De-Tubular Bellsing. Eh?

Remember this lot? The rather zany cooling hose run?

Well, it had to go.

Unfortunately I thought I'd got round the issue of the water thermostat housing clashing with the steering arm but having given it a trial fitting it was just too close for comfort. 1mm clearance but with a full engine rev likely a rock 4-5mm in that that direction will occur so that won't do.

Looking at the problem I could either order in a different angled stat cover from the states at great expense or work out another solution.

So looking at the main parts it's obvious the main action is centred around the seating of the thermostat in the housing itself. So making a spacer ring that allows the rotation of the thermostat and keeping the seating intact.

Whilst it will allow the flow of water to circulate into the car heater circuit a bit earlier than would normally happen the volume of water involved is negligible compared to that which is in the thermostat protected side of the water circuit and it's unlikely the car will ever be used regularly in sub zero temperatures so again it's not a big issue. I can add a small mod to the thermostat if it's a problem. 

So a quick bit of work saw the above fitted, spacer ring with new holes for the thermostat.

The photo doesn't show the new gap created in full but this works!

 

Chamfer done to help with steering clearance.

Gasket made and sealed with blue hylomar front and back.

And the job is done. More of a ubend than zany artwork but now much better functionally.