hotpurple Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 Martin, The heater works from cold, it bypasses the thermostat, which is why it has separate hoses from the engine bay. Chris
Martin R Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 Chris, you are right of course. It flows around the engine and heater whilst cold with the thermostat closed.As the thermostat opens it allows a return flow from the rad. Keith i did it my way as i was paronoid about leaving any in the system
kayj_prod Posted March 4, 2012 Author Posted March 4, 2012 No car work today seeing as it is snowing here Fortunately, I spent yesterday morning on the car and, as well as finally removing some extremely stubborn bolts on the ball joint plinths on the rear hub carriers, I began attacking the cooling. I found getting the pipe work apart quite stubborn. I tend to start things off fairly sensitively until I've worked out just what I'm putting under stress by being rougher. I have drained, flushed and re-filled with water at this point as I have to buy the anti-freeze and 'make' some distilled water. I've got it clear in my head what is happening now which is good. I've made the PRT kit up so that's ready to go on along with a nice clean new expansion tank. I did debate about changing out some of the other hoses, but that's hardly a priority given everything else I'm doing. I'm very glad that I did not attempt this with the rear clam on. I think PITA would be an under-statement! Thanks for all the tips everyone.
kayj_prod Posted March 10, 2012 Author Posted March 10, 2012 I'm nearly done. Nearly, because of putting the blanking plate in the existing thermostat. I've removed the two bolts holding the coolant rail to the cylinder block, but I can't seem to free it from the stat. I decided to attack the bolts holding the face of the stat on, but although I removed one easily, the second one I tried is just spinning in the thread. Grrrr! Any advice?
Martin R Posted March 10, 2012 Posted March 10, 2012 Keith, the coolant rail just pulls out the end of the stat housing. It will be tight but is only held on with an O ring. If the bolt is spinning i suspect the thread is stripped and it will have scrapped the housing. Rimmer Brothers are your friend. No 15 on here the one without the stat http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID000098 Either that or a scrap yard. Dont forget to replace the O rings. One either end of the stat housing and IIRC one inside as a seal between the 2 halves.
kayj_prod Posted March 10, 2012 Author Posted March 10, 2012 Thanks Martin. You're a star. I was getting on so well today, I was annoyed when I couldn't loosen that bolt. I wondered if that might just be the case with the coolant rail, but I get a bit nervous I'm missing something when things don't want to shift at all. I'll get the new housing ordered and have another go.
kayj_prod Posted March 18, 2012 Author Posted March 18, 2012 Finally done. The old stat housing continued to be a PITA to get out. I couldn't find a way to get a good enough grip around it or the coolant rail to pull them apart. I wonder how a garage would do it as there is no way they'd spend the time just separating those two O rings as I did. It got lobbed once it finally gave way! The new one of course went in a couple of minutes including bolting back up. Re-filling the coolant went smoothly, although I did have to go back and tighten some jubilee clips. The hoses wouldn't have come off over the flanged ends, but I found I had some very slow drips. Better to find them now of course. The engine temperature on the Stack settled at 84 at idle. There was even heat across the radiator and i had a very even stream of coolant from the engine bleed screw and a jet from the radiator bleed. I can't say I completely understand just how the PRT makes things better, but the jobs done, so I hope it will do what it is supposed to.
Martin R Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 Keith, good news. Im at a loss as to how anyone manages with the rear clam on without losing the will to live. Have a read of this http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Pressure_Relief_Remote_Thermostat and http://web.tiscali.it/elise_s1/index.htm It should tell you all you need to know. A tip, if you are sitting in traffic and the temp is rising as it will. Increase the engine revs a bit to bring it back down as it increases the flow.
kayj_prod Posted March 18, 2012 Author Posted March 18, 2012 I'd have never thought of increasing engine speed sitting in traffic, but now I've got a bit more idea of what is going on with cooling I can see why. Thanks for the help every one.
kayj_prod Posted April 28, 2012 Author Posted April 28, 2012 Back to working on the car today... rebuilding rear suspension, replacing the heat shield etc. (I'd make quicker progress if it wouldn't keep raining.)... Anyway, it reminded me: When I removed the original cooling system, there were a couple of little cable-tie-spacers between some lower pipework. They are obviously there to stand one pipe away from another. Although I removed the cable-ties without snipping them, they aren't long enough to re-use on the larger outer diameter PRRT silicone. Do you think I need to find a replacement way to stand the new pipes away from each other?
kayj_prod Posted April 28, 2012 Author Posted April 28, 2012 Of course. You can see in the photo where one of the stand-offs still on the metal pipe holds the plastic tube away. My concern is towards the top of the photo where the metal pipe is touching the new silicone pipe. It can't really be a heat thing can it, because both of the pipes are eventually going to be roughly the same temperature- well the coolant inside. Maybe abrasion or just rattles?
Phil S1 Posted April 28, 2012 Posted April 28, 2012 I have just fitted my Eliseparts PRT too Keith, it's not fully connected yet because the head's not on but I have exactly the same condition as you. For the moment I have put a bit of self adhesive foam padding on the metal pipe where it touches the new silicon one but I'd be interested to hear if anyone's got a better solution.
Elise+Imp Posted April 28, 2012 Posted April 28, 2012 I'd go for back to back P clips, one on each pipe, use a longer Bolt if needed and a spacer or stack of washers between them to replicate the gap created by the original plastic clips, which are incidentally to keep the pipes separated to stop chafing.
kayj_prod Posted April 29, 2012 Author Posted April 29, 2012 Thanks for that idea Brian. I can imagine stuck on foam- rather than a foam sleeve- coming off eventually, Phil. (Seems to me you've got way more significant things to think about at the moment with your KR1 thread!) Car work is called off again due to rain today. Parking the car in the garage front first seemed like such a good idea back in February!
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