When I reinstalled the motor to the car I had been mistakenly confident that the worst was over, and I would soon have a running the motor- if not an actual functioning car...
Experience is a hard tutor and I see now that my confidence was badly misplaced. There was virtually nothing on this car that was serviceable. Anyway; in anticipation of a short run up phase, I had filled the motor with water alone and without a thermostat. This was only a temporary measure to save money and avoid difficult disposals of antifreeze as I was also pretty sure that I would need to run the car for a while with "Radweld" or similar which requires that the thermostat be removed and the fluid drained and discarded after use This really didn't seem to be a problem in the summer... but some 3 months later when the car is still not sorted and winter descends with a crash things have changed. The first severe frost of the year sent me into a panic with temperatures set to plunge to -6* deg C and remain below freezing for several days.... and me with no antifreeze in a non-running car!
* OK not so cold for many of you out there in blogger bank, but cold enough for these parts.
As I had run out of time this meant I had to spend a delightful 2 hours in a the dark of a rapidly cooling night trying to drain the coolant. Lotus cared only about the performance and comfort of the cars they built. If servicing was ever considered then I doubt it was taken seriously and one example of the result of this lack of emphasis is the positioning of the radiator drain plug... its virtually inaccessible, cunningly surrounded by obstacles so that the available gaps are all smaller than your hands and there is no direct line of access for a socket. Furthermore the drain plug is just that; a plug! Its not a tap or a spigot, and there is no way of catching, saving and reusing any coolant that might come out. To be fair access can be improved if the radiator bottom tray is removed. However in my case (and probably most cars of this age) the captive nuts have siezed, stripped or have simply ceased to be captive and made a bid for freedom. I have replaced a couple with rivnuts and repaired the tray so although it does fit, fitting and refitting it is rather more of a chore than it should be. I didn't want to get into that at night!
So after 2 hours freezing my nuts off, I eventually succeeded and drained the radiator. It was made possible only by using an 11mm stubby spanner. This doesn't of course drain the block - even removing the hoses doesnt do this (as I found out when I removed the head earlier in this resto) so my folly of ever filling without antifreeze was revealed! Even BMC provided a separate tap for draining the block so just what were you thinking Mr Chapman? In any event I drained what I could and this at least provided any fluid left inside with room to expand if it should actually freeze! I spent a tense, worried night.
Next day I spent another fun-filled hour trying to refit the radiator drain plug... virtually impossible due to above mentioned poor access. The plug is actually a taper thread and it should seal on its threads when tight. This means that there is no need to do it up flush to the radiator and it doesn't need a sealing washer. Shame this isn't mentioned anywhere as I had actually tightened the plug completely when I fitted it into my new radiator (Why? Well because that's how it had been fitted to the old radiator I removed it from)! As far as I can tell this plug is 28 tpi 1/8 BSPT thread but that would need checking. I screwed the plug in tight but not all the way before refilling the system with antifreeze. Mixing this and the water remaining in the block required cranking/running the motor, and as I had at the same time a lack of PAS fluid (it having drained out in the intervening weeks) I was obliged to refill that as well since cranking without fluid can damage the steering pump.
Coolant capacity is 8.5 l. As a rough guess about 30% of this is left in the motor when the radiator is drained, or about 3l. I therefore added 2.5 l concentrated antifreeze to create an app 50% mix with the water left in the motor. I then topped up with premixed 50% antifreeze. I used Halford's silicate antifreeze with corrosion inhibitors. In the old days antifreeze was always described by means of the actual antifreezing ingredient... which I don't think is silicate! I think this is an ethylene glycol formulation which for some reason Halfords are trying to hide- did it get a bad press somewhere I wonder?
I still hadn't added the thermostat but I now know that this is quiten hazel type QTH104 Lucas type KTB202 or Intermotor 75003. The dimensions for ref are 54mm, 28.5 mm and height 34.5mm. Its the sames as used in the Jag and TR7. I found a NOS one on Ebay and have now fittted this.
I also found this heater bleed valve on a carbuilder site- used apparently in Caterhams. Its for 16mm hose which is the same as the heater hose in the Excel so I got one to install in the heater exit hose for easy bleeding.
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| Heater vent tap- install in heater outflow hose. |
I also filled the PAS at the same time- a leaking hose had deposited most of my original fluid on the drive. The PAS capacity isn't given anywhere easily found but it took about 1l in my case (probably not completely empty). I used Halford's DII fluid and the method has been described in a previous post- I will repeat it here for completeness. Cranking of course spreads both PAS and coolant around their respective systems so I topped up both after cranking.
Refilling PAS
1. Fill reservoir with PAS and transmission fluid- I'm using Halford's cheapest! (DII).
2. Disconnect coil positive lead and fuel pump, and crank motor a few times. 3. 3. Top up and repeat until topping up is minimal.
4. Start motor and run for a short while- I did about 20-30 sec. Top up and repeat until level is stable.
5. With motor running turn steering from lock to lock a few times until no bubbles visible in reservoir. (Care if front wheels raised)
6. Top up again if necessary.
I still havent actually bled this system but time will tell... i want to get everything done first. Bleeding brakes and PAS will be last before trying to drive!!
I used to own a pre war singer le man's, a lovely car, but they used high silicon cast iron on the block to help with expansion. 70 years passes and the silicon is now porus which was OK with water, however add antifreeze and the block would leak outside and inside for months ! Months of flushing fresh water eventually got it working OK. When I sold the car, despite me telling him, and with written warnings, he chose to add anti freeze ! And took me to court over it.....
ReplyDeleteMost anti-freeze is ethylene glycol, but the corrosion inhibitors are different. The old standard (usually blue) was silicate, but the new stuff (usually pink/orange) is organic acid - and mixing the two does BAD things...it's important to know which you have so, for once, Halfords were actually being helpful with their labelling!
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