Bradford over heating

[dougie]

I've just flushed and cleaned the radiator and engine cooling system in my CC Bradford.
I am about to fit a thermostat controlled fan to see if that helps the overheating in heavy traffic.
Has any one ever fitted a water pump to their Bradford?

[David Kemp]

Given it is a thermo syphon system, & a very efficient one lack of water movement is unlikely. A pump is not the answer, A
n electric fan would be a good start . I once had a Bradford fan it was attached to a shaft attached to the generator, never seen another. Before you do anything check the cylinders are not choked with scale, open the cylinder drains, if water does not flow freely you could have a build up of crud. A good hook of wire jammed down the cylinder passages often does wonders. A mixture of kerosene baking soda & water makes a good flusher. make sure to clean out the flusher well. Also after flushing, put a gauze cone into the top radiator hose this catches the scale you have loosened. It will block many times before all crud is eliminated.

[John Wolf]

Lack of air flow through the radiator in slow moving heavy traffic can result in the temperature approaching boiling point, mainly during the summer period so fitting a fan will help. Flushing the radiator the radiator doesn't always do the trick, take it out and have it professionally cleaned out by a radiator specialist who will remove the top tank and clean out the tubes with a rod.
About 2 years ago I had the radiator core replaced. From memory I think that the original core had about 60 tubes and the new core had 72 tubes so there was a further significant improvement in the cooling system performance. I don't have a fan on my Ute but do have a fan on my Van which is now redundant since the new core was fitted to the radiator.

Regards

[Jack]

I once had a Bradford fan it was attached to a shaft attached to the generator, never seen another.

Hi David,

The fan on the generator is mentioned in this article , though suggests it was a factory extra intended for export models: Bottom of page 6 (first page of the document) mentions it. It does sound like an interesting modification, though whether it might take a bit more power to turn the generator as a result (and therefore taking a bit of power from the engine) could be a dealbreaker for owners buying new vans that would have brand new radiators and not suffer with overheating as a result.

Jack.

[george garside]

the fan mounted on the dynamo pulley CB/CC was fitted for some 'hot' export markets and was available as a 'spare part' in the UK. it was actualy mounted on an alloy extension that bolted onto the pulley to put the fan nearer the radiator and the fan itself was in a cowling bolted to the back of the radiator to improve its' fanning ability'. Just like any other engine driven fan it used quite a bit of power to drive it so an electric fan preferably cowled is a petter option today and can be arranged so as to be quickly removable on the judging field so as not to effect originality!

A common cause of over heating on the twins is large amounts of 'assorted crud' in the water passages of the head and barrels almost to the degree of eliminating water circulation. I once dug out about a pound and a half from one head!

It is possible to fit a water pump but this would be more for propelling hot water through a heater than for overall cooling efficacy. The Ford 'export' water pump worked very well on the CB/CC but is now quite a rare find. ( it ran off the outside of the fanbelt on the ford 8 and 10.) I understand there are now a number of electic water pumps that would do the same job but don't know how many amps would be required to propel one.

george

[Forumadmin]

My experience of flushing and descaling is not encouraging. I may have used the wrong agents or wrong method on the many occasions I tried but a new radiator core has always been required. I also think mechanical cleaning with scraper and drills is the only thing to clear the incrustations of rust and lime ( or other chemical) scale that fills the steel and aluminium and copper water ways.

[george garside]

certainly the best/only way of de- crudding heads and pots is with a veriety of asssorted pokers and prodders!

george

[dougie]

Thankyou all,
All the advice is most welcome.
I have already flushed the heads and repeatedly cleared the drains from each head.
The water now runs clear and free from each of the taps.
I have an electric fan and will install it tomorrow.
Hopefully all will be well.
cheers.

[george garside]

Just remembered the notorious Exeter Bypass in the early 60's. traffic jams up to 20 miles long and the grass verge littered with overheated/boiling engines ncluding then new vehicles. I did this ''crawl'' many times in a CC Bradford without the slightest sign of overheating by usng the smple expedient of opening one side of the bonnet to let the hot air OUT. I was given this tp by a Bradford owner who regularly towed a caravan. He alsways opened half the bonnet before ascending a steep hill!

On that basis perhaps some bonnet louvres would help or maybe some nice little opening 'doors' as used on some pre war Austins.

I also wonder if the open plywheel on pre CC twins did a bt of fanning to clear the hot air??

george

[george garside]

[quote="dougie"]Thankyou all,
All the advice is most welcome.
I have already flushed the heads and repeatedly cleared the drains from each head.
The water now runs clear and free from each of the taps.
I have an electric fan and will install it tomorrow.
Hopefully all will be well.
cheers.[/quote]

Flushing the heads until clear water runs out of the drain tap does not necessarily mean that the heads are fully decrudded and can be misleading. The passages through which the clear water is running may well be much smaller than those cast by the makers! The 'crud' is likely to be very solid as only shiftable by the slow process of poking and prodding with various 'instruments' devised for the purpose.

george

[Forumadmin]

I cannot overemphasise the need for mechanical rather than chemical cleaning. This was demonstrated when weighing a rad that had been chemically cleaned twice and comparing it to a new rad. I had even run the engine for a couple of days with the descaler in the system. You might be able to weigh the barrels on a Braddie to show how much encrustation there is, but that means taking the engine apart.
There may well be a product out there that can clean the system but the water comes into contact with so many materials, so it would have to be very clever knowing what to remove and what not to. Some of the 'stuff' that I have extracted has been similar to granite. Also large lumps of rust that clog the small waterways can mean the cleaner does not reach areas.

[David Kemp]

Once clean, please put a filter in the top hose. This was shown to me many years ago by a radiator rebuilder. His prediction it would block one week after use was spot on.If it did not all that crud would be in the cores of my new radiator!

[Andrew Henshall]

Hi Doug,

Tony & Lawrie George fitted twin electric water pumps to their CC Bradford, one on each bottom hose in what looks like a bypass arrangement to ensure that the thermo-syphon still works when the pumps are not needed. I assume that the pumps are controlled by a thermostat knowing Lawrie. They also have an electric cooling fan behind the radiator core in a long shroud. A fan bolted onto the core is next to useless unless it has a close-fitting shroud. I can email you photos of the installation on the Bradford if you want. I'm struggling with the dreaded Expired Website every time I try to upload the photos (which have already been reduced to the appropriate pixels).

By the way, despite the additional electrical load, they still run a generator, and haven't upgraded to an alternator.

Why don't you email Tony and ask how it went crossing the Nullabor in 2012?


Cheers,

Andrew Henshall

[dougie]

Thanks Andrew,
The Bradford made it into the show without any noticeable over heating.
So far so good.
The only adventure was going home when a Mustang pulled out of a side road and the Braddy was sailing down the hill at about 60k.
The brakes are shall we say hardly adequate for that situation and the Mustang was very nearly customised.
It was a near thing that's for sure.
The language we decidedly blue inside the Braddy!

[Forumadmin]

The mustang should have jumped out of the way.
My cousin was driving down a country lane in Wales in his VW Beetle when a stampeed of horses came down the lane and trampled his VW. Very dented!