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20xe red top coolant plumbing
pmc_3 - 12/1/15 at 08:07 PM

Does anyone have a diagram for plumbing the cooling system on a red top with no heater? I bought the car with the engine already fitted but it looks a bit over complicated and there are lots of joins.

laptoprob - 12/1/15 at 08:43 PM

LINKY HERE

Where it shows the heater just take that pipe straight to the pipe at the bottom of the page which is the main feed back into the header tank and it will work fine.

[Edited on 12/1/15 by laptoprob]

[Edited on 12/1/15 by laptoprob]

pmc_3 - 12/1/15 at 09:02 PM

Thanks for that, i'll try and map out how it is currently connected when I am next at the lockup and compare.

laptoprob - 12/1/15 at 09:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by pmc_3
Thanks for that, i'll try and map out how it is currently connected when I am next at the lockup and compare.


Ive got loads more info and can take a pic or two if youre lost at all.

Ill U2U my mobile number.

perksy - 12/1/15 at 10:01 PM

As above, also have a few photos if needed

Keep it simple and it will be fine.

Eg Some cut & plug the pipe from the rear of the head or you can remove the 'barbed' tube from the head completely and fit a core plug.

pmc_3 - 12/1/15 at 10:10 PM

quote:
Originally posted by perksy
As above, also have a few photos if needed

Keep it simple and it will be fine.

Eg Some cut & plug the pipe from the rear of the head or you can remove the 'barbed' tube from the head completely and fit a core plug.


Thanks. Do you not need the one at the rear of the head as some sort of bypass?

perksy - 12/1/15 at 10:42 PM

There's a few schools of thought on this mod, but i can honestly say i had no issues with it.

I think Tigger shows it on his Westfield build site at www.westfield-world.com and quite a few competition spec' XE's used in 7's follow the same principle.

Tigger also mentions drilling a few small holes in the Thermostat on his site and a few folks have done that aswell.


Just find the set-up that you are comfortable with and go from there.



The XE has a few issues, but it really is a cracking engine

laptoprob - 12/1/15 at 11:52 PM

quote:
Originally posted by perksy
There's a few schools of thought on this mod, but i can honestly say i had no issues with it.



I had a real nightmare with the pipe blocked off at the back of the head. I too followed the advice which is also on the SBD website and with this in mind proceeded to change the headgasket twice and fit an expensive aftermarket rad due to problems. It basically ran fine on the road and on very short runs on a cool trackday but spring/summer and/or longish flat out runs on track caused it to boil the water in the back of the head and overheat as it had nowhere to go. In the end i put the fitting back in and hey presto...never boiled again, ever!

I had been warned off others that it needed to be in there but brushed it off thinking.....nah SBD cant be wrong

But bear in mind that my engine runs 13.3:1 compression so may not be the case on a std XE. Either way i'd fit it!

[Edited on 12/1/15 by laptoprob]

perksy - 13/1/15 at 08:17 PM

That does sound a nightmare mate


For ref' I was running 11.5:1 on mine with a Cometic head gasket and had a Coscast head (although that shouldn't make any difference) and the SBD Thermostat.

pmc_3 - 20/1/15 at 09:46 PM

Does anyone know the hose diameters for the various outlets?