Scottish Elises

So my car finally needs a new rad when looking at the various options there is quite a choice.

Single pass and triple pass? OK I reckon with it doing trackdays (and not having any oil coolers) triple pass is probably best. Or is it just a gimmick?

Pro alloy triple pass is £360 but Elise Shop have a triple pass rad at £260 which is quite a difference. (especially when I need other bits and bobs. ) I know Pro Alloy get a good rep but is there really £100 of a difference?

Anyone any comment on the difference? Happy with the cheaper one?

Thanks in advance.

Chuck and extra fan on with a toggle for TDs? #S1paranoia

I have always had the pro alloy on my car (on the second one). The temp is typically about 84 on the display, very rarely (warm track day or traffic) gets near 90. I think the fan has only ever cut in twice in the past 5 years. So I think it works well - from what I gather from other owners, that equates to about 5 deg C cooler running than with the standard rad.

Given the nature of the elise (mid engined) I think it is a good principle to aid the cooling as much as possible... (K series owning faction)

Sanjoy wrote:Chuck and extra fan on with a toggle for TDs? #S1paranoia

There's 2 fans on mine as it has aircon so no room for another.

To be fair the temperatures have been spot on in traffic etc so happy enough with a slightly better rad.

I had the same thoughts when replacing my alloy rad for the third time. When reading about the triple pass rad's and those running them I had come to the conclusion that for day to day driving there wasn't any difference but that there may be a difference on track days but mainly for racing. There was talk of a benefit on trackdays if you were supercharged. There was also some chat of an upgraded water pump maybe being worthwhile however there seemed to be plenty running standard pumps.

In the end I opted for another pro alloy uprated alloy radiator rather than the triple pass.

just my 2p

whaleys wrote:when replacing my alloy rad for the third time.

I thought these were supposed to be "for life" parts. Quite a few peeps said to me that when mine failed it was unusual. How long have your alloy rads been lasting?

whaleys wrote:I had the same thoughts when replacing my alloy rad for the third time. When reading about the triple pass rad's and those running them I had come to the conclusion that for day to day driving there wasn't any difference but that there may be a difference on track days but mainly for racing. There was talk of a benefit on trackdays if you were supercharged. There was also some chat of an upgraded water pump maybe being worthwhile however there seemed to be plenty running standard pumps.

In the end I opted for another pro alloy uprated alloy radiator rather than the triple pass.

just my 2p

Good real life input I was looking for. Am I to assume that your previous rads were not Pro-alloy?

I have to be honest and say that even the standard rad on mine was absolutely fine with no real heat problems. (OK in France in 36 degree heat the water temps were a bit high if I had a long session. had 109 degrees at one point but it came down quickly enough on cool down laps).

They were all pro-alloy radiators and they have been "continually improving" the design. The first radiator lasted 2 years and the second lasted nearly 5. The first radiator failed where the core meets the side tanks in multiple places. The second one failed at the mounting bracket at the top of one of the side tanks. They have changed the design as the mounting bracket was the same peice of alloy that doubled as the top cap for the side tank. They came to the conclusion that vibrations caused the weld to crack and leak. The new design now has the side tanks sealed and then an additional metal bracket welded to the top which should prevent the issue I had.

The reason I ended up with Pro-Alloy again was there isnt much choice and felt they had made enough improvements to prevent the issues I had experienced.

Cooling wise I've been round Germany using a pro alloy radiator and it was no different from Scotland in summer. It kept a consistent 84-87 degree temp. If you were stationary, just like any rad the temp goes up. If they havent been replaced already I would recommend that you change the radiator fans while you have everything off as they are known to fail and its the same pain in the a$$ process of dismantling to replace. Also your increasing the capacity of the radiator so upgraded higher volume fans wouldnt be a bad thing.

I have a Pro Alloy twin row on my car, really nicely made thing imo:
http://www.proalloy.co.uk/cgi-bin/sitew ... d=proalloy
"As used on our own 500 BHP Elise and 300 Bhp VX220" tells me that a triple pass isn't needed, but at the time I also read many people saying that triple pass has no real need on a road car, and could have downsides. Something about it increasing pressure between the rad and the water pump, I can't remember...

I fitted a switched 2nd rad fan and PRRT at the same time.
When idling for 20-30 minutes it didn't cross 100.
Normal use sees similar to Whaleys, mid 80s.
And when used on the little Alford oval (not the best for cooling I'd imagine) didn't get above 92 when leaving the track.