polo radiator

[SouthhamsChris]

I have recently bought a 1995 seiw with low line bodywork and the previous owner fitted a new polo radiator. The top corners of the radiator were putting pressure on the inside of the nose cone. I have slanted the radiator as much as I can and made some new fixing brackets to lower it. Has anyone else had the same problem with low line bodywork/nose cones? From what l can see online there are no issues with high line nose cones. Any help or photos of solutions would be appreciated, cheers Chris

[Phil J]

The car was originally designed for the Ford crossflow engine with the escort radiator. The escort mk1 radiator had angled off corners, see picture, but even with this the radiator is a tight fit and sloped back under a low line nose to gain clearance. 

I think the polo radiator is used as it is cheap, light weight, efficient and readily available but, as you have found, it fouls the nose cone without some creative mounts.

I'm still working on my low line nose cone so no photos.

 

[Olliebeak]

Not sure what low line bodywork is , my car is a 1998 SEW I removed the Westfield rad and fitted the Polo one,  no probs although I did have to make some brackets , see pic. I still have the original Westfield rad, fan and cowl if required.

[TAFKARM]

3 minutes ago, Olliebeak said:

Not sure what low line bodywork is , my car is a 1998 SEW I removed the Westfield rad and fitted the Polo one,  no probs although I did have to make some brackets , see pic. I still have the original Westfield rad, fan and cowl if required.

 

Be careful with your fan mounting solution - I did the same thing and it wore a hole in the rad after a year or so.

[Olliebeak]

Yeah I have not got that arrangement now , I made some brackets out of aluminium to hold the fan behind the rad. Those push fixings did not get a chance to wear through the rad tubes they just kept jumping off.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

The low line nose (and bonnet) are exactly what the name suggests! Lower height versions, that have their origins in the dim last when Sevens were designed around (pre) Cross Flow era engines, and didn’t have to accommodate modern, taller, overhead cam 16 valve power plants. There is much less room underneath them for modern engine and cooling parts, and while it can be done, fitting more modern parts often requires both some ingenuity and a wee bit of re-design of mountings, brackets etc.

(tip, engine/cooling parts for older S3 Caterhams often have more suitable dimensions, but not necessarily mounts in the right places. Non the less, they can be a handy source of parts, given the comparative scarcity of low line Westfields.)

[BillyPee]

I don't have a low-line but I changed from a slanted Escort radiator to a vertical Polo radiator which necessitates the fabrication of new brackets. One thing I would point out is that, from an efficiency perspective, you want to minimise the gap between the outside of the radiator and the inside of the nose cone (so that air flows through the radiator and not around it). Also, the Polo radiator is not as tall as the Escort radiator, so I would have thought it would be possible to mount vertical (even in the low-line nose cone).