Upgrading to a Aluminum radiator on a TVR Griffith 500 (Serpentine). Gavin Edmonds

It seems all it took for an excuse to upgrade was a little stone causing a tiny leak. Replacing th radiator is quite straight forward, and as the radiator was going to come out I took the opportunity to replace the hoses, pipes + replace the induction system - all Supplied from ACT.

With most of the components removed from the front end, it is also a good opportunity to rust proof the front rail, brighten up the normally hard to get to front earthing point (below the radiator) and generally tidy up the front end.
when assembling everything back together I also took the opportunity to use stainless fixings where possible and polish a few ali bits, which does look a lot better!
Lots of bolts bought from Tek Hardware from ebay
Por-15 + ali polishing kits from Frost
And very importantly - lots of hints + tips can be found on Pistonheads.

All together (including the polishing) it took 3 days to do.

Weight of Ali radiator with integral fan cowlings = 13.1 pounds
Weight of standard rad with plastic fan cowlings = (TBC)

First take a few pic's to help remember how everything goes back together(!)

 

Remove the washer bottle + bracket
Then Remove the Alarm Siren + bracket

 

 

	Bit tricky this - remove the air filter cover. Just takes a bit of time with a 13mm spanner. Also remove the intake pipe leading to the airflow meter.
	Remove all hoses + steel pipes. I left the hoses connected to the pipes to help work out how to put it all back tother again from the bag of hoses received from ACT.

 

Remove the air filter + undo the 2 side mountings from the radiator.

To remove the radiator, pull it upward into where the air filter box was, then raise the bottom upwards. the radiator can be flipped upside down and be pulled bottom out first. Note the fans still attached - seemed easier to leave them on than try removing the bottom bolts when radiator was still in place.

Everything removed. Lots of flaking paint underneath the radiator mountings. Easily sorted as I had a spray can of matt black heat resistant enamel paint spare in the shed (see later picture).

Air filter - amazed that the engine ran at all with that amount of grime in the filter. Supposed to have full dealer service from well known dealers .....
Carefully lowered the new radiator in to test fit. note the nice new matt black paintwork.
As advised by Tim @ ACT - the side mountings may be too wide. A quick measure and a few nims with a hacksaw soon had them down to size.
With the side mountings cut to size, the new radiator can be inserted with the same procedure taken to remove the old. It is easy for one person to do this without scratching anything.
A surprise was the bottom mountings not fitting. With the radiator being nearly 15mm narrower I had to re-drill both bottom mountings, to keep the radiator central. Again quite easy to do.
With the bottom mountings seated firmly, time to measure the place to drill the mounting holes for the side mounts.
When tightening th side bolts, watch out for twist as one side might be lower than the other. For me everything was OK as the existing rubber mountings fitted perfectly. Remove fans from their plastic shrouds and bolt to the new cowling.

 

The rest is straight forward - connect the new hoses & pipework. 2 hoses needed to be cut down slightly to fit, and the swirl to expansion take is a different diameter. The instructions supplied did note this to be a possibility - a simple swap will fix that.

If installing the rigid induction pipes from ACT, best do that before connecting the top radiator hose.

Reconnect the air filter and air filter cover.
Reconnect the washer Bottle and Alarm.

Presto - only thing left to do is cable tie the odd bit here and there (stainless cable ties from ebay seem lost in the post!). For refilling the system advice from the 'bible' was followed - it did take me 4 goes to get all the air out of the swirl tank.

 

Gavin 

CrackedFinger Martial Arts Equipment