Similar to what animal am I; what radiator was fitted to Pinto engined EFI Cabrios?

[wiggiesworld]

I have an LWB Cabrio, build year 2000 that used a Sierra 2L EFi as the donor.

The cooling system is a bit old school in that it was built without an expansion tank and just an overflow pipe next to the radiator cap; nothing wrong with that, I ran old cars for years with that setup and it was perfectly fine, you just need to keep an eye on it and top up, especially after a spirited run.

For a while I have been experiencing issues with it blowing some water out and not necessarily after a particularly hot run. I've got the thermostat out at the moment, its not got a bypass hole in it to help bleed air out the system, so that's getting replaced. The thermostat 'does' work but is also an 88C one, may fit an 82C one.

I also want to fit a new radiator cap and my next issue is that I'm not sure of the ancestry of the radiator. Now given that many roadsters use a variety of other makes radiators I wouldn't be surprised if the Cabrio used a similar philosophy.

I'm just getting ready to once again to trawl through all my historic invoices to see it I can find any hints. In the meantime, anyone else with a pinto based Cabrio that knows the providence of their radiator?

[terryrscott]

its a side issue but might be worth considering if you change the rad, my cabrio overheated something terrible and i fitted a cooling fan that was thermostat driven and all the cooling problems went away.

[wiggiesworld]

its a side issue but might be worth considering if you change the rad, my cabrio overheated something terrible and i fitted a cooling fan that was thermostat driven and all the cooling problems went away.

Yes, good idea. It's already got an electric cooling fan; however, I'm not convinced its being triggered when needed although it does have a manual override switch, another path I need to investigate and consider an upgrade to.

Have just found an original invoice from Marlin in my swag of historic docs that states they supplied a pinto rad (2 ltr).

[MOC Chair]

My 2 litre pinto was fitted with a Cortina radiator. It started off with a standard one but was later fitted with an alloy version with 3 or 4 rows of tubes. (I can't remember which)
I originally had a fan mounted on the waterpump but there was no room for it behind the thicker radiator so a thermostatic electric one was fitted in front.
The reason for the radiator change was to keep it cool when towing our caravan in hot weather.

[dave_kitson]

Sierra radiators do not fit Cabrio. Ford engined cars used appropriate (to engine capacity) Cortina radiators, which I think were 2-core. Cheap aftermarket alternatives may only be 1-core. Rover (and BMW?) engined cars used a bespoke 4-core (allegedly) radiator, but could still struggle to keep their cool. Even Ford engined cars could have had the Marlin radiator fitted.

If it fits, an electric fan is best behind the radiator. Unfortunately this is not possible with the Rover V8, but should be ok with the Ford engines. Fans are available with different capacities. I had a heavy duty one fitted on my V8, but it drew a large current, and I replaced it with a lesser one when I improved cooling by other means. The HD one is still in the garage if anyone can make use of it. Having said all that, Ford and BMW engines usually stay cool enough, it's just the Rover engines which tend to get a bit hot.
Dave