Has anyone fitted or got details of bonnet louvres for the Elan. My 2 + 2 has got K & N filters fitted and in this hot weather quickly overheats and I think louvres may help the under bonnet heat escape.
Don’t worry too much you are suffering from short lived freak conditions.
(Sorry tree huggers, I did mean of course “Global warming”)
Enjoy the Bar-b whilst it lasts; it’ll be chuckin’ it down before you think about it!
“Oh to be in England, now that Spring is here”
Cheers
John
Apparently it’s going to be thunder storms on Friday.
Pessimists!
On the 2 seater elan there are a couple of vents that allow air out into the wing/wheel arch. Rather than spoil the looks of the car might that not be a better option??
Phil
I looked at the pictures of your car you posted a while back. You may find that your cooling improves if you fit the sponge to the bonnet (SJ Sportscars) the side blanking plates (PMSC) and the bottom blanking panel if this is not fitted (PMSC). I ran K&Ns on my last Lotus and whilst the purrists would state that you may lose some power as the engine prefers cool air ducted from the front, I do not beleive that this would really be noticeable. It wasn’t on my Lotus anyway.
Regards
Terry
Thanks Terry. There was foam fitted but its disintegrated over the years.
NOT TO WORRY Summer comes on a Tuesday in England this year —ED
I’ve been told that it’s come & gone, apparently 2 weeks of the lovely stuff!
That one eyed, jaw jiggling Gordon Brown wanted to put out a “Heat Warning” you’ve gotta larf at the baffoon
The weather here on the other hand, yuk! Almost 2 weers of Tropical yes it’s official, worse than Tropical rainstorms with some phenominal electrical storms.
It’s driving me nuts.
John
Elanfan has me thinking now about venting the engine bay on a plus 2 into the wheel arches as per the Elan…Anyone tried this?
Ian.
Ian
Go ahead with the louvres…it’ll look just like a baby E-type…Loverly
John
it will look louverly --ed
Much easier said than done, I suspect. On metal-bonneted cars, you just need to stamp them out into an appropriate die. With a 'glass bodied car, they won’t stay put after this operation is performed. So instead you would need to cut a hole and attach a louvered insert, or cast a louvered panel from 'glass and integrate it.
Something about a modification like this says to me: “Not recommended.” And I’m no originality purist. I’d go with the underbonnet holes, but only after tidying up everything else that’s more likely to be the cause of your overheating.
Not being an Elan owner yet, a consideration is whether the underbonnet pressure is used to drive air through the ventilation system, as it is in the Europa. You don’t want to substantially cut the pressure if so, although the curling corners of my Europa’s bonnet at speed suggest some reduction wouldn’t hurt.
I have considered this. The only time I have a problem is in slow city traffic on very hot days. I “pop” the bonnet to let the hot air out
Peter & Allison Cotes’ rally elan has Louvres inserted - note this isn’t a +2 but if you do decide to go this route, then they may have some ideas as to the best way to do it.
What about one or two NACA ducts a la Mk14 Elite?
There must be some glass fibre or plastic bits already out there on the market, cut & patch, so to say.
John
Look at the size of the air intake. This gives an idea as to size of air exhaust needed.
The usual ways of venting the engine compartment (letting the bonnet raise proud, air exhausts in the fender well, bonnet louvres) are only a partial solution to exhausting the air input with minimal losses. The fact that these measures alleviate most symptoms of over heating indicate the seriousness of the problem - no air flow through the engine compartment.
I thought that a NACA duct was designed to input air with minimal losses, not to exhaust large volumes.
David
1968 36/7988
NACA ducts for intake air yes of course; what a numpty I am; sorry.
John