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Cooling

2/12/06 - The first project completed in the cooling department was making the radiator supports.  The stock R1 radiator was used.  It includes an electric fan and is a good size to fit in the locost nose.  To make things simple the stock mounting tabs were used.  These also incorporate some rubber mounting grommets and metal bushings.

I mounted the radiator as high under the nose as possible.  The main reason is so that it maintains the same vertical relationship with the engine as it did originally.  This way, the fill cap will still be the high point in the cooling system without having to add an additional fill point.

Mounting it up higher also puts the radiator directly in the air stream coming through the nose.  A shroud will be built later to tunnel all the air directly through the radiator for efficiency.

11/8/06 - Coolant Pipes

All the plumbing from the radiator to the engine is completed.  The main pipes use silicone hose at all the joints and 1" OD aluminum tubing.  For most of the smaller lines, 1/4" rubber hose and aluminum tubing were used.  On the upper radiator hose, a union was added to incorporate a separate water temperature sender.  I also modified the lower hard pipe that comes from the engine.  The reason was that I wanted that part of the cooling circuit to run on the right side of the engine, away from the brake lines and the header.  The only item left to complete the cooling system is the expansion tank.

11/16/06 - Radiator Shroud

I figured this was going to be a fun and challenging job making the radiator shroud.  Well...it was challenging for sure.  In the end I was able to do a pretty good job of blocking the air from going around the radiator.  Since the original R1 radiator is being used, it seemed important to make sure that as much air can pass through it as possible.  There is about a 1/4" gap between the perimeter of the shroud and the nose.

12/31/06 - Expansion Tank

For the expansion tank, a 1 quart catch bottle was used.  The radiator is connected to the bottom 'drain' side and the top is where the overflow line goes.  This is different than a typical overflow setup but should serve the same purpose.  A simple bracket was made to attach it to the frame.

1/14/07 - Beads for the Hard Lines

Not my idea, but I read about it on another BEC build site.  For the large main coolant pipes, I did not have a way to bead the ends to keep the hoses from slipping off.  The fix is to put a couple of rivets in the pipe to keep the hose from coming off.  The site that mentioned this did not have any pics of that...so here is my contribution.