Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Plus 8 Radiator removal advice please

Hello All

This is my first post. I have 1976 +8 with the Rover 3500.

I'm in the process of replacing the water pump due to corrosion, so I thought I'd change out the electric radiator fan and give the radiator a good old reverse flush out while I've got some access.

Clearly, things are not going to plan.

So far, hoses off, water pump off, cross member off, grill off, nose cowl off, radiator mounting bolts removed.

How does one remove the radiator?
What else do I need to remove? (Please don't tell me the wheel arches need to come off as well)

I'm also replacing the previous ineffective 11 inch rad fan with a 13 inch SPAL High Capacity unit which I hope will ease my overheating problems in traffic. It a tight squeeze now.

If anyone had done this, Id be grateful to learn how you mounted it.

Thanks in advance
Niels

Shouldn't it just pull out from underneath once the bobbins are removed?

The rad drops down below the car. Jack up, support with axle stands, disconnect steering link and move to one side.The rad should now drop through the gap.

Richard is correct, the radiator is removed from underneath. Believe me Niels, I have done this on my 1976 Plus Eight car a number of times.

You don't need to remove the cowl, neither any 'cross members'. I trust that the 'cross member' that you refer is the inner-wing or valance tie-bar that supports the radiator. Be careful to site it back in it's original position otherwise you'll find your cowl shape will change and your bonnets won't fit as before.

To remove the radiator, jack up the front of the car and put on axle stands; loosen the four nuts and bolts holding the two radiator mounting plates to the front suspension crossframe so that they can be swung out of the way. You can also undo the bobbin nuts but leave everything suspended on the mountings.

You will need to remove the steering tie bar that links both front stub axles but probably not the draglink from the steering box. Loosen the draglink block on the steering tie bar and loosen the steering joint nuts at either end half a turn remembering that one side has a R/H thread, the other a L/H thread. On reassembly, you want it get this back in exactly the same position in order to avoid to have the car's toe-in adjusted.

Spin the steering tie-bar until the steering joints and tie-bar are free from each other and swing back out of the way of the radiator bottom outlet.

Now carefully lower the radiator remembering that it is a heavy piece of brass and copper and you don't want to drop and damage it. Better done with two people just in case.

The original Wood & Jefferies fan was never really up to the job and a Spad will be a significant improvement. As for mounting it: as close to the radiator as possible; consider soldering some four small mounting plates to the side of the radiator.

Finally, and some people may take issue with this, oil plays a bigger part in removing heat from the engine than the water does. Others are convinced that the water is what primarily cools an engine. Think about it: all that friction going on in the cylinder walls, crankshaft, etc, etc. All that hot oil gets simply dumped in the sump to be recirculated time after time around a hot engine. I'd recommend fitting an oil cooler (13 row possibly 16 row) using a sandwich plate between the oil pump and oil filter. The oil cooler can be mounted under the cowl box using some suitable brackets.

I trust that this helps.

Something I hope never to have to do...good luck with it.

Improving cooling on V8 Rover engined Mogs seems to be quite a common task and on he subject of cooling I agree that oil temperature is as important, if not more so, than water. The Rover V8s have a reputation for being marginally cooled: adding an effective oil cooler as David suggests will help keep the engine at the optimal temperature.

Idealy, so that warm up time isn't excessive, it should have a thermostatic valve so the oil cooler is out of circuit until the water is at normal operating temperature. An oil temperature gauge is also nice to have and arguably a better indication of engine temperature than a water gauge.

It is interesting that all the new small BMW engines have a thermostatted oil/water intercooler. On my 320i the oil temperature takes far, far longer to reach normal than the water, and unlike most modern cars it has an oil temperature gauge, not a water temperature one.

Hi Neils

Once you dropped the rad out from below, I would suggest that you replace the rubber mounts and bobbins, these go hard and then when the chassis flexes it puts undue stress on the radiator which then devolops leaks. I did this on my plus 8 when I had the core replaced due to it weeping.

AH Ha!... Many thanks.

The car is new to me so I'm still learning.

1) It does have an oil cooler

2) And yes,I was referring to the inner wing tie bar... bugger!

3) The radiator is hard mounted to the frame with 3 bolts - 2 at the bottom and one at the top .. i.e has no rubber "bobbins".

If unavailable locally,I will just make up some thick rubber washers to allow a bit of play.

Many thanks for the advice I will get onto it tomorrow.

p.s. Luckily I recently bought a scissor lift hoist - so have been able to raise and lower the car up to 1.4M - its made things 1000% easier.

While I have your undivided attention.. any opinions on

a) aluminium radiator for efficiency of cooling? Perhaps a Mulberry ?

b) Electric water pumps?... (my thinking is that in traffic, engine is barely idling so water flow is at a minimum - not so with an electric pump - usually water flow is proportional to temperature

The bobbins are same as exhaust bobbins on old type mini, quite easy to obtain from mini spares stockists. Or from E bay.

You will not go wrong with a MulFab ally radiator, I had one on my 02 plus 8 and even in the heat of the South of France it never went above 'normal'. Just had one on my +4, worth every penny.

Meant to say for your inner wing tie bar you might be able ot work out the nut position by looking for the clean area on the thread?