Lagondaforum

Subject: 2l Continental Radiator

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Norbert (S91, living close to me and not speaking english) asked me to post his problem:

He has a 2l Continental and has overheating problems. The radiator has been cleaned by at least 2 professionals. He is now so desperate that he is looking for a new radiator. So question 1: good/cheap source for that.

In the attached image you see his old one. Does look quite good to me and I supposed to do a cleaning with e.g. 10% citric (or similar) acid, hot (e.g.60-70°Celsius) during an hour or more with the cooler out of the car and a separate pump pumping through it. Question 2: comments about this idea.

To make shure the overheating comes from scaling in the radiator he should check that boiling occurs with overal water temperature high and not like in my V12 some time ago with overal water temperature low. The latter hapened with bad water circulation (bad pump, small water channels in the cylinder head because of deposits there), so local overheating.

Question 3: other things he should check ?

Thumbnails of attached images:

Subject: Re: 2l Continental Radiator

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Viele Grussen fur alle die Deutsch sprechenden Lagonda eigentümern

Greetings to all the German speaking Lagonda Owners, Sorry I will have to write the rest in English now.
Although the radiator has been cleaned by ‘professionals’, they may not be familiar with vintage cars so here are my answers to the questions:-

Question 1: good/cheap source for new radiator:

New radiator: forget it! The Continental is a rare (nice) model with a special radiator. IMHO the chances of finding a spare2L Continental radiator are vanishingly small. A company in the UK did an excellent job of putting a new core in my 16/80 radiator. They were doing a 2L Continental radiator while mine was there. Therefore, they should at least be able to give an accurate price. I am afraid it will not be cheap but this will at least sort the radiator out for good. They do a lot of work for vintage aircraft at the museum at Duxford.

Send me a private email and I will give you their details.

Question 2: Comments about descaling.

Excellent idea. The recommended stuff is Fernox DS3 - look at http://www.fernox.com/?cccpage=ds3&sub=5 I’m sure 10% citric acid, would do very well instead but DS3 is what we have used very successfully. Yes do it hot (e.g.60-70°Celsius) for an hour or more.

I did this on my LG45 and it stopped me being showered with rusty water every time I stopped after a fast run! I'm sure others have also experienced this with an LG 45!

Be warned that once de-scaled, new leaks may force a decision that the radiator will need a new core – see above!

Question 3: Other things to check

1.  Water pump not working. Take the water pump to bits. Look at the rivets that hold the impellor onto the shaft. There are 6 of them. Check they have not dissolved! If this is the case, the impellor will not turn and the cooling will be via thermo siphon only. Replace them. I soft soldered the joint as well.
2.  No thermostat. I am not sure about the 2L Continental radiator here. All other 2L radiators have a by-pass within the radiator, and when the car is cold the thermostat blanks off the main honeycomb and the water runs down the sides which is the by-pass route. As the car warms up, the thermostat closes the by-pass and the water is forced down the honeycomb which is, of course more efficient at cooling. The 2L Continental radiator has slats which are opened and closed by the circular thing shown on the radiator in the picture and I do not know whether this is in addition to the thermostat, or instead of it. With a thermostat, my 2L HC warms up quickly but then the radiator is so efficient that I blank off half of it to make my heater work!
If there is no thermostat, the water will continue to run down the by-pass, and whilst the radiator will feel hot, the water is not being forced down the honeycomb so the efficiency will be much less. Of course if the honeycomb is furred up with limescale this will be worse and the car will overheat.
If you ever see a fan on a 2 Litre, then ask the owner if he has a thermostat in it. I bet it does not!
3.  Pressurise the system. You might want to try a little tank connected to the overflow pipe. This tank can have a modern pressure cap on it so that the water is not blown out of the overflow when it cannot pass through the honeycomb.
4.  There may be other obvious problems such as retarded ignition, but I assume these have been looked at already.
Also, the block may be full of debris, and of course this can be easily cleaned out by removing the inspection plates, though beware, you may end with broken/rusted studs and bolts so do this job while expecting the worst!

Hope this helps.

Leider habe ich diesen Artikel schreibe in Englisch. Ich habe das Buch von Bernt Holthusen in Deutsch und müssen Studie mehr fleißig an der Verbesserung meines technischen Deutsch!

Viel Glück

Colin M34