Just completed my inline thermostat. Im not completely sure everything is right, so thought id check here before calling it a victory.

Followed the standard write up using the BMW bottom hose.

Everything went easy, took about an hour. If anything I thought the bottom hose was a touch narrower than the Disco hose. Wondered about flow rates etc. Anyway, bottom half here:




Top half here:



Switched the thermostat housing and petcock as advised to keep the thermostat as close to the engine as poss.

Refilled. Filled each side of the thermostat, reclamped. Wondered about air pockets as its not possible to fill every gap when putting the hoses back on.

Filled expansion bottle.

Started her up.

Warms up to about 167 on the UG. Top hoses are warm. Thermostat housing is hotter (it is metal after all).

Bottom hose is pretty cold. That's what i'm concerned about.

It also got to temperature pretty quickly. I'd say 4 mins, as a guess. Im worried I've screwed something up, and I don't have a proper flow, and the sensor has got to temperature too quickly. Having said that, it isn't getting hotter than 167ish.

Whaddya reckon?

Edit, Oh, im also not getting anything out of the petcock. No flow, no air, nuthin..

I double checked that the thermostat is installed with the spring toward the engine.

And I am getting good flow back to the bottle.

And I did drill a 1/8 hole. Fitted stat with hole at the top.

Edit 2. Somethings better. Now getting flow at peacock. Temp at 177-181.

 

looks good, the other thing to make sure is, the hole that is drilled in the thermostat should sit at 12:00 in the housing, to allow trapped air to escape the engine and get bled out. It took several bleeding sessions to get all the air out after my inline mod. I also filled up the upper hose by removing the bleed and filling with a small funnel, and it took a lot.
I don't think flow should be a problem at all.

 

Thanks Joe.

I've got flow at the pet **** now. With a bit of air bleed so that's good.

It's just the lower hose which is oddly cool. Sound normal?

 

yes very normal. that is where the coolest coolant is, coolant enters radiator at top right and gets cooled down and leaves radiator at bottom hose.
If it was as hot as the top hose, the radiator would not be doing its job.

 

That sir, makes perfect sense.

Just been for a longer run, and temps are a pleasing 177-183. Come to a stop, waited, nothing, no spike. Phenomenal.

Really pleased. I like how it tidies up that whole side of the engine bay.

Makes me want to consider an SAI delete. That system really annoys me.

Oh, final thing before declaring victory. The only casualty was snapping off the plastic, overflow, breather tube from the expansion bottle. See any issue with that? I could drill it out, make up a little tube insert, and refit it, but it doesn't seem to be that necessary to me.

This guy:

 

That's what guys have done, while waiting for replacement tank. Check with Paul Grant or Abran, they aren't too expensive if I recall.
Edit: just saw which hose, it will just bleed straight down the side of tank.

 

Not the pressurised tube, the overflow, which just dumps the coolant downwards instead of sideways if it gets over filled. <---- Im guessing.

 

[QUOTE=cappedup;560080]Not the pressurised tube, the overflow, which just dumps the coolant downwards instead of sideways if it gets over filled.
You are right.

 

In that case I am declaring VICTOIRE.

A mod everyone should do.

Thanks joe!

 

Anytime my Friend.