Heat Wave Headache

Hottest day of the year so my car decides it doesn't want to put it's rad fans on Turns out the two fuses had come loose, pushed them down a bit and all OK ,fans cut straight in But even without the fans it only got halfway between 90 and bigger .

You probably need a new radiator. My car permanently ran at 90 until I got a new rad fitted.......now it wont ever reach 90....even sitting in traffic.

Yup, give the rad a good flush, mine runs at least 5 degs cooler now.
first clean out the bleed pipe, just use a bit of wire or something to wiggle up into it, run the motor to get some pressure behind it too, it will soon clear out.
take out the 2 block core drain plugs (1 side by the oil filter and the other is about the same place but on the other side of the block, same 8mm square socket as oil drain plug).
put the hose pipe in one side and force water out the other side, repeat other direction too.
disconnect the feed and return from the rad and run the hose up them towards the engine, both pipes, might also help if you can put a bog brush type brush on the end, but do NOT loose it up the pipework.
run water through the rad, again in both directions.
I think if you take the rad off, you can get the ends off and clean out the bottom runs properly, but I could'nt be faced with all that when I did mine.
I was amased how much brown sludge and stuff came out, a bit of rust but rad weld too I suspect.
Fill up the system, run up to temp and then flush it all out again to make doubly sure it is really clean.
Should at least help a lot.

I know my rads a bit old ,I looked it over when I had the other turbo ,was going to swap them over as the other one had had a new rad at ARR only a couple of years ago .Didn't get round to it in the end ,( honest Ben )To be honest I was fairly chuffed that this one without any fans working only got to about ,100 ish and no higher .Previously with both of mine if they got over 90 I knew I was in trouble as they would then rocket to the red in couple of minutes

Over the years I must have spent 3/4 k on heat related problems so before the Le Mans trip I,m going to do a full fluid change/flush .Drain all its bodily fluids and get a real quality transfusion.I'll take it up the road to my local MOT guy and get him to do it ,as I,m not going to get chance myself and it's far easier in a pit than on my pebbles That's if he'll do it as he always hides when he sees it/me coming

Little mention seems to be made of removing either the thermostat or the drain plug - both at the bottom of the radiator. Are these known to snap, and hence best left alone?

Additionally, I was wondering if there would be merit (or otherwise) in using something with a bit more 'balls' like central heating system de-scaler to flush out the cooling system. Any thoughts?

If your looking for a good cooling mod Paul down at Alpine Renault Restoration can do a high capacity rad with an extra core, can't remember how much I paid but I'm sure it was reasonable

..or for the option of a Europa Cup spec radiator. Copper core, slightly larger, but twice as thick as the original road spec radiator, so thats quite a big increase in coolant capacity. Around £375.00

What about the air con factor My current car has it , and I was even thinking about losing it ,but to much effort for so little performance gain If you dont ask ...............
I've got a bit of an issue with the cooling system on these cars as in my experience it's completely CRAP

Will never buy a place in France as they can't plumb, and as for the sparking ( + fiscally challenged ) .
I'm always conscious of the temp gauge ,it's really the only thing I dislike about the car but if you've ever had one go thermal on you, you'll understand why .

Mine went very thermal last year and resulted in having to have the head gaskets done! My car's now got reconditioned heads. new water pump, thermostat, hoses and new radiator core, but I'm still always watching the temp gauge!

If its all in good nick it works just fine! As Ive said I had a new rad and had the pipes blown through and it never gives me any cause for concern now...on Saturday at Barbon it was over 30 degrees outside, I thrashed the car all day and it never went as high as 90.

Booked the car in for it's transfusion ,will pick the oils up at Rockingham, but need a set of front pads ,any recommendations Also whats best for brake/clutch fluid .+ Is this stuff worth having

http://www.radtec.co.uk/coolboost.html

Yes that kind of thing does work...the one a lot of people in my motorclub use (and I believe the market leader) is called wet water. Works on the same principle as the stuff youve found.

I've found the Ferodo ds range are excellent, I'm not sure if they are available for GTAs but the DS2000 pads i put in my 21 are the best I've experienced in many years of car modifying. Excellent stopping power, fade resistance and wear rate, the only slight downside is they tend to squeal a bit when they are coming up to temperature.

David has the DS 3000 pads....they sound good, but are expensive. EBC greenstuff work reasnobly well and are 1/2 the price. Ive got them all round and think David may have too.

Been on the Ferodo site , Demon Tweeks have the DS2500 for £50 a set ,but state lucas type important info not sure if these are right .
Can,t afford the 3000' s ,would be way OTT for my purposes anyway.