Hopefully no more Cold feet

[Phaeton]

Despite the couple of issues I had going to Stoneleigh the only thing that really made it not enjoyable were the cold feet in both directions. I wrapped up for going down & really wrapped up for coming back, both body & legs were warm, I wore a helmet so head was warm but my feet there were times I wished they didn't belong to me.

At the show I picked along with Simon & Steve a heater matrix, no idea what it was off but for £7.50 it looked bargain, even had a valve built into it. So today went to get some hose, at the show it was £5 per metre so thought it was going to be expensive, ended up with 6 metres & 6 jubilee clips for £10 very happy, using 19mm as this is the size for the matrix.

Came back & decided where the matrix was going to live & fabricated a bracket, the pipes off the matrix were screwed on & had rubber seals so I changed the way they came off (forgot to take picture before) connected the hose up. Took off the side pipes that run along the top of the frame & put the hose inside. Ran it back to the engine & connected it up, added about 1.5 litres of anti-freeze & started him up. Now got a lovely warm matrix at the front. Need to sort a fan out, but I'm on my way. A result is that the pipes down the side get warm as well, not sure if this is going to be a problem or not I'll have to wait & see.

Modified the rear bulkhead to allow the hose through & put a bit of protection on to stop chaffing, did the same where the hose goes past the radiator. Really pleased so far it's only cost £17.50 with only a fan & switch to buy.




Simon or Steve, Can you blow through the matrix & let me know which way the lever is open & which way closed, I maybe even able to rig a pull rod on so I can turn it off in summer if we get one.

Alan...

 

[Asbo]

"Hopefully no more OLD feet"??

Has one been partaking in the sherry.lol

 

[Steve]

Alan
The valve on mine moves just under 180 degrees, it is closed at both extremes and open when lever is in the middle.
Can't believe you've fitted your already.

 

[Phaeton]

"Hopefully no more OLD feet"??

oops just spotted that before I read your post, of course I meant COLD feet.

Thanks Steve, thats what i thought but once it was warm it was difficult to then work out. Looking at motorbike radiator fans on fleecebay at the moment, reckon they will run quite fast & give good airflow. Might even be able to put a big resistor in & have two speeds, might be getting carried away now LOL.

Alan...

 

[Mini Mad Max]

It's just making something fun, yet not too practical, more practical, there are now boundaries of making the buggy more comfortable
Nice work, i knew you said you wanted to do this, but i didn't think you would've put your words into action and have it done 3 days later

 

[Angel Boy]

What about fitting something like this Clicky or a couple of them?

Andy

 

[Phaeton]

Thought about computer fans, in fact got a couple of server fans in garage, wasn't sure about the volume of air, also thought the motorbike ones might be easier to mount as they are normally metal encased. Something along these lines Fleecebay Just waiting for a response over the diameter.

Alan...

 

[Angel Boy]

Should do you.  The reason I picked the pc fan I did was that it is a high volume pc fan that spins upto 4000rpm and they are often designed to be run at variable speeds.  Many pc fans will only do 1500rpm as they are designed to compromise between noise and cooling effect.  The one on the clicky will be v noisey by comparison, but it'll shift a fair volume (I think it has the volume of in the tech details of the fan).  You'll be safe with the gixxer fan though as it is design to shift air through a radiator core but at just one speed.

Andy

 

[Phaeton]

Couldn't wait for ebay so went to local bike scrapyard, was dearer than expected at £20 but at least I didn't have to wait. Came off a Kawasaki 600, modified the bracket & got it fitted, as you say it's only 1 speed & pushes a lot of air, but reckon I can put a big resistor in & make it 2 speeds. Just got to work out how big a resistor, didn't really get chance to test it properly as I couldn't drive anywhere, I was waiting for a call from the hospital to say my father was out of surgery. I may have made a slight mistake, I didn't want the fan or shroud to be touching the radiator so set it back a few millimetres. But this has now left an escape route for the air, it's easier for it to come out under the shroud, rather than going through the radiator. But it's a suck it & see type of thing anyway, all for less than £40 well pleased if it works.



Alan...

 

[Phaeton]

Right found a major fault in my design, although I had thought & pondered about it for all of 15 seconds I've mounted the matrix & fan in the wrong place. Well not really the wrong place but the wrong way round. A motorbike fan pulls the air through the matrix, so it needs to be mounted underneath the matrix not on top Doh!! To get it to blow down onto my feet I had the fan running in reverse, but the fins don't work efficiently that way, it did work but not as good as I had hoped, so I've reversed it & it will now blow air up under the bonnet, but it will still be better than nothing. I'll probably change it next week.

Alan...

 

[Angel Boy]

LOL, I thought I had the patent on that type of design and construction  ;D

Andy

 

[HolyCount]

Can you fabricate a narrow scoop and duct the air to those frozen toootsies ?

 

[Phaeton]

Just been out for a quick blast & it still works well, even though the air is being pushed upwards it really hasn't anywhere to go other than back down. At 30mph you can feel it on your face, the thing that would make it better is if the side triangles were filled in like RichardG has.



