VN Series 1.5

[Pretender]

I am a little confused with my car (not unusual).

I have a Dec 89 Lexcen which I thought was just a series 1. I have been reading another post detailing the differences between 1, 1.5 & 2.
My car appears to have bits from the all of them.
I located my long lost Gregorys Manual today and it states the changes made to the SI in Oct 89 including a change in the cam lift, plastic rocker covers, single valve springs but still no radiator cap.

What I have differs slighty from all descriptions, as in:
Plastic rocker covers
Black fuel rails
No Bellmouth
Mild steel exhaust
Radiator with cap.
Definately is the first motor though with the thermostat at the rear.

Simple question, Is my car a 1.5 with an SII radiator? I thought the 1.5 was produced during 1990 only.

I searched on the net and can find only references back to this Forum.
Not important, just thought I'd ask.
Cheers

[greenfoam]

From what I could figure out the Lexcen doesn't follow all the series 1/1.5 rules. I'd like to know when the colour of the cig lighter lamp reflector thingo changed from amber to green, my Lexcen is from 1990 and has no cap, so I'd say your radiator has been replaced

[ScottB_33]

The series 1 vehicles only had the radiator overflow bottle and single cap feeding the whole cooling system. Series 1.5 had two overflow bottles feeding each other one on each side of the engine bay. Now over the years many mechanics removed the second bottle on the passengers side and converted the cars back to series 1 spec. Series 2 on the other hand had the upcoming VP engine fitted with the radiator cap located on the radiator and the top radiator hose joining an oulet on the front of the intake manifold. Could your car have had an engine change at some stage? Many series 1 cars are getting very tired in the engine department with high k's so this is a possibility. Can you match the engine number with the one from the owners handbook on the inside front cover?

[Pretender]

Original motor 255000kms, Series 1.
The radiator must have been changed.
No evidence of a second overflow bottle.

[SweetWagon]

I have a vn made in the 90's i think its the s1.5 as it has 2 overflow bottles. Can i just ask what the point of having 2 was??? Does it matter which one i add water/coolant to?

[VNPOWER]

Ive got a series 1.5 too. What happens is, when you turn your car off, all the pressure is realeased from the cap into the other container on the passenger side, and when you start your car, its sucked back in when the thermostat opens. So it doesnt really matter what bottle you put it in.