cooling

[Paul_Hedley]

Having observed the barrier that Caterham have put between the rad and the engine block on their higher powered cars to assist the cooling airflow out of the bonnet 'nostrils', I'm looking at trialling something similar on my 21.

Can anyone tell me what material they use, or what might be suitable, as underbonnet temps are a bit of an issue for me at present?

Thanks

Paul

[Golf Juliet Tango]

Hi Paul

On days like this, I have, repeatedly, had significant cooling issues with my 21.

The first thing I did was to install an 11" fan to replace the 9" one. This was sweeping a large area and more than doubled the air throughput.

After a big problem last year in getting to Donington, in heat similar to that we are experiencing now, I have installed a RadTec Extreme http://radtec.co.uk/products/228/Caterham-7-Extreme.htm again using a big fan.  Even now, temperatures get very high but I haven't had it out in the last few    hot weeks.

So yes, I'd like to find a way to get more heat out from under the bonnet.  I have wondered if one could add fans to blow air out of the side pods.  Blowing it out of the louvres on the top of the bonnet might work.

What one can not do is remove the undertray, you will get a lot of lift at the front.

[Paul_Hedley]

Thanks for this Stephen.  I was considering removing the undertray, but it's very useful to have that experience of a negative effect of so-doing.  To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to drilling out a very large number of rivets, and then filling in all of the holes ....

If that's out, I had two other ideas (apart from possibly installing a barrier behind the rad to try to ensure that hot air from the rad goes upwards out of the nostrils in the bonnet rather than backwards into the engine bay).

1.  wrapping the exhaust
2.  ducting some air from the front of the car to blow across the exhaust primaries, though this would have less effect if the undertray is still in place.

More thinking to be done I feel, possibly alongside a larger fan.  

Talking of lift at the front, I saw reference somewhere to someone using something akin to a small mudflap on the lower front edge of the front wheelarch, which apparently had a significant effect.  Is this something you're aware of?  I guess diveplanes night be another option.

Paul

[Jonathan Kay]

There's quite a lot in the archives, some aimed at cooling the engine bay, some the footwells and some the air for combustion.

But I didn't know that the factory had addressed this... any photos?

Jonathan