Dave Wellings on Underbonnet Insulation

Dave Wellings on Underbonnet Insulation

I found a couple of hours this morning , although the garage was -1.5degrees C to begin with.

With the help of two fan heaters it quickly rose to 5 degreesC......

The easiest side to sort out on the Series One Roadster is the nearside/passenger side.

The next photo shows the coolant pipe which passes under the exhaust manifold.

There is only one or two mm clearance to the first pipe, rather more on the other two.

Clearly in summer, some heat radiated from the manifold will be absorbed into the coolant, even though the pipe is silver.

Because the coolant pipe is kinked, it's not easy to fit a single length of insulation, so I split it into manageable lengths.

It's self adhesive so is easy enough to wrap around the pipe.

The second photo is with air collector box removed which makes access easier.

Now the vertical part of the bulkhead.

The washer bottle lifts out, but needs a bit of persuasion with a screwdriver, as there are two plastic bulges which hold it in place.

Interestingly the bracket was loose, even though it's riveted.

I managed to fit four strips of insulation around the edge to tighten it up, as I couldn't be bothered drilling the rivets out and re-doing it.........too cold.

I used three pieces of insulation to cover this area, as one big single piece would be very difficult to fit neatly.

And here it is with the bottle refitted.

So for today, that's all.......

PS - a reminder that this product is 'Reflect-a-Cool' from Agriemach.

More to follow >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The bonnet corners rub on the cowl and bulkhead, and this eventually rubs the paint away.

I'm not that keen on the leather corners which are available, but there is another way.

The first photo shows a small neoprene square which buffers against the hinge fastener. It's stuck with Bostik.

On the bonnet corners I've stuck some sacrificial electrical tape to protect the paint. This eventually rubs off.

Just visible here, vertical alignment, and the top is blackening.

On the front edge it's horizontal alignment with the edge rounded to match the bonnet shape.


This is the cowl - offside, and you can just make out that there's an oblong of red electrical tape onto which is stuck a small length of neoprene, which is just enough to buffer the bonnet.

And finally the bulkhead - a square of neoprene.

More to follow >>>>>>>>

I managed to make a start on the offside today, and the first job was some radiant heat protection for the alternator.

The front manifold is very close to the back of the alternator, around half an inch/ a centimetre or so.

I used a rectangle of stainless steel, curved to mirror the pipe shape - with an aluminium bracket fixed with two Allen bolts.

It was easier to use aluminium for the bracket as it's much easier to work.

The bracket must be an odd shape to make this fit. It is covered both sides with the Reflect-a-Cool self adhesive foil......

This is it:

And here it is fitted with a brass nut, washer & lock washer.

There is more to come on this side >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Next I intended to remove the master cylinder heat shield to smarten it up, but a look underneath put me off.

It seems that the brake pipe may have been connected after the shield was fitted.

You can see how it fits here:

The brake pipe is closer than it looks, so I've fitted a plastic edge trim to the aluminium (not fitted here), although I don't think that it will chafe.

Lower down the pipe touched the body on the corner of the metal here:

The clutch slave cylinder lower fixing is in view here.

Neoprene provides a cushion and a quick fix:

Here is the brake master cylinder heat shield from the top, as it comes with frayed edges:

And later with Reflect-a-cool added to tidy it up, and provide a bit more insulation:

Finally for today, as it's too cold to stay long in the garage. a photo of the starter motor:

Jaguar eh???? Mmmm.

More to follow >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well, a bit more progress yesterday on insulating the drivers side bulkhead.

This is how it looked:

You can see a small grommet left of the column.

There were four small holes in the bulkhead, into which I fitted these grommets (from my grommet jar)...............

You can also see how tricky this side is.

The easiest way is to fit small pieces in an overlapping tile effect.

While I was under there I also added some rubber caps to the three starter connectors - to reduce the likelyhood of shorts.

There's still a bit more to do but that was all I could manage in the time available - and the fact that it was ffffffreezing

More to follow >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Slow progress on this due to the cold.

But I snatched an hour or so over the weekend.

Next on my list was the clutch master cylinder.

Although it's not close to the manifold, there's no harm in adding some protection from the radiated heat.

This is much more relevant to the Plus 8 where the manifold is closer.

My requirement was for a push fit guard. thinking

First a brown paper template......

