Scooterotica

I've finally got the Scomadi back on the road after it packed up in July,I left it in the garage 'cos I just CBA to do owt with it as I was dreading an expensive repair and as it was also out of warranty.

Anyway it is now sorted and the problem was a blocked radiator and an inoperative fan.

As you can see from the pictures the radiator and fan are inside the housing fitted horizontally under the legshields.

When i bought the Scomadi it wasn't fitted with any form of protection at the front of the housing to protect the fan and rad from anything thrown up from the front wheel so I put the mesh on and then changed it to the metal grille.

I'd done approx 9000 miles when it packed up and the reason why it died was due to the fan and radiator being f**ked so it wouldn't cool down whicj in turn blew the head gasket and it was also found that the inlet manifold was split.

As you can see from the pictures the fan is covered in crap that's come off the road and where the fan is fitted it's forced everything into the radiator and flattened all the fins so in effect I've had less than half a radiator working.

The underside of the radiator is fairly clean and clear but I've been told that I should have cleaned the rad and the fan so this wouldn't have happened,as the fan sits on top of the radiator and the fan housing is just about touching the underside of the frame this is going to be difficult unless i drain the system and remove the radiator and fan and clean them,I suppose I could always use a power wash to force through the bottom of the radiator and clear it like that,I'll have to give it a go.

I've been speaking to a couple of mates to see what ideas we could come up with and we were wondering if i could put spacers between the frame and the hosing and also the fan and the radiator so if any crap gets through the fan it has a means of escape out of the bottom of the housing.

Another option was to blank off the front of the housing and put some scoops on the side and protect them with a Goretex like membrane that wouldn't affect the air flow but stop the water getting through.

Another mate was in the process of getting a front hugger made for his Scomadi but as he's sold it that's not happening

Would this work?

Any other options without moving the position of the fan and radiator?




View of housing from underneath




From front with metal grill in place



Old fan and radiator view from top



Showing fan position and damage



Close up of damage



Showing dirt etc on left hand side of fan



underside of radiator



View from rear of housing showing fan on radiator and lack of room to work and clean between fan,radiator and frame



Split on inlet manifold



Another view of split on inlet manifold

Cheers

When my mate had his Series 5 built it had a hugger fitted for this very reason, so I can't understand why the Scomadi didn't have this fitted

Red, just a couple of thoughts, firstly, the Gortex idea won't work, it does 'breath' but won't let enough air through to cool an engine. The second thought is that looks to me lik the fan has been pressed into the radiator core, was the fan bolted to the rad or was it held with plastic fixings? If it was bolted, maybe it was over tightened? OR could it have grounded on something hard enough to force the rad up so that the back of the fan hit the frame and forced the into the rad, you can actually see where the core tubes are damaged The fan can't have caused that damage by blowing muck as it will be PULLING air through from underneath

Have you thought about a centrally mounted splash/mud flap plate as close as possible to the back of the front wheel? without one your grill will soon get clogged up?

Hi red if it were me Id get a gilera runner rad as its the same and put that (huserberg) fan on and inbetween them put some sponge door seal to stop the flattening as it looks like the fans been vibrating on the rad an flattened it ... On the hugger I'm no fan of em but if you like em Get one as the cleaning route would be prob the best other option ... If and when u do clean it .... keep the pipes connected an loose the nuts on the box and let it hang down as you wont need to bleed the system all the time And lightly jet wash it cleann ... also if they have a bleed nipple on the head like a gts250 don't overtighten the nipple as u will need a new housing as I've done this before .. And the inlet helped it get hot too with the air leek you were lucky mate could have been worse eh and there were bolts through that fan wernt there?

I must admit Red, you have had your problems with this scoot, I was very interested in reading your reports in Classic Scooterist Scene, only for them to stop abruptly, Why?
I was very much in the market place for purchasing one of these Scomadi scoots, but it looks very much to me to have been put together with not much thought or testing in any way shape or form
Another point is the price, around £7k, with not much, if any warranty. I would be demanding the money back for the repairs, and if they told you to 'p155 off' resurrect your article in Classic Scooterist Scene with all the findings and problems you have encountered. £7k is alot of money for a prototype that doesn't do the job. Money, which the working man can not afford to waste on ill thought out bodgy schemes. They should be f@@king ashamed when they look at these pictures.

you would have thought it would have a filter fitted.If you could get one
like they use in some Air con units you can just wash it of every few weeks.

How about a vacuum filter?

e type wrote:How about a vacuum filter?

You use a vacum mate.

Lol

coaster wrote:Red, just a couple of thoughts, firstly, the Gortex idea won't work, it does 'breath' but won't let enough air through to cool an engine. The second thought is that looks to me lik the fan has been pressed into the radiator core, was the fan bolted to the rad or was it held with plastic fixings? If it was bolted, maybe it was over tightened? OR could it have grounded on something hard enough to force the rad up so that the back of the fan hit the frame and forced the into the rad, you can actually see where the core tubes are damaged The fan can't have caused that damage by blowing muck as it will be PULLING air through from underneath

Have you thought about a centrally mounted splash/mud flap plate as close as possible to the back of the front wheel? without one your grill will soon get clogged up?

Hi mate,

The fan was bolted to through the rad,if it was overtightened it was done by Frank when he built it as it hasn't been touched since.
It hasn't been grounded as it would be impossible due to the location of it as it's a long way off ground level.

As for the damage I'm only going on hat I've been told so it could be like you said and the fan has been fastened too tight.

I'm looking at putting some spacers of approx 5mm between the fan and the rad,do you think this would be OK?