stat housing mod

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

putting this here cos i dont know where else to put it.

but i got a head which has the early style press in coolant pipe.

looks to me as tho this could simply be cut off (or pulled out if poss) and the cast stat housing screwed on as all the mounting holes are there....either bung up the sensor holes or leave the oldsensors in there...job done.

thats if u felt the need to do it lol...but it does look possible.

anyway....dribble over

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

yes pull it out and fit the later style housing. Easy.

best way to remove the pressed in thingy is to stick a 3/8 socket extension into the heater hose pipe off thingy and lever it up and down.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

aye thought so....not that it improves anything...its just possible Smile

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

on the later set up where the rads tope hose comes out, does it go down before goign along the hose?

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

wwhhhat?

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

i think i know what you mean Chris, and no, the hose is straight from the rad to the housing, no up or down bits iirc

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

Oh yeah, i can add that I know 100% for certain that the hose is identical between the 2 versions, as i swapped mine round.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

on the early versions the hole in the head leads to the stat, the water then has to drop about an inch to go along the hose, so air can be trapped at the stat itself.

is the later setup stright fromt he hole in the head to the hose or does it have this drop. Thats what i mean.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

i got a spare housing ill take a pic...

Gay Rights Activist Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 1268

how do u post pics peeps?? dont shout at me!!

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

both stat bits are the same...just with the added top bit on the later.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

saves a lot of work in manufacturign...dont need to press pipe in, dont need to drill and tap two holes for the sensors...

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

so the answers yes the coolant does have to go down before going to the rad. Yet another stupid bit of design.

You know if I had designed the cooling system and head even as a 1.8 and mass production tolerences the engine would have pumped out about 160bhp, would have been good on fuel too.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

but thats the fun of a production head, being able to change it to make it better than the designer intented it....would be boring if it was perfect as is.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

Or the standard engine was so good more people would have bought the car instea dof astra's and escorts, the tuning market woudl be ripe for it with well developed and proven results.

Improving stuff is a pain in the arse, you shouldn't have to do it. If the muppet who was designing the engine knew what he was doing, i.e. not the work experience lad they clearly sat down to do it then it would all work a lot better.

The coolant hose thing, thats totally wrong, it traps air, any muppet can see that.

Gay Rights Activist Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 1268

what design changes would you have made to the head chris??

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

would you like me to list them all?

Gay Rights Activist Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 1268

if u really want to!

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

Well,

ports far to large, they are offset, which causes swirl.

So ports narrowed, larger valves fitted, ports central to valves (exhaust side is fine as spacing etc goes), more downdraught to reduce short turn radius angle. 3 angle valve seats as standard, 99% of heads these days and the last 10 years have been 3 angle from the off.

Combustion chamber would have a shallower included angle.

Valves would be flat faced (so what if it costs more), casting dimple wouldn't be there.

Cooling, the top hose exits at the wrong side. Coolant passages would be reworked.

Top hose would exit near the cambelt, like the VX Xe, Fiat TC, Cossie YB and so on. This ensures a better and more equal heat pattern across the head, improving efficiency.

Thats would be it for the head pretty much.

But then theres the block and the rest of the cooling system.

Gay Rights Activist Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 1268

but inlet swirl is good. i suppose you could say that the extra boundary layer friction will be more apparent with low gas speed (large ports), but you could say that about high port velocity (that there will be more friction)

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

Like I explained to JB swirl in a 16V inlet port is what you do not want, it prevents mixture going into the cylinder!

A decent 16V head has a very straight equal flow through the valves.

What is very important in a 16V head though is tumble.

Swirl is good on an 8 valve head as the mixture does a wall of death ride around the cyl bore, thus not escaping and drawing more in.

Tumble means the air goes through the valves and does a rolly polly drawing more in.

1st thing you do with an F7P head is try and reduce swirl as much as you can. Like I said th eexhaust side is fine, although the guide boss can be removed and the floor raised for a gain.