Then using an offcut of aluminium sheet.......covered in Agriemach 'reflect a cool' - with an extra layer of woven insulating mat on the forward facing edge.

Curving the aluminium is a bit time consuming.

Once completed it's drilled and secured with two stainless Allen bolts & locknuts.

The slot allows it to 'slot over' the bracket......

Fitting was trial & error in the usual way and it just fits through the gap above the steering column.

Slotted over.......

One final job to do in this section but this must wait a bit longer.

More to follow >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Right then. Today was a balmy 10degrees C in the garage after I had the heater on. 

So I could get on with the remaining jobs.

First a small diversion.........

Those red & green wires are untidy.

It's where there is a join in the loom and usually such joins are left visible, but not quite as visible as this.

Here's a much closer look..........

Four cable ties??????
I reckon that may be the way this is made..........

But I can do a bit better.

Cutting cable ties is fiddly but I have the perfect tool.

A Xuron track cutter.

This tool is sold to cut model railway track, but is perfect for cable ties, having a very precise cutting blade, so no damage to the surroundings.

Then I used some loom tape, (which is not self adhesive) to bind the loom and make it a bit tidier.

The convention seems to be to leave the join visible, so that's what I did.

The end of the tape is secured with a tiny blob of superglue.

So, back to the final piece of insulation.

I was planning on making a starter motor shield in the style of the one sold by Agriemach.

This would have looked like a tube with a covered end. But looking underneath, not only is access tricky, but a cable comes off the solenoid in the forward direction, so the closed tube plan is difficult.

In the end I settled on a simple 'blanket' fix, which means that the air can still get to the lower half, which might actually be a better idea.

So first the brown paper template:

This is 'before'.......

Then with the cut piece of insulation fitted - held with a cable tie.........

Underneath........

And from the front, which also shows the rubber covers I recently fitted to the starter terminals.

So as far as the under bonnet goes, that's all for now.

More to follow >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I was back on the heat management trail today.

But first the three electric connectors which on the Series1 Roadster are, at least, fixed to the front of the offside cam cover.

But with the wires sloping down into the connectors, if any water gets on the wires...........it will run into the connectors.

Here it is as standard............

I've considered all sorts of fixes involving stainless steel and neoprene, but its a bit of a stumper.

So for now I've fashioned a piece of high density neoprene just to act as a deflector.

I've also added a bit more loom tape to tidy those wires up. It makes quite a difference.

Next is the top hose and stainless pipe which runs down the centre of the "Vee".

This pipe is very close to the 'distributor/coil pack'.

Electronics don't like heat, so I've made a simple shield from aluminium, and covered it in my favoured foil.

This next photo is taken with the air filter removed, and the foil looks a bit messy, but the curve is there to accommodate the air filter.

Note how close the tube is to the HT leads.

I'll cover the air filter next on a separate post.

More to follow >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I managed a bit of fine tuning over the weekend, but not really much time.

I wanted to replace the 3 nuts each side between manifold and catalyst, so that I could apply a bit of Coppaslip.

This is as a precaution for future removal, because these manifold nuts can be really tricky to get off after few years.

I resisted using stainless nuts because these can semi weld themselves to the studs when really hot, so I stuck with plated nuts, and new washers and lock washers.

The nearside is easy with good access.

Even so these nuts take a bit of starting and are stiff to get off.

Offside is much harder to access.

The top one is OK, but the forward nut must be accessed from below, and the alternator gets in the way.

The rearward nut is blocked by the master cylinder heat shield.

Initially I thought this couldn't be removed without disconnecting the rear brake pipe on the master cylinder, but with a bit of jiggery pockery it can be done.

The upper fixing is an 8mm nut on a crosshead setscrew through the inner wing.

The lower fixing on the master cylinder is a 13mm nut.

Once released the heat shield can be manipulated through the gap around the steering column, but it's tight.

Only then can you get a spanner on that manifold nut.

And here's the job done......

One more thing.

The fuel pipes rise vertically against the bulkhead in the rear offside corner.

In doing so they pass the bulkhead flange which is an edge of stainless steel.

Mine were touching, so I've inserted a neoprene U channel as protection.

It's just visible here:

The pipes are tight, but we don't want any chafing do we?

Next on the list is to add some heat protection to the fuel pipes under the offside running board, but that means the exhaust will have to come off again on that side, so I need more time.......