NG Kit Car

The cooling system has grown gradually, starting with the water pump and thermostat which were included with the reconditioned engine. I opted for an electrically operated cooling fan for better efficiency. NG supply a tailor made radiator together with hoses and an electic fan and switch. It was not possible to fit the radiator, however, until the mounting brackets were obtained (included with the body kit).
 

Thermostat Housing

There is more than one type of thermostat housing and I, of course, had the wrong one. Mine was curved and directed the water towards the left (nearside) of the car but the correct one (part no. 12H797) is slightly angled and delivers the water towards the right (offside - photo 1).

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Radiator Bracket Modification

There are 4 radiator brackets supplied with the body kit. The two inner ones are straight, fitted as extensions to the two brackets on the chassis (see Chassis Diagrams). The two outer ones are cranked to offset the radiator left to clear the steering column. These appeared to have been drilled the opposite way round and are not reversible (photo 2).  There are 3 holes in each side of the radiator of which only the top 2 are used. So I drilled 2 new holes in each bracket (centres 6" apart), positioned as if the brackets were upside down. Then another 4 holes were drilled (the top one 30mm from the bracket top) judged so as to give me a better height with just a little clearance between the radiator and the cross member (photo 3). Finally, by connecting up each pair of drilled holes I have 4 small slots so I can now adjust the height as desired. I also bent the brackets slightly to increase the offset to the left and give a little more clearance to the steering shaft.

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Hoses

NG supply a stainless steel elbow section with a thermostatic radiator fan switch (sender). One end of the supplied bottom hose was cut to provide a t-connection with the pump and heater return pipe. The other end was cut to make an elbow to connect to the radiator outlet (photo 4). The top hose was cut from the centre piece left over from the bottom hose (photo 5). I also added a piece of rubber pipe to the overflow outlet to cleanly carry away any excess coolant.

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Note: the top & bottom hoses and sender have since been modified to improve cooling - see Cooling Upgrades in modifications section.

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The system was filled with coolant (33% anti-freeze mix) before the engine was started. The capacity was 6.0 litres including a small top up after the engine had run.