Alan...

 

[Mini Mad Max]

I liked that mod, me thinks i might do the same, i a lso liked his seven style dash that matched the panels... Sweet! It's nice to hear that you will no longer suffer from the harsh british weather no longer
Looks good,
Max

 

[sirdiesel]

For anyone else wanting to do this mod, use a PC fan. they're cheap as and really do the job. In my younger days I was an avid pc gamer, and had to overclock (similar to modding an engine) my computer's processor (multiple different pcs over the years) quite significantly (+100-130%), which creates a LOT of heat, or did on those old chips. Conventional aircooling was not sufficient to keep it cool and quiet so i bodged up what became known as a waterblock, got an eheim 1250 (big) 240vac mains pond water pump, a relay, a mk1 fiesta heater matrix and a mk3 cavalier matrix. plumbed em together with some special thick wall tube, and watercooled the main processor, and graphics card. totally inaudible from 1 foot and kept my chips to around 5c above room temperature. Used a couple of big pc fans to pull air through the matrices.

another benefit is you can make a variable speed control (2 speed? HAH) from a LM317T regulator and about 4 other, few pence components, the schematics are easily available from our good friend google.

The best fan setup to use would be a single 120x120x38mm quietish fan, pulling air through the matrix (pushing isn't anywhere near as efficient) but 38mm thick fans are a PITA to find these days, if you can only get 20-25mm thick ones, put one either side of the matrix, push-pull. it's also a good idea to put, if you have room, a little 10mm spacer shroud between the fan and the matrix vanes to eliminate the deadspot right behind the motor in the flow of a fan mounted directly to the matrix. A decent 120x38 like the YsTech FD's i use in my pc rigs, will move over 100cfm even when forced to move it through a matrix.

enough geekery for now  Alan, I like your mod, was thinking along those lines myself, was particularly interested to hear you can feel the warm airflow at 30mph, had considered other ducting methods similar to those used on production car heaters to provide more outlets, as i'm going to use mine all year round. I'm also considering proper, fabric and foam seats rather than the hard shells with a couple of pads on - largely because i've got a few heated seat units salvaged from various parts cars over the last couple of years, got a couple in the landie (about as windproof as the freestyle lol and with a heater that doesn't work even when it does) and they work really well. How good my heating equipment is, i guess depends on the ducts i can get in the car and i've never seen one in the flesh but it looks like my 6'1 16stone frame'll make anything a tight fit.

daaamn i LOVE tweaking stuff. Tis my forte, i guess. And probably why i'm into kit cars and land rovers, vehicles designed with inherent customisability in mind.. too many ideas..diy alarms, hidden,thieving git proof, good stereo, many tweaks, head exploding(that happens sometimes) damn you freestyle, damn you for not already being owned by me  8)

 

[Phaeton]

was particularly interested to hear you can feel the warm airflow at 30mph, had considered other ducting methods similar to those used on production car heaters to provide more outlets, as i'm going to use mine all year round.

If you blocked in the bits shown I reckon you would feel it at higher speeds as well, yuo can feel it on your upper body, but alas not on your feet once the speed goes up. It will also depend on the ize of the fly screen.

Alan...

 

[Phaeton]

Right just a bit of an update, TV was diabolical last night just for a change, so whilst 'er in doors watched the diatribe I went out to the garage & then workshop. Removed the old bracket & fan & modified it so the fan was on the bottom where it should be.

New bracketry


The upstand you can see in the first picture is so eventually I can fit a cable or rod system so I can shut the matrix off if I want to, no idea how that's going to work yet, but the idea is there, the length was a guestimate which would come back to bite me.

Then fitted back onto buggy. with fan now on underside.



As I said the upstand for the control would come back & bite me, first height the nose cone was difficult to fit, so cut some off, then it had clearance at the back but still caught at the front, so more had to come off.



You could now if you were brave enough (not me) cut a hole in the nose cone & have an air scoop moulded in, but your feet may stay warmer but might get wet down this route.

Now I'm looking into trying to find a BIG resistor to put in the circuit so I can have 2 speed fan, when this one is currently going it makes a lot of noise, you can hear it over the sound of the engine!!

Another strange occurrence I get that somebody might be able to shed light on. The engine temperature has come down slightly now running the pipes off the heater matrix outlet above No4 cylinder & then back through the inlet manifold back into the bottom pipe. When I first put the fan in, I ran it off the same 12v feed as the voltage stabiliser (not stabilised side) & when the fan was turned on the temperature gauge would go up, I though this was just an issue of resistance & the stabiliser was unable to cope. But I have now rewired the fan so that it's direct off the battery but through a switched live fed relay but the same still happens.

So I'm driving along & the temperature gauge is showing something like 85ish I put the fan on & the gauge goes up to 92ish then very very slowly will go back down to 89ish. Now I do remember a post a long while back saying something like unless the water coming back into the bottom hose is a different temperature to what's coming out of the bottom of the radiator then water doesn't flow round the system. The only other thing I don't know is if there is a thermostat fitted & if there is what temperature it is.

Alan...