Water heated inlet manifold, water connection?

[KirstMin]

Hi, after breaking down at the weekend and spending more time staring at the engine I noticed that the garage who carried out my upgrade to carb/exhaust/manifold etc have connected the water heated bit of my water heated inlet manifold. I seem to remember having a conversation with them about NOT doing this but if anyone has read my previous posts about the work, they would know that this is not a suprise to me

To put this right, do i simply need to remove the water pipes from the connectors on the inlet manifold and connect them back together? And how do I connect the 2 rubber hoses together now that they are in 2? Do i need to replace the whole rubber pipe?

cheers

kirsten

[Cam]

Well, what is your current plumbing arrangement? piccy would help too.

Basically, there should be a pipe going from the valve at the back of the cylinder head to your heater then the other pipe from your heater should connect to a copper pipe which is bolted to the cylinder head. The end of this copper pipe bends and connects into the top of your radiator bottom hose (near the water pump).

If you have some different arrangement then let us know. If you HAVE to connect the two pipes together then you can use a short length of copper pipe and two jubilee clips. Just make sure that the copper pipe is the correct diameter (to fit tight), you de-burr the edges of the pipe before fitting it (so as not to damage the rubber pipe) and you use good quality jubilee clips (like the ones made by Jubilee that ESM supply).

[KirstMin]

I'll take some piccies tonight and post them up. I can remember most of the configuration but not all!

[Cam]

Okey dokey, look forward to seeing them.

[Stig]

Not wishing to stir at all (OK, maybe a bit ), but why not leave it connected?

[Cam]

Because it heats the charge which is fine for economy (the reason it's there) but not good for power (which in a lot of cases is why an alloy inlet manfold is fitted in the first place!). It also does not help when the car is sitting in traffic as the carb/intake charge is getting even hotter and more prone to vapourisation problems.

[bmcecosse]

Exactly - the manifold should NOT be heated, except perhaps in deep winter if you use the car all year round. Better really to fit a new pipe rather than have a join.

[KirstMin]

OK, here are my piccies.

http://www.ultravioletdesign.co.uk/mm/engine1.jpg

http://www.ultravioletdesign.co.uk/mm/engine2.jpg

I *think* that I should just be able to connect the 2 pipes. But possibly it would be easier to ask the garage to replace the whole pipe as the car is going back in 3 weeks to have some 'correction' work and I did ask them to not connect it in the first place.

By the way, when it went for MOT they failed it because they said that it would be run too hot for standard radiator - I had to have a higher capacity rad put in at extra cost. Is this because the garage had connected these?

[Blunt]

[Cam]

Right, well it seems that you are missing the copper pipe then! You will need to get one from a spare 1098 engine.

You can see it on this engine: http://potteries.mmoc.org.uk/RallyPics/ ... 005_13.JPG

Looks like they have 'chopped' your old one up to make the front connection into the bottom radiator hose.

[KirstMin]

bmcecosse - I do use the car all year round. London isn't too cold mind. Would it matter if i disconnected?

[ColinP]

Hi Kirsty,

By the way, when it went for MOT they failed it because they said that it would be run too hot for standard radiator - I had to have a higher capacity rad put in at extra cost. Is this because the garage had connected these?

http://www.motuk.co.uk/mot_testing.htm

It would be interesting to see why the tester "failed" to test your car when the radiator isn't one of the tested items...

Perhaps you should appeal - it looks awfully like the guy was failing it so you would have to have an updated radiator. Most Minors are overcooled - not undercooled.

Maybe it's time to get an independent view.

Colin

[bigginger]

Jumping in unasked - nope, the heated manifold is a compromise to help fuel ecomomy at the expense of engine power, i.e. no heating = better power. As for the Rad, Minors are notoriously OVER cooled. It's hard to see why a) it would be wrong without some very obvious symptoms and b) why the hell it was part of thr MOT test.

[KirstMin]

Cam - I'm confused now because that copper pipe connects to the pipe that goes into the heater (it's the pipe that disappears through the compartment below the other pipe). On mine, the pipe (that comes out of the inlet manifold) connects to the pipe that goes in ABOVE the other pipe. Am I confusing you too?

[KirstMin]

Jumping in unasked

its open to all

[bigginger]

Why thank you!
a

[Cam]

Cam - I'm confused now because that copper pipe connects to the pipe that goes into the heater (it's the pipe that disappears through the compartment below the other pipe). On mine, the pipe (that comes out of the inlet manifold) connects to the pipe that goes in ABOVE the other pipe. Am I confusing you too?

Ok, well if they are the opposite way around then it does not really matter, but in the interests of convention then you could do the following:

Disconnect the hose from the heater tap and connect the other hose (currently conected to the inlet manifold) to the heater tap. Then connect the free hose (that WAS on the heater tap) to the copper pipe (that you have missing) and connect the other end of the copper pipe into the bottom radiator hose as per standard config.

MOT failure for having a standard radiator??? Good grief! I'm afraid that that is absolute garbage. Not only is it completely irrelavent (not on the MOT) but it's rubbish too as I have been running my tuned 1380 for years with a standard radiator! It's absolutely fine for all A-series engines.

If they had said that to me I'd have laughed at them and then got serious, demanded my test fee back and never darkened their door again. It's amazing what some people will try!

p.s. what radiator top hose are you using? as that looks good and better than mine which is the standard Minor one.

[KirstMin]

I'm afraid I dont know what hose it is! It appeared after my engine was put in and they told me the rad had to be changed. I knew what all my old bits were because I bought them all but after all the work, your guess is as good as mine (a real downside to getting someone else to do everything).

Thanks for all the help and information (yet again!)

PS: the radiator business does seem odd now.

[wanderinstar]

Why not fit a tap in the line to the inlet manifold so that through the summer you could leave it turned off but in the depths of winter you could just open it up. Also as previously stated what an earth is the engine overheating or not got to do with MOT. I personally would report this garage to Ministry of Transport

[bmcecosse]

The heater tap will do that job nicely - keep it closed and no water will circulate. And the radiator is absolutely NONE of the MOT man's business !! He may have 'kindly' advised you that your radiator was perhaps on it's last legs due to corrosion etc - but he cannot fail the car for something like that. Exactly what kind of 'uprated' radiator was fitted ? The Minor radiator is about twice the size of the Mini radiator which cools exactly the same engine !!