The Lotus Grand Tourers

^^^ "Customs letter" arrived this AM £33.32 to pay of which £13.50 goes to Parcel Force - earliest they will deliver is TUESDAY - ie another 4 day wait!

Crap service - crap courier- I hope the rad arrives in one piece!

IF I wait 'til Tuesday it's likely I'll not get a MOT before the bank holiday so I'm going to put the old radiator back in - so I can make some progress with new silicon hose configuration - EWP system update etc etc.

I'm plumbing in a heater bypass route, because, as Mike Taylor pointed-out, - if the heater is off, then the coolant circulation around No 4 pot stalls - and he says No 4 is the focus of many failures. An extra route back to the stat housing when the heater is off should cover that possibility.

So cross!

OK, not so cross now - in that it's arrived in one piece.

...seems they have listened to feedback - maybe from the fitting issues described in this thread.

• 1) the top hose tail is now modified - welded angled slightly inward (about 15 degs) ...which is a pain for me because I've configured my silicon top hose for a 90 bend into the top tail!
  2) the mounting bolts seem to be captive....in that they are threaded into the alum bracket ..even better if they glued them too? But I think I'll wedge in pieces of alum angle against the flats before fitting - just in case
  3) the rear reinforcement strips/ Elite/Eclat fan mounts are now already dressed back -I will attempt to leave them in place. Good chance the Excel plastic fan cowl is a THERMOplastic so I'll use a hot air gun to shape the plastic around the ends of the strips - if necessary.

Off to the garage to take out the old rad ..again ...

We'll see what big issues in fitting I have later today.

They have done a good job with the mods.

Excel fan cowl is a direct fit (only self-taper holes needed). StD original Ford fans clear the Elite /Eclat fan mounts no problem.

Top hose 15 deg angle no problem with a 90 degree hose bend - about an inch clearance for the hose tail from body work.

Coolant drain plug easy access - no clearance problems.

OK - had to open up the holes in the nose cone - but the nose cone is left in situ - rad mounting bolts are now fairly captive!

Yet to fit the lower tray - but can't foresee any issues.

Jobs good-un!

Really can't see why so many (?) seem to have had issues. Once I loosened the nose cone fixings she slid in no problem, no need for redesigns or anything, not even any customs Charges oh and the under tray bolted straight on.

Just spotted this thread so thought I'd comment. I had a Winner Racing radiator custom made to my specs for a heavily modified Mitsubishi Evo III and have nothing but good things to say about them. Quality radiator, especially given the price, and I'm considering this one for my Eclat.

soldave wrote:Just spotted this thread so thought I'd comment. I had a Winner Racing radiator custom made to my specs for a heavily modified Mitsubishi Evo III and have nothing but good things to say about them. Quality radiator, especially given the price, and I'm considering this one for my Eclat.

Agreed.

Here's a shot of the top hose tail's modified clearance angle ..



Worth noting perhaps Winner also has it right in that the DUAL core is a superior option for a road car. What you don't want in a road car is a THICK triple core - these are inefficient in slow traffic as the thicker core impedes air flow. Thick triples are OK on a RACE car which is moving much faster through the air most of the time. I have a VERY thick triple aluminium rad in the Clan and it's useless in traffic so it needs the FAN on more often - and the FAN will struggle to cool the thicker rad compared to the thinner dual cores.
During the Seventies the Chysler competition department in Ryton developed a QUAD core (brass/copper) rear radiator for the IMP - these also proved to be inferior to the thinner std rear rad in a road car -especially combined with the limp-wristed slow-flowing std Imp water pump during idle.