Miata seats and electric fans

[Joe Martin Cantrell <agiyo@domain.elided>]

Several of you folks have written to inquire about what we did to fit the 
Miata seats to my '72 Spider.  I spent about 1.5 hours composing a post, 
but crashed my PC while trying to find pictures in my CD archive.  Since I 
haven't found the pics, I'll try to shoot new ones and do it up properly in 
the next few days.  Suffice to say, they may be the best single improvement 
I've made, but I'm 5'7".  They do ride a bit higher if you keep the Miata 
rails and stock Spider mounting points.

Another excellent improvement has been fitting a BMW pusher fan in front of 
my radiator.  I did it at the same time as I had the radiator recored, so I 
had a thermostatic switch fitting put into the bottom tank next to the hose 
fitting.  I mounted it on some generic hardware store steel strap, the 
simplest possible system, appropriate to working on a Sunday afternoon in 
an apartment parking lot.  It is worth the effort, if only to get rid of 
the clutter in front of the engine and be damn sure no more fan blades are 
going into the radiator (see recore causes).  Besides, all of the 
overheating problems in a healthy Alfa will be at low speeds, where an 
engine mounted fan is least efficient.  At high speeds, the fan is eating 
however much power when you need it least.  No brainer, but be certain you 
have a 180F thermostat for the fitting you install.

FWIW, a 164 thermostat fits perfectly into one of those 12mm(?) Allen plugs 
in the center of a 4 cyl. head, but if you wire it hot, it will run forever 
after you park the car.  The head stays hot a LONG time.

There are LOTS of fans that will do the job.  Get thee to a U-pull salvage 
yard, and do yourself and your car a favor!

Seats soon.

Ciao, kiddies.
Joe

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