Cooling System

Over a year has gone by - I have been busy, unfortunately the car has had to take a back seat but here I am, back on it and jumping straight back in at the deep end.

So, onto the Cooling System!  I placed an order with GBS last week and purchased everything necessary for to complete the cooling side of the engine.  The kit is really good quality and comes with everything you need, there aren't any instructions but its fairly self explanatory - previous blog posts helped.

The kit as it came:

The water rail kit gives you all you need to setup the rail only, you do need to purchase the additional pipes to route from the water pump and the rail to the radiator.  I forgot to photo the contents of the kit however you will see it later on as I progressed.

First step was to remove the stock Exhaust Manifold, then the oil flame trap - there's a bit of discussion as to whether this is required - however the norm is to remove and block it off, which I have decided to do with the ATR blanking plate from GBS:

Much better and more room.  Next was removing the stock thermostat housing, cleaning and replacing with the GBS part (much more sturdy!).  Based on my previous experience with coolant systems a small smear of gasket seal was in order too...

I've also fitted the dipstick - straight forward.   Next it was time to fit the radiator and fan, really simple and a 10 minute job although a quick read of other blogs helped (tabs need to be bend backwards so the radiator sits on the inside of the mount otherwise nose cone will not fit):

Looking good!  Onto plumbing her in....again, another simple job that requires a methodical approach:

You will notice the mounting bracket that connects to the steering column mounts, the tube is pretty solid in place but I guess after a while and with a lot of heat cycles the hoses will get softer and maybe sag.  Its a GBS part and easy to fit, the pipe itself is attached to the bracket via cable tie.