After collecting all of the coolant bits I contacted a few places and asked about fitment of the radiator, thermostat, hose kits and complete a/c delete, labour quote from PERON HQ was absolute fortune, they wanted to take the front end off the car, I tried to explain the radiator slides out from underneath but they wasn't interested, I reckon their sky high quote was to put me off, Fred over at FJRS was a gent as always, comms were a bit slow, no doubt very busy plus leading to the double bank holiday didn't help, I think the a/c delete was something they wasn't experienced in which I think was the reason why their quote for that part of the job was higher then I expected.
We ended up driving the 2h40 to see the guy's at H-Sport Performance.
I'd been in contact with Connor and Jordan for a couple of weeks, picking their brains, Fiesta ST's are their bread and butter, they had them lining up and in every corner around their workshop and had experiencing in a/c delete I wanted doing.
Why a/c delete? I simply don't use it, had car now over 7 years and used it once, nothing to do with shedding weight or track times, because these engines run hot and we hear about the odd car with a cracked cylinder wall I wanted to upgrade the radiator, swap out the 97C thermostat (which Ford now do) and while doing so replace some of the stock 7 year old hoses for fresh ones, so while doing this to me it made sense to remove something I don't use and didn't want on the car the a/c.
Anyway we had a nice steady drive down and arrived at H-Sport near Timsbury around 07:15am, met up with Connor and Jordan, Jordan recommended to have the stock coolant fan shroud modified to allow better airflow so that was added to the job list which was:.
- Mountune Triple Pass Radiator
- Ford Radiator Bleed Valve:1791975
- Ford Expansion Tank: 1513111
- Ford Turbo Coolant Return Hose: 1882072
- Ford Degas Hose to Engine: 1844186
- Ford 82C Coolant Thermostat: 2184696
- Ford Super Plus Premium Antifreeze/Coolant (WSS-M97B44-D)
- PRO HOSES Coolant Hose Kit (PRO-KIT70)
- Aircon Delete
- Gates Aux Belt (shorter ver for Aircon Delete)
- Fan Shroud Modification
Connor offered and kindly dropped us off (and picked us up later) at Keynsham train station and we spent the day in Bath while they worked on the car, work was completed by late afternoon.
H-Sport Performance, these guy's were brilliant, honestly faultless, sure they don't have the prestige and reputation of Mountune or the impressive unit and offices like PERON but jeez do these two lads eat, sleep and breath Fiesta ST's, very friendly, fast comms, price wasn't cheap mind but if you're paying £60, £70+ p/h or whatever the going rate is it won't be but these lads work on ST's day in day out and know the car. I highly recommend H-Sport Performance and I'll definitely be using them again.
So has the coolant upgrades and alternations made a difference on temps, yes it has, Connor mentioned it's gave him ideas for their track car, I think he was referring more towards the lower temp thermostat.
Before the upgrades my coolant temps would usually sit between 95 to 98C, occasionally go above 100c then would slowly drop, never saw it go below 93C or above 102C, after the work I monitored coolant temp on drive home and it sat between 82 to 88C, noticed it once go to 91C then dropped quickly to low to mid-80's, as before the upgrade the faster the car goes lower the coolant temp so airflow is key, no doubt removing the a/c condenser from in front of the radiator and trimming the fan shroud is helping. Anyway I'm happy with the results plus it's also reassuring hoses and expansion tank which are known to fail (very rare I know) have been renewed.
Aircon condenser removed and trimmed fan shroud:
Stock radiator:
Aircon delete, I was shocked how heavy this lot was in the mountune rad box when I came to lifting it out of the boot.
Below pic was taken by my lad in back of car from over my shoulder, I didn't take the pic while driving.
Another very minor plus is the stock radiator rattles about on it's worn locator pin rubbers, the MT rad is rock solid so car feels less rattly over sudden bumps.
Next on the list is a diff, quaife? wavetrac? gripper? mfactory? recommendation please for fast road use.