General luigi rides again!!!

[Classicandy45]

My 900e Pandora has just passed mot, is now taxed and insured. Got new doors on, boot lid sorted and lovely set of engine trays made and fitted. Nice new headlights fitted ( old ones rusting inside!). Really needs decent bumpers if anyone has any spare? Can't wait for a spin this weekend, and got my ticket booked for forza show... Planning Scooby doo mystery machine colour scheme next!

 

[Classicandy45]

oh, and have now removed the x19 alloys (look great but brushed inner arch on full lock) and replaced them with original 13inch steels. And he now has a towbar so the kids can sit without being swamped by sleeping bags and other light space grabbers when travelling. Got myself a twinchoke and manifold for it too.

 

[DeVilleChris]

Sounds great!

Let us know how it goes on the latest road trip!!

Cant wait to drive mine, its almost ready for paint now, just finishing the drivers door rot!

 

[Classicandy45]

50 mile round trip went well, lots of smiles! Forgot how low he sits!

 

[Classicandy45]

Couple of pics of our test run, done bout 200 miles this weekend, all good felt for blow out on way home!

 

[Classicandy45]

Back in fiat mode, am getting ready to fire Luigi up again. He got laid up after a hard trip to Cornwall resulted in an engine change. However, before the transplant, it became neccessary to by pass the heater ( pipes inside floor leaked due to overheating) so high on the agenda is reinstating the heater. And am seriously pondering placing rad in front! Am quietly bench building another engine to sport spec.

 

[Gary50]

Hi
I suspect that if you put the rad up front the engine will be cooler but I doubt the occupants would appreciate the heat - unless you intend doing a lot of winter camping. Or adding a lot of insulation.

I had problems with Connie overheating in traffic - as the engine wasn't turning the fan quick enough. Added to this the cowling collapsed pretty much destroying the fan in the process.

As part of the rebuild I'm swapping over to an electric fan and controller. A ten inch one fits perfectly to the radiator and frees up a lot of space in the engine bay with the old fan and cowling removed - which should improve airflow.

Additionally, overheating is often caused by the engine floor panels not fitting properly or missing altogether allowing heat to simply recirculate around the engine bay - especially when stuck in traffic.

If you look under the rear the exit for the radiator just dumps the heat under the engine bay panels. As heat rises it's no wonder that the heat just keeps going round and round.

Along with the electric fan I will also be adding some ducting to take the heat from the radiator outflow and allowing it to exit beyond the end of the van (rather than underneath). In theory that should help.

I'll post some photos when I've finished it.

 

[Classicandy45]

I know the panels under the engine are vital to the cooling, but as mine were never in existence and I have no idea what they should look like to replicate I have tried to keep him going in other ways. I was thinking of a front rad hidden behind a false spare wheel, keeping it out of the cab. My main problem has been caused by heater pipes leaking... Am not stripping the interior, to remove the floor, to replace a couple of half inch heater pipes, but without the extra coolant capacity from the pipes and matrix then there is just insufficient coolant capacity I think. I do like the idea of electric fan and ducting.

 

[Gary50]

The engine panels on Connie are beyond repair (they've been patched several times already) but I'll use them as templates for new ones. I'll post pictures & sizes when I've made them up - hopefully in the next week or two.

 

[fiat500]

Hi
I suspect that if you put the rad up front the engine will be cooler but I doubt the occupants would appreciate the heat - unless you intend doing a lot of winter camping. Or adding a lot of insulation.

I had problems with Connie overheating in traffic - as the engine wasn't turning the fan quick enough. Added to this the cowling collapsed pretty much destroying the fan in the process.

As part of the rebuild I'm swapping over to an electric fan and controller. A ten inch one fits perfectly to the radiator and frees up a lot of space in the engine bay with the old fan and cowling removed - which should improve airflow.

Additionally, overheating is often caused by the engine floor panels not fitting properly or missing altogether allowing heat to simply recirculate around the engine bay - especially when stuck in traffic.

