Mike's Mk1 Sierra

After sorting the cooling issues, Mike and Adam are back out having a blast in the slideways Sierra. Now Mike needs to let go of the wheel...

All of you who have been following this project know that Adam and I have had our fair share of problems with propshafts not fitting, clutch covers not working and killing all the engines we have installed so far.

So... after getting the car running on the rebuilt ST170 engine we seemed to have even more problems with the set-up. The engine was getting really hot, yet the gauge was always showing normal temperatures. Unsurprisingly, we killed a head gasket just by driving the car normally about town. We took this as a sign to rethink the whole cooling system. It had been pointed out that our Granada radiator core was more like an intercooler core with very large water tubes, so even though it was a thick aluminium radiator, it probably wasn’t any more efficient than the original OEM rad that was in the car to begin with.

We spoke with Bespoke Motorsport Radiators who could supply us with a custom-sized aluminium core with the right size water tubes and super fine serrated cooling fins for optimal cooling efficiency.

As soon as the core arrived, I set about fabricating new end tanks, mounting brackets and a revised fan shroud that enclosed the fans in to draw all the air across the whole rad. With this all welded up and pressure tested we set about moving the thermostat into the top hose, as it was previously mounted in the back of the block, which is before all our temperature sensors. This meant if there was an issue with the thermostat not opening, we would be oblivious to the issue as the gauge would be reading the cooler water after the valve.