Bought a radiator fan

If you're paying attention to my Spartan 7 specification sheet, you'll notice that I had both the radiator and radiator fan on my design-phase purchase list. The reason is that I've seen several builders struggle to package the radiator into the nose of their builds, and I wanted to avoid this entirely by designing the front of the frame in advace around stock components.

Since I have an aftermarket Honda Civic radiator, it makes sense to use the stock fan, motor and shroud assembly. After all, they were designed to fit together, designed to work together and the stock radiator fan assembly provides enough cooling for engines as powerful (or more so) than my Miata donor's.

I purchased this unit off EBay for $35 or so. I was looking for a used unit, but all the local yards had been picked clean and I suspect this is a part that has a limited service life. It was only $20 more to get a new one, so I took the plunge.

The overall unit is a little bulky, but I like how clean and "factory spec" the final result looks. As I get deeper into the design phase we'll see if I can wrap a front end and nose cone around the assembly.

Next time I go to a junkyard I'm going to snip off a stock Honda connector for my wiring harness. That way I can put in a drop in replacement should the part ever fail.

Acquiring components for my cockpit mockup

At 5'8" and 225 lbs., I'm not exactly a small guy. With a 44" overall width (42" inside the gunwales of the car), the locost isn't exactly a big car. If at all possible, I hope to avoid the tragedy of building a car I don't fit into.

In the product design world (my day job), we build a prototype to check fit and functionality before committing to manufacturing. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't do the same for this project.

To that end I've been collecting the various components I'll need to construct a plywood mockup of my cockpit (a list of what I need is located in my Specification Sheet). The idea is to simulate the seating position, controls and critical panels so that I can get an idea of how comfortable my finished car will be.

These goodies were delivered yesterday. Those are the brake and clutch pedal assemblies and the clutch master cylinder! These Wilwood parts are quite beefy and light! Perfect. The single master cylinder clutch assembly and the dual cylinder brake assembly are both pretty standard components used in Locost builds.

The dual cylinder brake will allow me to fine-tune the bias between the front and rear brakes. For the record, I matched the Miata clutch master cylinder size by using a 5/8" Wilwood master. I'll figure out the brake master cylinder sizes when I'm farther along in the design.

Radiator, ho!

So now that I've even Stevens on my donor, I've taken the liberty of purchasing a few required components for the build.

I've been putting together a list of important components I think I'll need to properly design the frame. This is based on common sense (like needing suspension uprights and the engine), as well as some things I've learned from reading endlessly about locost construction.

The radiator is a perfect example of the latter. I've seen several builders struggle to fit the radiator in the nose after the frame has been built. I want to get this part into CAD to make sure I'm not wrestling with modifying the radiator after the fact.

This particular unit is rather ubiquitous in the locost world. It's an aftermarket unit for a 5th gen Honda Civic. For some reason, the geniuses at Honda decided to equip their cars with a teensy little radiator.

The good news is that it fits handily in a locost nose cone, is rather inexpensive, and is available all over the internet. I guess there's some factory in China cranking out oversized units, because nearly every one on eBay is a "racing" radiator. That's eBay for cheap, but with aluminum end tanks and a 2" thick core instead of the bone stock 5/8" thick core. The welds look beautiful until you look closer and realize that they spray painted the radiator to make it look like a master fabricated it.

I intend to use the factory mounting studs for installation. Even if it ends up being a lemon, I'll still be able to use a high quality OEM unit or an aftermarket race-quality (no quotation marks) unit as a drop-in replacement.

The inlets are just over 1.25" in diameter and the outlets on my 1.8L engine are just under 1.25". I'm hoping that that means I'll be able to use regular radiator hoses for the connection. It's not a big deal, just a nice coincidence.