on a hot summers day the cooling system on my car cannot quite keep up… I have uprated the oil cooler sitting in the mouth of the crash box, which keeps oil temps under control.
but the water can get too hot, i have ac on my black car, (extra ballast to make me try harder) which somewhat retricts the airflow i would say, and the original radiator.
i imagine tis is not as efficient as it once was? can this really be the case?
i am thinking replace the rad and perhaps do an upgrade. Has anyone seen similiar symptoms and tried an uprated rad?
then which one? there is the elise parts one and i am not sure about any other suppliers. any advice would be gratefully received.
Another vote for the ProAlloy one. I have AC as well and the water seems to stay at a reasonable temp, but then again I haven’t had it on track on a hot sunny day
have you got a prt fitted? much cheaper than a new rad & has completely stabilised my water temps even on the hottest day in the alps or queueing in traffic on the road through Monte Carlo.
have you got a prt fitted? much cheaper than a new rad & has completely stabilised my water temps even on the hottest day in the alps or queueing in traffic on the road through Monte Carlo.
yep, did that, it certainly helps keep things more stable, but in the end it is all down to energy in and energy out…
Yeah Pro Alloy manufacture everything in house. They are great guys to deal with and also if you ever need anything “different” doing, they are only to pleased to accomodate you.
The best elise water rad without question is from Pro Alloy. They also do a triple pass rad, which I use on my race car.
Give Wayne or Alex a call on 0845 226 7561
I noticed the other day that Lotus offer a triple pass one now - I wonder if it is the Pro Alloy one.
Anther option is the original Lotus motorsport one, which has a much thicker core, but it dosn’t have the flanges for mounting, which make it harder to install.
Yasec ones are also well worth considering. I’ve got one on my 340R, which is very well made and probably the lightest one available anywhere - the tapered tanks reduce coolant volume/weight as well as the dry weight. He also does a thicker cored one. There is a thread over on SELOC at the moment about them - chap that just fitted a standard one has seen an immediate drop in temperatures.
I have the Lotus Motorsport rad fitted after my standard rad blew its ends off. This is slightly thicker than the standard rad and has metal ends so its more durable. Cooling was never an issue with the standard rad so I can not comment if this is any better. I fits with the AC, however, the front bonnet hinge did fowl the rad as it was slightly higher so I have to remove the hinge and flatten the first two bends in it to give clearence from the Rad.
I have bought pro alloy race rad now. it has a 45mm core, thicker than the original one, it does mean the assembly of the rad, ac condensor and the through bolted fans is thicker and now does not fit.
the fans now hang down lower than the horizontal surface of the crashbox where the radiator carrier GRP sits, and foul on the edge of the bucket bit of the crashbox on the left and right.
All the radiators claim to be compatable with ac on the various webshops but I dont know how.
I am really stuck here. I am thinkin either smaller fans which fit into the tapered bucket of the airbox or loose the ac, both of which i dont want to do.
has anybody tried this assembly before?? and solved this issue…
Have you chatted this through with Wayne/Alex at Pro-Alloy? They are great guys, who really know their stuff, & I’m sure they will be happy to help & sort the problem.
I have indeed been chatting with them, and they have been very helpful. But we have not exactly nailed the problem.
There was another ac car owner and pro alloy customer who managed to squeeze the assembly in but with some bracket mods which allowed the condensor to be fited closer to the rad.
But my car is somehow worse, and is so far off fitting, it needs a major change. and this issue is what i would really like to clarify with another owner who has been down the same juicy radiator and ac path…
I have indeed been chatting with them, and they have been very helpful. But we have not exactly nailed the problem.
There was another ac car owner and pro alloy customer who managed to squeeze the assembly in but with some bracket mods which allowed the condensor to be fited closer to the rad.
But my car is somehow worse, and is so far off fitting, it needs a major change. and this issue is what i would really like to clarify with another owner who has been down the same juicy radiator and ac path… [/quote]
I could be that other customer. I didn’t use any special brackets, just the original ones. It was a very tight squeeze though as like you said the fans hit air intake\crash structure or whatever you want to call it. I might have just been lucky with the Lotus tolerances allowing me to get away with it? I’m sure the guys at proalloy will come up with something better.
Thanks for the tips, I will contact Martin Edwards to find out if he had any issues there and I should be able to establish soon what is going on and find a solution.
I imagine I will need to make up some new brackets and fit some smaller fans in a similiar setup to the pro alloy charge cooler installation.