If you look under the rear the exit for the radiator just dumps the heat under the engine bay panels. As heat rises it's no wonder that the heat just keeps going round and round.

Along with the electric fan I will also be adding some ducting to take the heat from the radiator outflow and allowing it to exit beyond the end of the van (rather than underneath). In theory that should help.

I'll post some photos when I've finished it.

I like the idea of deleting the fan on the pump. But I suspect that the electric fan will have to be running virtually all of the time. It could be a problem in a van with a dynamo and you'll need a quality fan.

 

[Classicandy45]

Gary, photos of the engine panels would be great thanks. I think the electric fan is a good idea and I was just going to rig it up manually, with an on off switch in the cab.

 

[Gary50]

The idea I have with the ducting is to use the air multiplier effect. The ducting will have a gap around the radiator outflow. In theory this means that when the car is moving forward the air multiplier effect should suck the heat out and beyond the back of the car.

When the car is stationery the fan should kick in and blow the hot air out thorough the ducting.

I'll need to do a bit of experimenting and suspect that I'll need to block up the front holes in the curved under tray under the radiator for it to work. If it does it should work for all vans not just those with an electric fan.

I've bought a separate fan controller that allows you to set the temperature you want. Importantly this has built in relays and allows the fan to run when the engine is switched off - heat soak and vapour lock was a big problem on Connie (waiting 30 minutes at the petrol pumps while she cooled down enough to start again is not fun).

Also the fan controller can run a second fan if needed - hopefully I won't need that.

I'll post pic's when done.

 

[Classicandy45]

I wait with baited breath, sounds like the solution!

 

[Classicandy45]

Hi all, after a house move Luigi ended up parked up for quite a while. Last spring, going stir crazy with the 'Boris' rules, a mate kindly offered me his garage facilities to re-commission Luigi for the road. Hooray I thought, few weeks solid graft and we would be out camping again, so onto the recovery truck and off to my mates place.. guess what I found when I started....am sure all you owners know....

 

[Classicandy45]

 

[Classicandy45]

 

[Classicandy45]

 

[Gary50]

Looks horrible.

Just realised that I didn't respond to my previous post on cooling... here are some pic's.
The under trays were no longer serviceable so I made new ones, the one around the exhaust had to be heavily modified to fit around the new 4-branch Abarth exhaust.

The under tray ducting takes the hot air beyond the bumper - works a treat, burns your legs if wearing shorts.

As Peter suggested, if you don't have the original fan the electric one runs permanently so I've refitted it. The old fan was damaged when the original cowling broke but it works okay. As you can see from the pic's the electric fan fits inside the metal shroud so it doesn't foul anything. I've also added a second fan just inside the side intake louvres - this kicks in first to suck air in from outside into the engine bay. To be honest, if the original fan was replaced I probably could dispense with the fan inside the shroud.

The system works really well, I've added a couple of lights on the dashboard to show me when the fans kick in. In the short journey to our new home (50 miles) the fans only kicked in when stuck in traffic which is when Connie used to overheat.

Now need to flush out the rad and cabin heater again as the short journey loosened up all the stuck gunk after having the rad on the garage floor for a few years (the cabin heater stopped providing heat mid-journey). One job for spring/summer once I've finished the DIY on our new home and get the garage back.

 

[Classicandy45]

That's a neat addition tucking the electric fan behind the belt driven one, effective but invisible. I like the ducting and understand how that would work and am grateful for the plans, thanks. Do you have any pics of the exhaust undertray? I have managed to acquire the same tray in your pic but assume that is the radiator side?

---

 

[Classicandy45]

The horrible mess that finished on the garage floor included 3 outer sills,(and thats just one side!) welded one on top of the other, filled with foam. Bottom N/s b post filled with foam, lower rear corners turned to dust, front sills went the same way! Underneath, thankfully, was much better with only the cab floor and box sections needing attention.
This all came as quite a shock, I have had Luigi over ten years, on and off road, it has been mot'd at least 5 or 6 times, yet I was never aware of these botches!