Saturday 12 March 2016

Good news and bad news - lights and leaks

New Headlamps

fitted small 4" dominator headlamps which looked great - but 2 years down the line they have to go, just not large enough reflectors to generate good lighting even with higher power bulbs.

I didn't go back to full 7" lamps - but instead 5 3/4" with a full UK pattern lens. Picked them up  from CBS who are just down the road. Hopefully a good compromise between looks and function; certainly massively brighter even in daylight than the dominators.

Modified them to use the drilled mounting bolts from the old 7" lights means I can hide the wiring inside the mounting bracket. 

(Picture angle is deceptive - they are pointing straight ahead)


Leaks

Call it good luck that I decided to replace the lights and found the problem, or bad luck that I now have something else to fix :). The radiator looked a little beaten up, full of bugs, a few dints in the cooling fins etc.

The nose cone gave it away - why was it damp inside? and the gutter/bottom area of the rad fins full of coolant..

Started the engine up and when warm a little puff of steam from a hole... Its not a huge leak - the coolant height hasn't noticeably dropped since I was out a 2-3 weeks back.

Somehow a stone has gone in the back, unless this is the exit wound?

Looking more closely at the pic, very possibly damage from when the fan was originally mounted through the matrix. The picture shows bent fins, which are no problem but it appears the area they tore away from on the vertical matrix pipe has the pinhole leak. So that will be learning the hard way again.

It leaks hardly at all when cold, needs some investigation - repair or replace?  
Certainly needs fixing before Austria and I don't fancy bodging it this end of the season with radweld.

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