Cooling the beast
Problem: How to a cool a Swedish 2.0L engine with the power of an American V8.
Answer: The rest of this page.
The Cooling is linked to the bodywork which is also dependent on the fuel tank and fuel pump mounting and so all these will run in parallel so you might want to hop around between these pages at this stage of the project.
At the present time the inter-
Inter-
The main radiator position is well established and with the front splitter now fitted it is time to mount the radiator. The standard SAAB radiator is to tall to mount in this low slung bonnet, even when mounted at an angle. So the search was on for a replacement. The cooling surface area of the SAAB rad is 0.55x0.35=0.1925 and the rad is 0.038 thick. Rather old fashion materials are used in it's design so finding a modern equivalent but with a lower height profile was not going to be difficult. What was difficult was finding the size of rads fitted to other cars. Gone are the days of catalogues, now we live by MY, part number or chassis number. So after extensive web searching looking for a rad with a height of 300mm a few options can up. Fiat X19, Alf Spider, Ford XR3i Turbo and Cosworth. Pricing an sourcing the Italian coolers looked like bad news so the Ford option looked the best. With a little bit more research a race rad (actually called a “fast road or track”) for an XR3i ends up being more efficient than a standard Turbo or Cosworth rad. Not only that but an XR3i race rad is half the price of the alternatives. The final Matrix surface area is better than the requirement at 0.65x0.31=0.201 with equivalent 0.038 thickness. Decision made then and thanks to an Ebay deal £54 later a shiny new rad was delivered ready to install.
Radiator Seen from above
Installation meant chopping the bottom brackets and slotting the top bracket of the radiator. A nervous exorcise that I would not recommend to those of a nervous disposition. These radiators are EXTREAMLY fragile and to not take kindly to being handled let alone chopped. But with gentle persistence and careful clamping the radiator popped into position nicely. The centre splitter brace also doubles as the radiator support and once this has been secured two simple M4 bolts and wing nuts fix the radiator extremely firmly into position.
Radiator Brace & Bracket
Unfortunately the front of the splitter of double skinned and so the bottom of the centre brace will need to mount into through hole spacers to prevent crushing the splitter. As the top of the splitter has the brace beam only the bottom of the splitter will need mudguard washers to lock the assembly into position. Time to spin the lathe into life and build some spaces then.
Next it will be some cooling by electric fan.
Meanwhile the chassis has been plugged using plastic end caps which can only be purchased by the 100. But at only £6 for both the 1” and 0.75” this just meant a shed load of spares and a fully sealed chassis. These along with the bonding and rubber sealing washers should prolong the life of the chassis.
Chassis Sealing
Mounting the oil cooler ended up being more expensive than fist envisaged. The original SAAB oil cooler had fixed 8mm bore pipes with flexible sections in the middle. This made mounting the oil cooler anywhere else than the original position impossible. Trying to remove the old pipes ended in disaster as the cool cooler inlet sheared. Brazing the pipe back onto the oil cooler is extremely difficult as the metal had become impregnated with oil, causing blow backs which ended in a very untidy with the potential of a failed seal. So a new oil cooler had to be sourced.
Oil Cooleer Mounting Positoin
Mocal do a nice range of high performance coolers which also allow for larger bore pip work, 12mm bore on their 19 row cooler. This cooler is, although having a larger surface area, is also is a much more usable package. So fitting changes were the next problem the original oil filter fish plate had to nbe converted from 20mm to ½” BSP onto ½” pipe (Mocal have a very nice range of self assembly pipes and swivel fittings) onto the oil cooler. The oil cooler itself fitted neatly into the front of the chassis and required top and bottom bracket manufacture.
Oil Cooler Brackets.
The next job is to plumb the oil hoses into the cooler and engine. The Mocal oil pipes and fitting are difficult to fit together but this is actually a good sign as it means they will stay put. Using hot water, 4in1 oil a vice and brute force the hoses are fitted to the unions.
Oil Hoses on Engine
Mocal state that the hose fittings actual state that hose clamps are not required but I decided to fit some anyway just to be on the safe side. Finally the oil cooler is plumbed in and the radiator expansion tank is also fitted.
Completed Oil Cooler and Rad Expansion Tank
After much consideration the expansion tank position began to look very wrong. The SAAB engine has some very fancy hose and pipe work to allowing the expansion tank to be fitted at the right hand side of the SAAB 900. This now ends up being the back of the engine as mounted now.
Rear Expansion Pipe.
By removing the solid pipe and the U bend hose the expansion bottle can be positioned on the side of the chassis using a flexible hose.
Original U Bend Hose to Removed.
With the final radiator hoses fitted, this required reducer rubber insert from theSAAB 38mm hoses to the new radiator 32mm inlet / outlet, the main cooling system is completed.
Radiator Reducer Hose
Radiator Main Hoses.
The final part of the cooling system is the heater radiator. Now a heater main seem like a dumb idea on open top car but for the SAAB motor this is an essential extra cooling radiator and a must have. Well if it's a must have then it may as well keep the drivers toes cool. So the Heater rad will be mounted in the side pod with a fan blowing air though the cockpit wall into the drivers foot well.
Heater Rad Mouting.
This mouinting position required the manufacture of a special mounting bracket and exgtended hose pipes from the block to the rad. A small 6 inch fan and sliding vent will then allow hot air to flow into the footwell.
Heater Rad Mounted in Side Pod
With the heater rad plumbed in the cooling system is now completed.
Now to remove that Gas.
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Radiator Brace & Bracket
Unfortunately the front of the splitter of double skinned and so the bottom of the centre brace will need to mount into through hole spacers to prevent crushing the splitter. As the top of the splitter has the brace beam only the bottom of the splitter will need mudguard washers to lock the assembly into position. Time to spin the lathe into life and build some spaces then.
Next it will be some cooling by electric fan.
Meanwhile the chassis has been plugged using plastic end caps which can only be purchased by the 100. But at only £6 for both the 1” and 0.75” this just meant a shed load of spares and a fully sealed chassis. These along with the bonding and rubber sealing washers should prolong the life of the chassis.
Chassis Sealing
Mounting the oil cooler ended up being more expensive than fist envisaged. The original SAAB oil cooler had fixed 8mm bore pipes with flexible sections in the middle. This made mounting the oil cooler anywhere else than the original position impossible. Trying to remove the old pipes ended in disaster as the cool cooler inlet sheared. Brazing the pipe back onto the oil cooler is extremely difficult as the metal had become impregnated with oil, causing blow backs which ended in a very untidy with the potential of a failed seal. So a new oil cooler had to be sourced.
Oil Cooler Mounting Position
Mocal do a nice range of high performance coolers which also allow for larger bore pip work, 12mm bore on their 19 row cooler. This cooler is, although having a larger surface area, is also is a much more usable package. So fitting changes were the next problem the original oil filter fish plate had to be converted from 20mm to ½” BSP onto ½” pipe (Mocal have a very nice range of self assembly pipes and swivel fittings) onto the oil cooler. The oil cooler itself fitted neatly into the front of the chassis and required top and bottom bracket manufacture.
Click here to Cool down further.