Well the first thing you need of course is the radiator itself, as usual (for me) I sourced one on e-bay, a brand new old stock job with a cut out in the middle for a PTO, ten UK pounds.
When it comes to siting it, Lister used to put them on the injection pump side, that’s why the head has 4 off 3/8” UNC holes and a flat (or you could mount a fuel tank there), I looked at this myself, but it would mean re-locating the diesel fuel filter, and once fitted you are in effect concealing the injection equipment side of the engine, so, I chose to locate the radiator on the other side of the engine, which is bare of everything.
The Lister barrel has two 3/8” UNC holes, two on the pushrod side, two on the de-compressor side, located at the top of the casting. Lister used these for the lower brackets for their radiator mounts. Lister used the 4 bolts mentioned above on the side of the head to carry the upper bearing / shaft and fan, driven by belt from the flywheel.
I have chosen a larger than Lister radiator, by a factor of about 2x, and will fit an electric fan and run it from the Start-o-matic batteries, which are always charged when the set is running, with it controlled by a thermal switch, same as on a vehicle.
Primary concern was that no modifications should be made to the engine, so if required it could be out back to factory spec with no more than a spanner, and of course it has to be workmanlike, not denying access to anything else, and as quick and simple to strip and rebuilt as everything else on the Lister.
As you can see from the pictures, I used two pieces of 2” x ¼” flat bar, each 12” long for the horizontal straps across the 3/8” UNC bolts in the upper part of the barrel, attached to that are two vertical pieces of 1¼” x ¼” flat bar, drilled for the four 10mm bolts for the radiator, and one (so far) diagonal piece welded to the top of one of the 1¼” uprights and drilled the other end to use the upper stud on the water manifold on the head, this diagonal piece (no picture yet) stops any vibration, triangulation makes for rigidity. This is a work-in-progress so some more triangulation to come, but what is there has had a test start of the engine and is as solid as a rock.
Four 10mm bolts will remove the radiator, and four 3/8” UNC bolts (so far) will remove the radiator bracket, so a five minute job.
The radiator itself has a bleed valve at the bottom outside edge about 2/3rds of the way to the crankcase breather side of the engine, so all it needs now is the expansion tank mounting and the hoses purchasing and connecting up. As you can see from the picture, the hose layout is good for thermal siphon, and the high cross sectional area of the diesel truck radiator will also help this along. Being thermal siphon, no thermostat is required, flow is controlled by temperature.
The fuel tank will stay, I’ve got an original full size one, but for now the 2 gallon job will do as a “day tank” so I will mount that on the fuel filter side on a bracket off those four 3/8” UNC bolt holes on the head. Just have to make the brackets and alter the plumbing a little.
If you do this yourself, it is really important that everything is both STIFF enough, and STRONG enough, these engines vibrate, and vibration if it is allowed to cause any flexing will kill things like welds etc in fairly short order. The frame is see is easily strong enough for me to stand on, and when the triangulation is finished it will be absolutely rigid, able to carry orders of magnitude more weight than it will.
The bolts you can see are at present, because this is all test fit, standard 1½” long, either 10mm or 3/8” UNC as appropriate, with back nuts for the present, rather than being cut to the appropriate length, NEVER EVER bottom out bolts, you WILL crack the castings. And of course spring washers, not just flat ones of none.
The full set of today’s pictures are at the usual place, in full 1600 x 1200 resolution, in Lister gallery 04. Hopefully over the next week or so I will get the time to finish this mod off, then paint the brackets properly, after cleaning them up and rounding edges etc. The Radiator shroud will get a coat of paint too, sometime I have to strip and clean and repaint the entire Lister, and that means choosing a colour too, but the radiator core will of course stay matt black, the most efficient colour to dissipate heat.
I did consider inclining the radiator so thermal convection of the air would take place through the core, but I reckon in real life even the slightest breeze will be sufficient that the electric fans will not be needed. I’m considering two 12 VDC fans from a twin fan setup, and wiring them in series because the DC side of the Start-o-matic is 24 VDC. At the end of the day the radiator is (pretty much) vertical and in-line with the block because I thought it looked fine like that.
Total cost so far, one new old stock radiator, UK £10, some flat bar, UK £5 (only part of it used), some MiG wire off the reel, some MiG gas, a wee bit of primer, eight 3/8” UNC nuts bolts and washers and 2 dozen 10mm nuts bolts and washers UK£7, and some time, so maybe UK£30 – 35 all in when it’s done, and then I can run proper coolant with rust inhibitor and anti-freeze, no more danger ever again of frost damage to the block, no more shit clogging up the water passages, and a nice visual cue by way of the semi-clear header cum expansion tank as / when / if the coolant needs topping up.
Yes the welding is a bit "birdshit", but I had problems with the gas valve, and when I cleaned that the wind got up, but at the end of the day we got a good bond and that's all that counts at this test fit stage. I should also point out that although things look a bit on the piss, they aren't, it's the camera angles etc.
More to follow as and when.
