we have ever seen is low 100’s, which is about perfect.
low 100s is fine for oil temp.
Ade, what water temps were you running?
I just don’t get why there is so much additional need for cooling on the exige. The rad looks plenty big enough, the oil capacity is decent, there’s no doubt a modine which will reduce water temps a bit if the oil cooler is working well.
I’d expect traffic to be a slight problem if anything.
BTW. I have read in countless places that ocne the airflow is beyond that which the can can push, the fan becomes a significant hindrance to airflow.
for the rad, do you use destilled water? and have you tried water wetter? I have seen th results it gives, despite being hugely sceptical about it.
The problem is with aireflow. Don’t forget, on a charge cooled car with AC, you have 3 rads sandwiched together at the front - Coolant / AC / Chargecooler. Hinders Airflow somewhat!
Its never a problem on the road, just on track pumping lap after lap. If I’m really on it, water temps will sit at 105. I have got the proalloy rad, but liek Ade, its the single pass one. I am upgrading to triple pass shortly though. I still don’t think running laminovas for either the gearbox or the engine oil is a good idea though.
The biggest problem with the front rad (whichever type you have), is the angle it sits at.
It’s standard fit puts it in a nose down position, so effectively the air has to be forced up and almost back on itself to go through it. Ideally you need a rad with the fins inclined so it works much better… (40 degree incline should just about do it :wink).
The stack of coolers with AC really sucks and you will need to run with the AC off if you want any power… When I tested the ProAlloy setup with just the stock fans the car would run very hot … I now have pusher[stock] and puller fans mounted and the temps are better but not great, that’s why I mounted a read radiator with two puller fans… Now the temps are never more than 190f even in 115f ambient temps in the canyons…
Can the radiators be rotated in the stock crash box ?
Every turbo charged car I’ve had has had a whopping great big intercooler in front of the radiator with an air con rad in between.
Is it going to be so different? The intercooler has to reject the same heat from the charge that the CC rad does, and probably doesa better job of it and so gives off more heat!
People mention that the Hangar 111 solution of the small CC rad in the nose is a bad idea, but given what you are all saying in the above posts, apart from the increased air temp to the cabin, which I would assume could be imprroved by ducting the cabin air inlet point a little, maybe it’s not actually such a bad idea?
[quote=frank]Can the radiators be rotated in the stock crash box ?
[/quote]
You may get a bit either way but not the amount your looking for.
[quote=Adamantium]Every turbo charged car I’ve had has had a whopping great big intercooler in front of the radiator with an air con rad in between.
[/quote]
In that set up they all sit back to back directly inline with the airflow. Putting more rads on the front of a lotus for auxiliary items doesn’t work like that, there’s a chance they could even make the airflow going to the main rad even more inefficient…
[quote=Adamantium]Every turbo charged car I’ve had has had a whopping great big intercooler in front of the radiator with an air con rad in between.
Is it going to be so different? The intercooler has to reject the same heat from the charge that the CC rad does, and probably doesa better job of it and so gives off more heat!
People mention that the Hangar 111 solution of the small CC rad in the nose is a bad idea, but given what you are all saying in the above posts, apart from the increased air temp to the cabin, which I would assume could be imprroved by ducting the cabin air inlet point a little, maybe it’s not actually such a bad idea? [/quote]
I have a front mount heat exchanger also 9x28" across the front along much like the Hanger 111 setup along with the two oil coolers for water cooling…4 heat exchangers in total and two engine radiators…
If you plan on making power ya gotta stay cool.