Engine Bay Cooling

Some kit cars have bonnet scoops, some have louvers, some even have NACA ducts, but the Avon has no openings as standard.  For most of the year this is not a problem, but I had noticed that during the summer months, there can be quite a big heat build up and the top of the bonnet is very warm to the touch.

So I weighed up a few options, including fitting ready made grilles, but in the end I decided upon some simple holes.  I used hole saws in the cordless drill with the torque turned right down.  Then, once the  holes were done, I glued black mesh to the inside of the bonnet with Grip-Fill.  I'd previously had success using this on the inside of the GRP bodywork to affix things, such as cable tie mounts.

Here are the four holes that allow escape of some of the heat from the exhaust headers:

And here are the two larger holes centered on the midpoint between the two K&N filters.  As well as allowing cooler fresh air in to the engine, they also allow out of the engine bay that little extra induction noise!

Overall, a simple modification.  The engine bay definitely runs a little cooler and in my opinion its added some additional aesthetic interest.

Wiring Loom

When you open the Tiger provided wiring loom it can look a bit daunting. The fuses and relays are obviously on the branch that comes up through the battery tray, but what about the rest? Finding which was the front and which was the back was achieved by identifying the large black alternator plug. Also, the wider double brown wires connect to the starter motor.

With the loom fed through the transmission tunnel the next step was to cut a hole in the battery tray to take the rubber gromit which is already on the loom. To cut the hole I used my trusty hole saw with a 41mm blade. Overall this work well, but like drilling the holes in the aluminimum panesl for the seat belt bolts, the teeth did tend to snag. It was a bit easier on the battery tray as the aluminium is thicker. Next time I think I will use a step drill for cutting circular holes through the aluminium panels.


Next it was time to start attaching the loom to the chassis. For this I used cable ties, cable tie mounts and rivets. The ties and mounts from Screwfix. Once the loom was attached along the inside of the transmission tunnel I then moved on to do the rear and finally the engine bay.


To identify each of the wires I used a number of wiring diagrams: the ones in 'the book', plus a couple sourced from the internet. None fully matched the actual colour coding and make up of my Tiger wiring loom, but by a process of elimination I worked out what each wire is for. I also took the opportunity to label each wire as I went. This should make connecting the wiring loom to the various items later on that much easier and quicker.