Rad change day #1

"I'll do as much spannering as I can to save money...."
....was *just one* of my justifications of going racing when I sold it to Mrs R earlier this year. Today presented itself as a persistent lessor of a loan extended to my often, over-eager tongue. It was time to pay-up or shutup.
So....it was a proper day of spannering - and an enjoyable one at that. I'd like to extend a BIG thanks to Steve Guglielmi for letting me spanner in his workshop all day. I've been using Steve and his fantastic team for over 3 years now - as a paying customer - and they've never let me down. Always hugely welcoming and they ALWAYS do what they say they'll do. Whilst I'm not expecting this to be a permanent arrangement (after all, how often do you get the chance to use a first-class workshop and call on first-class help when you want FoC) Anyway.,...the deal is I change the rad before handing over to Steve's team to do the rear-main-seal. Definitely not a job I'd have even the faintest about......

So...I'm working to some time pressure but.....I didn't*really* expect to finish the job 100% today. In many respects, not working to a specific time-deadline made the spannering a tad more enjoyable and certainly, less stressful.

Some pics below........

Clam off and coolant drain..........(3hrs due to some rather spiffingly rounded-off bolts on the pax side sill. Thank you Lotus).











...this is the bleed-off valve on the exit side of the rad. It was completely perished on the top-end - an additional turn tighter disintegrated the entire silicone and rubber extension - and the break-down is visible on the inside of the pipe.....










10-yr old Rad off. Removing the fan was really fun. I love rivets.










Coolant pipes under the front crash structure. removing - and subsequently fixing new silicone hoses - was absolutely joyous. The black bar is the uprated front anti-roll bar.












5pm: front clam off, old rad off, all the old narly bolts and rusty c-clips removed and replaced with shiny new items, NS silicone hose mounted and jubilee-clip-tightened, wheels back on, roll Naomi back into workshop.
(Naomi - whilst pretty damned good to look at and on paper - ultimately extremely unreliable, peaky, high-maintenance and on occasion, law-breakingly upsetting to live with). You dirty good for nothing has-been.....see you tomorrow.....