Morris Minor Owners Club

Been out in the van today. Top of rad is hot bottom of rad is cold. does this mean thermostat is not opening, the heater is working but not as hot as I thought it would be.
Thanks dylan

it means the rad is working , it the thermostat is working the top of the rad should get hot all of a suddern . to test the stat take it out and put it in some hot water it should open for what they cost get a new one

It's perfect... If you want more heat - fit a higher rated stat (88 or even 92) - check none of the pipes are kinked - maybe even flush through the heater - and you can block off the bypass hose for very best heater action!

I am suffering the same issue during the winter, when I travelled across the Pennines to Manchester last month the temp gauge never got off the bottom of the scale (40 deg c) I doubt it's doing the engine any good so now I have a sheet of 1/4" ply with a letterbox size cutout at the bottom, 1/3 the size of the front grill.
I took the car for a long run and the temp gauge now stays between 70&80 deg c. I have a new 82 deg stat fitted.
It's been discussed a few times that the minor is way over cooled.

Have ordered a 82 off fleabay. Had the rad off a few times when doing the van up, flushed it out and think I would of flushed heater rad out.
Thanks all, will see how I get on.

Mini never had a 948 engine.... The Mini rad is also rather thicker - and more densely finned...and has a larger fan close to it and pushing air through it like mad.. But it's certainly true that the Minor is way over cooled...however if the stat is working, it shouldn't be necessary to blank off the rad.... If you don't do much traffic - it's very possible to remove the fan, in winter at least.

Are there different types of thermostat housing used on minnor engines.[frame][/frame]

The gold coloured one on the right looks like a Mini one. The one on the left looks like a Minor one.

Yes.
I think the 803 ones are slightly different.
I 'think' the one on the right is a Marina one. The other standard Minor.

The one on the left is off my van. I have another minnor engine, I thought I would put the gold one on as it was in better nick. Didn't realise it was different till tried to fit it. It fouls the heater pipe.

get a mini pipe that runs by the manifold much better

This is a Marina thermostat housing cover.
It has a filling plug in the top of the cover.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12G3535-AUSTI ... 419361ed6b

From the current Moss catalogue:-
12G103 Housing thermostat.
12A408 Housing thermostat with tapping for temp gauge.

From other sources:-
10M220A Housing thermostat - Alloy
10M220B Housing thermostat - Brass

Not the one that came fitted to my Marina engine, but I'll take your word for it!

Chesney
You must have a early Marina thermostat housing fitted Pt No: 12G103 which was soon superseded by the thermostat housing with the filler plug in the top Pt No: 12G3535.
Phil