Radiator recovery bottle position

PostPost by: 106500 » Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:22 pm

Hi. I've just purchased a Tudor radiator recovery bottle for my Elan S4 (Stromberg). I'm struggling to identify precisely where it should be located and secured. Can anyone help please (photo's would be very helpful). Thanks.
106500
Second Gear
Second Gear
 
Posts: 52
Joined: 18 Feb 2004

PostPost by: oldelanman » Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:06 pm

Here you go.....
Attachments
Engine bay front 002.jpg and
Engine bay front 003.jpg and
Roger
S4 DHC
oldelanman
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 1967
Joined: 02 Jan 2008

PostPost by: 106500 » Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:26 pm

Thats great thanks. Just one point; assume you secured the bracket base to the bodywork?
106500
Second Gear
Second Gear
 
Posts: 52
Joined: 18 Feb 2004

PostPost by: 69S4 » Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:23 am

Mine's to the right of Roger's, on the other side of the air ducting in the bottom pic. The bracket is fastened to the side wall at floor level just in front of the rad. To the best of my knowledge that's where it's always been.

Stuart
Stuart Holding
Thame UK / Alpe D'Huez France
69 S4 FHC
Honda GoldWing 1800
Honda CBX1000
Kawasaki H1 500
Yamaha XS2
69S4
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 1347
Joined: 23 Sep 2004

PostPost by: oldelanman » Thu Dec 03, 2009 8:45 am

My bracket does have holes for both bottom and side fixing but has always been mounted where shown in the pics. The base of the bracket is angled so the bottle is upright when mounted on the sloping body so it looks right. There is not room in my engine bay to fit it where Stuarts is as the air ducting runs too close to the inner wing - I suspect that the air cleaner positioning was a bit variable as well ! Any other variations out there ?
Regards,
Attachments
Engine bay front (before).JPG and
Roger
S4 DHC
oldelanman
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 1967
Joined: 02 Jan 2008

PostPost by: GreekS1 » Thu Dec 03, 2009 8:55 am

Hi, Ive placed it infromt of the airfilter using the holes on the airfilter to fix it in place...
1967 Elan S3 SE FHC
2000 Elise S1 - Sold

Athens - Greece
GreekS1
Second Gear
Second Gear
 
Posts: 110
Joined: 27 Feb 2007

PostPost by: richardcox_lotus » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:41 am

The location on my Sprint is as per Rogers'. Although it's not as impossibly clean as his....
Regards

Richard
Richard
'72 Sprint
richardcox_lotus
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 1357
Joined: 11 Jul 2004

PostPost by: trw99 » Thu Dec 03, 2009 1:23 pm

For the S4 I believe Roger's bottle is correctly positioned. Here is a link to a road test of a Sprint, from 1971, at the bottom of which is a good shot of the engine bay and bottle:

http://www.lotuselansprint.com/Document ... tMar71.pdf

That test car was one of the factory S4/Sprint versions, so based on the 1970 S4

Tim
User avatar
trw99
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 3262
Joined: 31 Dec 2003

PostPost by: memnon » Thu Dec 03, 2009 3:55 pm

I am not going to comment on originality...

However, if you want the airflow form driving to cool the water in the radiator, move the clutter in front of the radiator of the flow of air.
The space on the radiator mounting bracket for example, is not used and can mount the overflow bottle.

Jason Farmer
memnon
Second Gear
Second Gear
 
Posts: 125
Joined: 27 Mar 2006

PostPost by: tyasman » Thu Dec 03, 2009 4:11 pm

I despair! It's a plastic bottle filled with water and can be fixed anywhere. Get out and drive your car!
tyasman
Second Gear
Second Gear
 
Posts: 93
Joined: 01 Jul 2007

PostPost by: 106500 » Thu Dec 03, 2009 6:20 pm

Fantastic responses as always! which brings me on to whether I need to change the radiator cap. I know there's other threads relating to this but I thought some fresh thoughts on this might be useful! My cap is fairly basic (i.e. just a single spring mechanism). Do I need to change this for the recovery to operate effectively? (My local supplier is Paul Matty).
106500
Second Gear
Second Gear
 
Posts: 52
Joined: 18 Feb 2004

PostPost by: richboyd » Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:59 pm

I thought the Tudor bottles have been superseded by the Windsor bottles.
User avatar
richboyd
Third Gear
Third Gear
 
Posts: 275
Joined: 12 Sep 2003

PostPost by: Unibrain » Fri Dec 04, 2009 2:05 am

richboyd9 wrote:I thought the Tudor bottles have been superseded by the Windsor bottles.


The Tudor bottle was superseded by the Stuart bottle.
User avatar
Unibrain
Third Gear
Third Gear
 
Posts: 361
Joined: 11 Sep 2003

PostPost by: 69S4 » Fri Dec 04, 2009 7:56 am

106500 wrote: My cap is fairly basic (i.e. just a single spring mechanism). Do I need to change this for the recovery to operate effectively? (My local supplier is Paul Matty).


I've collected a few rad caps over the years trying to get the cooling system to work and I'd never realised that there was a two way valve mechanism in the correct one until I read about it here earlier in the year. The car had only ever dumped water into the recovery bottle previously, never sucked it back again.

I replaced the cap with a two way one (one of the junk ones turned out to be the correct one once I knew what I was looking for) and the car's not used a drop of water this year - about 3000 miles. It still amazes me - it's never done this before in over 25yrs of ownership.


richboyd9 wrote:I thought the Tudor bottles have been superseded by the Windsor bottles.


Easy to get a bit confused with the Windsor bottles, they're just rebranded German ones. I did come across a report recently that an Australian company had got the manufacturing rights to the really old Plantagenet bottles but unless you're looking for ex factory originality it's probably better to stick with the more modern stuff.
Stuart Holding
Thame UK / Alpe D'Huez France
69 S4 FHC
Honda GoldWing 1800
Honda CBX1000
Kawasaki H1 500
Yamaha XS2
69S4
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 1347
Joined: 23 Sep 2004

PostPost by: saildrive2001 » Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:54 pm

My S4 has the bottle in the same position as Roger's.
Keith Marshall
69 S4 SE DHC RHD Original owner
saildrive2001
Fourth Gear
Fourth Gear
 
Posts: 596
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Next

Total Online:

Users browsing this forum: 69S4, elanman999, mark030358 and 17 guests