Well, after two weeks with the new system, I went back to the old one. Here's why:
No matter what I did, there was a massive delay from turning on the fan to dropping temperature. Another problem was that the system wasn't pressurised properly. Firstly not at all, so I blocked the overflow. Still made me very nervous. In the meantime Dad removed the top of the car's original radiator (with heat) and checked the flow through the core. Quite a few of the passages were blocked with "rust and shit" (don't blame me, I'm just quoting). He cleared these and soldered the top on again. I decided to play it safe and:
1. Keep the a/c fan
2. Keep the six bladed fan I was using before the electric experimentation
3. Use the long fan spacer
The radiator leaked, probably through one of the formerly blocked passages. Stop leak fixed this up and even on a hot day the temperature barely gets to half way.
Moral is: Restore the car, don't try and update.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Another Summer and more cooling problems
Well, since the crappo Chinese fan seized and the crook who sold it never sent me a replacement, I decided to do things my way.
Went to pick-a-part and picked up a radiator from an Alfa, transmission cooler from a BMW and a fan from a Mercedes.
The range of bits was for good reasons.
The radiator had to be a certain size. Well, it had to be about the same size as the Valiant one. The Alfa was perfect (really, almost exactly the same size) as well as being quite thin. I got the fan that was on it. All this for $103.50.
Transmission cooler was from a different wrecker: One near my dad's and they charged $36! Hell, that's expensive.
Can't remember what the merc fan cost (got it ages ago) but it wasn't very much (also from P.A.P.) - probably about $25.
OK, so radiator almost went straight in. Both hoses were on the driver's side like the Val, and I set it up so the bottom hose went into the new one. Got a couple of rubber blocks to set it on and found out that it also lined up nicely with two factory drilled holes in the bottom support panel! Just had to secure it at the top, but out it came and the trans cooler had to go in first. I'll get pics tomorrow. It's nearly finished now but I just haven't taken pictures yet.
The cooler had to be modified. I cut it off at the rubber hydraulic hoses and for the Val, I hack sawed the pipes back to the steel. When this had been done I thoroughly cleaned up the cut and the inside of the pipe. The adapters that go into the radiator fit into the end of the steel pipes like a glove, so I screwed them in. They were quite secure, but I unscrewed them, mixed up some industrial strength araldyte and spread liberally onto the threads before screwing back in. Left them for 24 hours to set before tightening.
So, cooler, radiator and original fan... No, the original fan is massively too wide. I tried to modify it to fit (it had a steel shroud damn it!) but no go. Mercedes fans are an amazing combination of heavy duty and efficient design. It was easily half the width of the Alfa fan, so on it went. This required a bit of stuffing around but I got there in the end. Radiator must not touch the fan housing or the transmission cooler. All of these things would rub holes in each other so make sure they don't touch.
OK, so the Alfa radiator has a thermostat, so I have to learn what sort of output it has and rig up a thermo switch to come on automatically, cool the car down and shut off. The temperature of activation must be higher than the temp of deactivation. If not, it would be coming on for a few seconds at a time every few seconds! Not what we want, so we have it come on around, say, 90 and switch off around 85. It'll have to heat back up to 90 until she kicks back in.
I'm currently researching this feature but there's plenty of information about cheap or free ways to accomplish it.
Also have to get the A/C to activate the fan, or even put in a second one. I did buy two so it's possible, but I'll see how she runs with only one. Thursday will be a good day to test it out, seeing as it's expected to be 40 in Melbourne!
Went to pick-a-part and picked up a radiator from an Alfa, transmission cooler from a BMW and a fan from a Mercedes.
The range of bits was for good reasons.
The radiator had to be a certain size. Well, it had to be about the same size as the Valiant one. The Alfa was perfect (really, almost exactly the same size) as well as being quite thin. I got the fan that was on it. All this for $103.50.
Transmission cooler was from a different wrecker: One near my dad's and they charged $36! Hell, that's expensive.
Can't remember what the merc fan cost (got it ages ago) but it wasn't very much (also from P.A.P.) - probably about $25.
OK, so radiator almost went straight in. Both hoses were on the driver's side like the Val, and I set it up so the bottom hose went into the new one. Got a couple of rubber blocks to set it on and found out that it also lined up nicely with two factory drilled holes in the bottom support panel! Just had to secure it at the top, but out it came and the trans cooler had to go in first. I'll get pics tomorrow. It's nearly finished now but I just haven't taken pictures yet.
The cooler had to be modified. I cut it off at the rubber hydraulic hoses and for the Val, I hack sawed the pipes back to the steel. When this had been done I thoroughly cleaned up the cut and the inside of the pipe. The adapters that go into the radiator fit into the end of the steel pipes like a glove, so I screwed them in. They were quite secure, but I unscrewed them, mixed up some industrial strength araldyte and spread liberally onto the threads before screwing back in. Left them for 24 hours to set before tightening.
So, cooler, radiator and original fan... No, the original fan is massively too wide. I tried to modify it to fit (it had a steel shroud damn it!) but no go. Mercedes fans are an amazing combination of heavy duty and efficient design. It was easily half the width of the Alfa fan, so on it went. This required a bit of stuffing around but I got there in the end. Radiator must not touch the fan housing or the transmission cooler. All of these things would rub holes in each other so make sure they don't touch.
OK, so the Alfa radiator has a thermostat, so I have to learn what sort of output it has and rig up a thermo switch to come on automatically, cool the car down and shut off. The temperature of activation must be higher than the temp of deactivation. If not, it would be coming on for a few seconds at a time every few seconds! Not what we want, so we have it come on around, say, 90 and switch off around 85. It'll have to heat back up to 90 until she kicks back in.
I'm currently researching this feature but there's plenty of information about cheap or free ways to accomplish it.
Also have to get the A/C to activate the fan, or even put in a second one. I did buy two so it's possible, but I'll see how she runs with only one. Thursday will be a good day to test it out, seeing as it's expected to be 40 in Melbourne!
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