Aluminium radiator

[boldy205 74]

Thanks Peter. I'm struggling on the core thickness at the moment as my SC outlet is right behind the rad. 

I finally had the car out, albeit on the road, and it was indeed struggling to hold the temp at idle. This should be improved with a better fan.

I've got a track day booked in a couple of weeks, so I'll see how it performs there, maybe go armed with a rivet gun and some ally sheet. (And a hole saw for the bonnet!!!)

[dcc 855]

at idle it really should be struggling at all.

 

I'd be looking at the waterpump thats fitted and making sure its not one of the revised types with the crappy fins.

[boldy205 74]

5 hours ago, dcc said:

at idle it really should be struggling at all.

 

I'd be looking at the waterpump thats fitted and making sure its not one of the revised types with the crappy fins.

The water temp was fine before the SC conversion. I'm guessing that due to the intercooler blocking a lot of the water radiator plus the added amount of 'stuff' under the bonnet, it's just struggling a bit.

 

One thing I noticed was that I can't hear the fan cut into the 2nd speed. The fan is still wired up through the car loom, as opposed to the ECU. How does the 2nd speed kick in? Does the fan normally have a lower voltage then it gets upped to the full 12v for the higher speed?

[welshpug 1,622]

Its wired to run through a resistor on low speed and direct on high speed, common for the thermoswitches to fail as the 205 arrangement runs the full fan power through the switch rather than using a relay.

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

The thermoswitches these days are not what they used to be, I have been through so many that have failed its not funny. If you can, control it from your ECU and a relay.

[boldy205 74]

4 hours ago, Tom Fenton said:

The thermoswitches these days are not what they used to be, I have been through so many that have failed its not funny. If you can, control it from your ECU and a relay.

This is on the 'to do' list. The parameters are all set on the ECU, just a matter of me wiring it up. 

Thanks for the in info guys. I'll have a look, see what's going on.

[SRDT 146]

One simple upgrade for those that have the water/oil cooler and not the oil radiator is the diesel dual fan dual speed setup, it has relays and you can use the test connector to bypass the thermoswitch:

For those going with the TD setup on top of having a big radiator fan motors are 300W units instead of 270W.