Is it normal for the radiator to cut out when you turn the engine off? or should it continue? also my seicento always seems to run hot dispite a new radiator just before I brought her, I am considering putting a vent in the bonnet (to try and help the heat issue) but I'm worried that It will change the appearance to much! any thoughts?

Also I've been thinking about putting a oil cooler in her and has anyone tried the water/meths charge cooling or injection?

This is normal i.e cut off

Has it been overheating at all?

no warning lights saying its overheating but have heard a lot about the 'FIRE' engines overheating - the radiator does seem very small and the fan is noisey and on a lot!

modifying the thermostat to open at a lower temperature and also using the fan swtich from a punto GT will help keep it cooler. might be worth flushing the coolant system out first, see if that helps.

Oil cooler is covered in the turbo FAQ, here

water / meths charge cooling.. bit counter productive without forced induction i would've thought.

no one iirc running a water / meths injection system, again something i wouldnt' bother with on these cars unless it was turbo'd due to cost of controller.

Very good 2 page article in Practical Performance Car mag on oil coolers, it states you do not want to see above 110degees on the oil, oil thermostates are set to open at 80 degrees as this is the ideal temp range 80-110 to get the oil working at its best.

Your Sei sounds absolutely normal to me, but flushing the rad and block (may as well change the antifreeze at the same time) isn't a bad idea. Don't forget to bleed it!

Two things to consider before you chop holes in your bonnet:

High pressure air will always try to find the lowest pressure area it can and go to it. In practice, this means that if the sides of a radiator are not sealed to the bumper, the air will try -- and some of it will suceed -- to go round the side rather than through the radiator. So, it should be possible to seal the radiator fairly effectively to the bumper with foam or something similar (remembering, of course, that sooner or later you'll have to take the bumper off).

Later Seis have vents in the OS arch liner. Considered statically, it'd be easy to dismiss these as pretty ineffective, but as the wheel rotation creates a low pressure area, they're really smart thinking. Effectively they suck out a lot of hot air from the radiator. And really the vent idea is just this: you can only get cold air in if the hot air has somewhere to get out. You should be able to pick up a vented liner from a scrappie -- failing that, holes cut in the liner will have a similar effect.

An alternative to an oilcooler is a water/oil heat exchanger. More expensive, but far tougher, insensitive to location, more compact.

Cutting a hole in the bonnet does help, but don't expect it to do anything for the smooth looks.

Cheers

D

Thanks guys,
think i'll probably seal the radiator and make liner vents, i've already got an oil cooler so will plumb that in too-nice list of all the required parts tho -thanks

fingers99 said:

Later Seis have vents in the OS arch liner.

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i thought all Sei's do, gex's S plate Sei does and some of the later cinqs do.. so i assumed all other Seis would have thgem too.

My cinq has an arch vent

Can't believe no one has mentioned that a well sorted cooling system is more than adequate for a standard cento, I assume this is still standard OP?

From my experience last year where my rad was dead and I had 90+ on the motorways, i changed the rad, used the modified thermo and flushed the system and used some good coolant, now the car only needs the fan in traffic and whilst standing idling after a while.

I see no need whatsoever for a standard cento with even spirited driving to require and oil cooler or even holes cut in the bonnet as they leave the factory more than capable of cooling themselves.

Liam

arc said:

i thought all Sei's do, gex's S plate Sei does and some of the later cinqs do.. so i assumed all other Seis would have thgem too.

Click to expand...

You may be right -- there was some discussion about this on the ClubCento forum. My Sei (02) has vents, I've not had the chance to look at my Cinq yet. But I don't remember the Sei I pinched a door from at the scrappie having vents (could be I wasn't paying attention).