At present my cooling system has a bulkhead tank that is connected to the large water outlet at the back of the head (under the dizzy mounting point)
and a small pipe running from the top of the tank to the top of the rad.
I'm thinking that the large outlet would probably have been to the heater matrix in the original configuration???
My Q is... can I delete the large outlet with a core-plug and just run a rad mounted tank for overflow / expansion?
Would cut down on the number of pipes running about the engine bay, but would it affect cooling performance?
Cheers!
This photo probably explains it best... it's the outlet for the lower of the two blue hose that I would consider core-plugging (depending on what
the enlightened think!).
[img][/img]
yep, i've just blanked mine off. the outlet is for the heater, and the return goes back to the bottom hose
Cheers Blake!
whats the braided hose to the bottom of the dizzy about?!
Dunno... not got that far with my investigations yet! 
Anyone have any suggestions?
Braided hose is the external oil hose used to "fix" the GM heads when they go porous.
as above, braided hose is porous head fix, and yep, blank the heater outlet off, just make sure you have some sort of bypass flow for when stat is shut if you are running a stat. (usually from inlet manifold to bottom hose)
Thanks gents!
ooh, a bypass, of course. is it allowed to put a small hole in the thermostat itself?
just sleve it with the tube as we said to your previus thread,and like said above,if not planning a heater,no need for the side head hose
seems the air bleed thingy on top of the thermostat housing on mine is on the cylinder head side of the thermostat, so i'm going to use that as
the bleed
Turns out my head already has the 'fix' Westy.
thats good news then
Hi Scootz, just to clarify re. the water hoses, if you don't have a heater, all you "need" is a top hose from the stat housing to the
rad, and a bottom hose from the bottom of the rad to the water pump, plus a bleed from somewhere near the top of the engine, pref on the inlet side
(all manifolds I have ever come across have a small (5/16"
outlet on the top at the front) to the top of the rad if you are running without a
header tank.
The only issue with this setup, is that there is not enough flow when the stat is shut, and you'll get local boiling in the head (I had this with
mine, no problems with the engine, just a funny noise when the stat isn't open, took AGES to track it down!!! ), a lot of the westfield guys
drill a small hole or two in the stat, which is fine, or alternatively most inlet manifolds also have a bigger (1/2" ish) water outlet at the
front underneath. Mine is blanked off, but if you run this to the bottom hose it gives a bit of bypass flow whan you dont have a heater.
I have a header tank as I am using a polo rad (no built in header) which is simply a "stepped" tank built into the top hose, which acts both
as a header and a swirl (de-aeration) pot, and the bleed from the inlet manifold is fed into it near the top.
here's the gist:
header tank 1
[Edited on 15/10/10 by NS Dev]
Perfect! Thanks a million!
If you have one... could you post up a snap of the other side showing the bleed set-up?
Thanks again!
don't have a pic but should be able to get one on sunday
You're a star!
Ta!
Couple more Q's whilst I'm at it...
The larger outlet on the side of the head in pic goes to oil catch tank... can I just blank the other off?
Aaaand... would this be what you would call the 'round' tooth belt?
Ta muchly... as always!
Yes and yes
Cheers!
And bugger... I've just realised I've put the rocker cover back on and have forgotten to fit the breather plate I modded! Oh well, gives me
something to do in the morning! 
quote:
Originally posted by NS Dev
Hi Scootz, just to clarify re. the water hoses, if you don't have a heater, all you "need" is a top hose from the stat housing to the rad, and a bottom hose from the bottom of the rad to the water pump, plus a bleed from somewhere near the top of the engine, pref on the inlet side (all manifolds I have ever come across have a small (5/16"
The only issue with this setup, is that there is not enough flow when the stat is shut, and you'll get local boiling in the head (I had this with mine, no problems with the engine, just a funny noise when the stat isn't open, took AGES to track it down!!! ), a lot of the westfield guys drill a small hole or two in the stat, which is fine, or alternatively most inlet manifolds also have a bigger (1/2" ish) water outlet at the front underneath. Mine is blanked off, but if you run this to the bottom hose it gives a bit of bypass flow whan you dont have a heater.
I have a header tank as I am using a polo rad (no built in header) which is simply a "stepped" tank built into the top hose, which acts both as a header and a swirl (de-aeration) pot, and the bleed from the inlet manifold is fed into it near the top.
Going to stick largely with what's there (how novel!).
Changed the rad though which throws up a fresh challenge!
On the original set-up, there was a small inlet / outlet on the top rail of the tank... this connected to the top outlet on my coolant tank (see
diagram below).
Image deleted by owner
The new rad doesn't have such an inlet / outlet - so where do I route the pipe from the top outlet in the coolant tank to now?
Top hose just pre-rad, or bottom hose pre / post pump?
Cheers!
sorry, only jst seen the post!, never did get chance to get photos, but looks like yr sorted.
Just pipe the "spare" outlet from the header tank to the 5/16 outlet on the inlet manifold, perfect, that way it self bleeds the head
nicely.
Cheers... but just noted a mistake in my post with the diagram!
The original set-up ran the small upper tank outlet to a small pipe on the top rail of the radiator (not the tank as I typed!).
Does that change anything? Can I still just run the small pipe from the tank to the inlet-manifold as you suggested?
Yep
Ta muchly... and I guess that's case closed!