Well the Mantis managed two local journeys before something went wrong. Coolant temperature went above 120 degrees C. No fans. Fortunately this was not far from home & got back. Ran the car today on the drive & it did the same thing. Fan fuse is fine so f**k knows.
The emotional rollercoaster that is Marcos ownership continues.
Just picked the car up after the cooling fans stopped working again. Unfortunately the contact in the junction block fitted last week by the auto electrician was not a good one, & the resultant power surges melted the Fan relay holder. In the absence of a spare relay holder which fits into the existing modular block, the relay has been wired direct which gets the car back on the road. Something to revisit at a later date however.
It’s been nine weeks since I contacted National Windscreens for a replacement screen as the crack in mine is slowly getting bigger. No outlook on when it may arrive so getting worried it may not be done before the 60th Anniversary at Wroxall in July. The supplier of course could only be Marcos Heritage Spares, so I phoned Rory who explained that Pilkington had moved their manufacturing out to Finland & were having logistics problems. Mine is one of 12 screens he is waiting for from up to four months ago, which is not great! Fingers crossed….
Beautiful weather & not driven the Mantis for a few days so decided to nip over to Stockport this afternoon & the 🤬ing cooling fans aren’t kicking in. Cue 90 minutes in a McDonald’s car park trying to figure out what’s going on. The mega-fuses are all fine & can’t see any loose wires. The ever awesome Torque confirmed the temperature gauge is reporting true. Argh. 🙄😠😡.
Finally let the engine cool down then made it home with the interior fan maxed out. On the bright side nothing boiled over! But… the weather is stunning… I really want to have the car running. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.
Le Mans is less than a week away. I am excited. CBW/LM24 2017 regalia is on order and extra large door stickers requested.
Is the car good to go? Not quite… I am still waiting for the fans to arrive at SP Automotive, & have had to source the Maxi blade fuse & in line fuse holder myself. As soon as I hear the fans have arrived it’s a quick drive over to Tattenhall and what I hope is a straightforward fan swap & opening up of the rear bonnet vents.
Like I said… Le Mans is less than a week away!
Sitting in heavy traffic on the M56 into Manchester today, no worse than on the M25 but today the weather was truly HOT. This seems to have made the difference as the coolant temperature went up to ~120 degrees which is a bit on the warm side. It cooled down towards 110 when the traffic started moving but clearly the new radiator & original Spal fan (385mm) are struggling to cope in standing traffic on a hot day.
Options under consideration are changing the fan (from a single to two [smaller] ones). removing the blanking plates on the rear ‘kidney’ shape bonnet vents and/or… drilling some holes on the rear face of the bonnet where the engine bulge drops down towards the bulkhead. The latter is a bit drastic but a possibility if the other options don’t do the trick.