Recently bought a Sporting on a V 2000 for my son to learn in and have been very impressed with it myself.
After 30 years of riding large capacity high powered sportsbikes that can literally humiliate any car shy of Porsche and Ferrari, I have actually found a car I can have fun driving!
Most cars are a total bore because you are too detached from what is actually happening; and I have unfortunately driven a lot of cars.
The wife has a BMW 525i Sport which by most car's standards is a nice car to drive, but still a bit of a yawn, all the same. The little Sei is fun though and is not only a great starter car but totally practical for anyone without a family.

To get to the problem; if you can call it that. The Sei as you will know doesn't have a temperature guage and has the fan running frequently when in traffic. This is rather like a bike, because the radiators on those are so small, they have to rely on the fan in taffic.
Whilst reading these posts I can see it is normal, it does concern me somewhat, just like it does on the bike; but on the bike when it comes on at least I can start "busting traffic".
Does anybody use a secondary radiator or something to keep the things cool?
After the lad has passed his test; I plan on giving him more power (larger engine or turbo) so it will definately need it before then.
Thanks in advance.

Not ideal in summer, but if you open the windows, put the heater on full power, this does drop the engine temp by between 5 and 10 degrees on my car as the matrix is really a second radiator.

Remember that Seis and all FIRE engines are known to generally run hot. Fiat know this and the engines are designed for it. The electric cooling fan is annoying sometimes in traffic but you get used to it, and I wouldn't get worried about temp until you start modifying the car.

You could always use the cold air feed tubes from an induction kit (they only cost around a tenner) if there is somewhere specific under the bonnet you want to direct cold air to, but as I say until you mod the car this is not really necessary. I think some FF members have added extra rads etc but bless it the sei's engine bay ain't got that much extra space

If your car was made when they were still fitted with iron radiators then keep an eye out for corrosion - mine corroded and had to be replaced with an aluminium. If your car is a 2nd generation Sei (you can tell my the clear indicators and side repeaters amongst other things) then this is not a problem as I believe the aluminium ones were fitted as standard (can someone confirm that? Bloke at Fiat told me this but he didn't strike me as infallible!).

I had to use the aforementioned method of using the car's heater to keep engine temp down when my rad went (radweld helps but not completely), and just remember the switch below the heater controls needs to be slid to the side that means it takes in outside air (I think it's the left but cant remember), otherwise you're just recirculating cabin air.

Anyone got examples of extra cooling methods fitted to their Sei's?

Good luck with mods when you do them! Hope your son enjoys his Sei - it was my first car too and was absolutely fantastic (even if the clutch and steering did take some getting used to!). They withstand rookie errors surprisingly well, except for clutch cables :s

Take care

Or this....

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?cls=ROAD&pcode=RED80204

As with any car, do a full health check on the cooling system.

Flush out all old coolant unless it is of a know age as its often forgotten about as should be replaced every 2 years and replace with fresh coolant/water mix. While you are doing this give the rad a thorough check over as they are know to rust and have pin hole leaks which lower the pressure in the system which lowers boiling point, tell tail signs are crystallised coolant on the bottom of rad. The expansion tank cap can begin to leak slightly with age and again this lower coolant boiling point as it is a pressurised system, IIRC 0.9BAR on earlier SPi models and 1.3BAR on later MPi models, later models have 100% clear tanks and blue caps, earlier half black tank and black or if Halfords replacement yellow cap. I think due to age of your car it will be later model, which actually had a slighlty bigger rad which has no thermostat as the rad fan is controlled by the ECU taking its source from water temp sensor in head.

It is possible to fit a lower temp thermostat on these cars to allow the coolant to flow through the rad 5degrees sooner, a popular mod on modified cars especially turbo's, and in hotter countries, there is a thread in FAQ about it which shows how to make your own from a Ford thermo, or they are available to buy off the shelf, though I think only in Europe though there is a member who sends these over here if you ask IIRC.

Over all though, once you are assured everything is healthy, you can rest easy knowing that although the fan is on, you have nothing top worry about as its doing its job.

You can for peace of mind fit a water temp gauge, either by means of the type which is inserted in top rad hose, or alternative methods are drilling and tapping thermostat, or Kritip found that on his engine there was a blanked off tap just to the right of the thermostat that he simply bolted the temp sensor from the gauge into, though this was a 1.2 they blocks are all common in design and construction.

The only reason it is a noticable is its an electrical fan, and not a belt that is driving no matter what.

I have a bigger engine in and no probs keeping it cool.

Check out my guide for a temp gauge (link at top)..easier as J333EVO mentions on the 1.2, as there was a tapped section already there

Also consider an mpi rad if yours is spi (its bigger)..but if taking this root, you need to relocate the fan temp sender as on the mpi its ECU controlled so no tap in the rad.

I have never seen >90 degree temps even with the larger engine, and on a 15 degree damp day can see 65-70 degree temps at high speed.....a little TOO cool for my liking

Personally I wouldn't bother at all

Kristian

can fit an oil cooler as well, as said though so long as everything is running right its not really worth worrying about but its not gonna do any harm having an oil cooler but IMO save this for after its been tuned a bit.

kritip said:

I have never seen >90 degree temps even with the larger engine, and on a 15 degree damp day can see 65-70 degree temps at high speed.....a little TOO cool for my liking

Kristian

Click to expand...

I concur - my temp' readings almost always stay around 80c when moving then rise rapidly in traffic or when slow moving on a really hot day, usually heading happily towards 90c so there's nothing too scary going on.

I followed Kritips guide for a temp' gauge placed just after my replacement 82c Motorad thermostat, but as a spare for the future I also made up the Ford 82 degree version & I can agree that it is really easy to make from an original thermostat housing (there's a guide for this too) - BE CARFEUL WHEN YOU CUT OPEN THE FORD STAT THOUGH 'COS I HACKED A BIG CHUNK OUT OF MY THUMB!!!

If you think the fan is coming on far too often then it does sound likely you'll likely benefit from a coolant flush, which is a perfect excuse to modify your therm & fit a gauge.

Well with my MPI Sei the engine gets to about 80C and most of the time stays around that temp in 5th gear. It's only in stop start traffic, if I leave my car idling on the drive for eternity does is rise above 80C or sustained periods of high rpm driving & I've never seen the temp over 90C. I'll have a new dash with max parameter logging soon, so it'll be intresting to see what happens. This is with a 1.2 8v engine producing 75% more power than the stock 1.1.

It should be added, we run a 1.4L 16V with over 100bhp and the standard rad has no problems keeping it cool.

as said both my turbo and non turbo held temps fine on OE cooling parts.
if the turbo can then OE spec should.
main culprit is the rads as they get fairly battered in the bumper position.
my sporting rad was rotton with most of the vains being corroded leading ot very little cooling