re: Re: Spider radiator problems

[Scott Fisher <sfisher71@domain.elided>]

--- Jay Negrin <jmnegrin@domain.elided> wrote:
> Scott -
> 
> A couple of suggestions in re mounting the electric
> fan.  First, in re brazing tabs to the header 
> tanks.  If the tabs are to be installed, they
> should be soldered, as that is how a brass radiator
> is held together anyhow. 

Uhhhh..... well, when I repaired the header tank on
the '67 Junior, I used solder, but I used a brazing
torch to heat the radiator (and then the solder flowed
nicely into the cracks that were leaking).  So while
solder was the material I used, I said "brazing"
because anything involving open flame automatically
sounds more butch. :-) 

Also -- the recommendation on brazing/soldering came
from an anal-retentive friend of mine who tends to do
really, really nice work on cars.  He doesn't
currently have an Alfa (sold his '74 GTV several years
ago), but he has shown me the *beautifully* sanitary
installation of cooling fans on straps brazed (or
soldered or whatever...) onto the side braces of the
radiators of a couple of other cars he's done.  So I
should have prefaced this by saying I haven't done
this on an Alfa yet, I've only had it recommended by
someone whose opinion I respect.  

On looking more closely at the Spider's radiator
mounts, I see that it WOULD probably be simpler just
to do what several have suggested and bend some metal
straps to fit against the mountings of the radiator. 
When the time comes I may do exactly that.

I will also add that I mounted the (lightweight) fan
directly to the Junior's radiator core (with the nylon
tabs that push through the fins and lock in place),
and had no problems while I owned the car.  Since that
was only about two or three years after the
conversion, I don't yet have a real sense of the
longevity of the solution, though, and mounting the
fan someplace where any vibration will NOT be
transmitted directly to the radiator can't be bad.

> All the rest seems good advice. 

One other piece of advice from the same friend who
recommended mounting the radiator on metal straps
instead of pushing the nylon clips through the
radiator core: he pointed out that you can tune the
electric fan's starting time by where you locate the
thermoswitch in the radiator.  The higher you mount
the thermoswitch (that is, the closer to the inlet of
the radiator), the sooner the fan will come on.  Since
the part of California where I lived at the timeit
regularly hit 100-105 degrees F (call it 38-40 C), I
mounted the thermoswitch about four inches (100mm)
down from the header tank.  Of course, this means it
almost never comes on here in Portland.

Oh, right: One other subtlety about mounting an
electric fan is how you wire it.  I chose to wire it
(with an inline fuse) to one of the "Servizi Vari"
terminals on the fusebox, which are always hot, NOT to
one of the terminals that are only energized when the
key is on.  That way, as thermosiphon action moved
heated coolant out of the head after I shut down, the
fan would come on and help cool the contents of the
radiator, which would sink, go through the lower hose,
and enhance the thermosiphon action.  Again, because I
lived in California when I did this, I reckoned that
it was a good idea to continue the cooling process
when the car was stopped (perhaps it was owning half a
dozen German cars, all of which did this, that
convinced me it was a Good Thing).

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon
Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games
http://sports.yahoo.com

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