Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Radiator Upgrade/New Coolant?

Bluecol at a 50/50 mix

Did you change the core plugs when you stripped the engine down - its surprising the amount of crude that builds up behind them !

Arwyn

Yep, me too. AIUI the only real advantage of OAT is a longer service life, but with our pampered darlings the idea of skimping on servicing is anathema.

Very good point. It is extremely annoying when a core plug rusts out, especially when it is the one behind the flywheel

My Grandad (a lifelong mechanic) used to recount the number of times he had take a hole saw to the bulkhead on Jaguars to replace the leaking rear core plugs rather than take the engine out....

I seem to remember that also applied to certain Renault cars... Or was that the water pump?

Simon, your Grandad was right! He would also chuckle to see how the mechanics at PJ Evans in Brum (at the time largest Jaguar dealer workshop in the U.K.) changed an XJS water pump without disconnecting the AC pipes! AC evaporator was part of main radiator!!!!

Seen it done many times as the apprentice school I ran was based on the old a Jaguar reception in John Bright Street.

Happy Days ;-)
Colin

A fitter we had in the cigar factory had his oil change methods.
He had welded his sump plug in place previously.
To drain oil he drilled 1/16 holes in the sump. He pop riveted them before refilling.
He also replaced a rad by building one from copper microbore tubing folded to suit and adaptors to fit hoses.
Naturally his nickname was “ The innovative bodger”

One of my ultimate bodges

I was a first year apprentice so very green but totally convinced I knew everything! My dads Mk1 Cortina had an ongoing problem one winter where the screen wash bottle was constantly frozen.

I had recently helped him replace our hot water tank and in order to cash in on the scrap we cut up the old tank so it fitted in the boot. That gave me insight to how the hot water tank actually worked and was the seed of my cunning plan!

I ‘found’ A length of large bore copper fuel pipe from the trucks I was working on at the time and took it home. Once wound into a coil I took the top off the glass screen wash bottle (One of those large ones where the pump sat on top of the glass bottle on a screw lid). Made a couple of holes in the lid and then plumbed in the coil to one of the heater pipes with a pair of stepdown plumbing adapters.

Genius! We now had heating to the screen wash bottle which would warm the water to thaw it and in turn give us a hot screen wash which had to be better in winter months.

Really proud and the next time we had a really cold night we went out for a test drive in the morning. That’s when we discovered that the frozen water in the washer bottle had in turn frozen the water inside the coil and as I plumbed it in line with the heater we had no heater in the car either so no demisters and I succeeded in making the situation many times worse than before. We did both have a good laugh about it though.

BR
Colin

One of the old tricks with the Land Rover was to extend the washer hose and then wrap it round the main radiator hose several times. Had the desired effect without the risk of your method!

IIRC, there used to be some weird 70's accessory sold to heat the washer tube as it exited the bottle ?

Problem is, hot water sprayed onto something very cold can freeze faster (latent heat of vapourisation ?)