Cooling system

4 months since last post! Will try and get on top of this blog and keep more up to date.

So last post saw the engine going in. Once the engine was in I tackled the cooling system. Header tank from AK was fixed to the chassis - simple case of drilling and taping the chassis. I also installed the rad following AK's build manual. I purchased some rubber mountings from Rimmerbros - same ones as Tommy recommended for the bottom rad mounts. Even with these on I found I had a 1/4 inch gap at the top so I bought some additional mounts from Rimmerbros to plug the gap. Part number for these was 500447.

With rad and header tank in place I then connected all the hoses. I found that a few of the hoses didn't fit very well on the rad - so I bought a couple of samco reducers from merlin motorsport. In the end I replaced all the coolant hoses with Samco hoses which look really good. I also replaced all the jubilee clips with stainless steel Mikalor hose clamps.

I was going to install the thermostat probe that comes with the AK supplied fan - but I wasn't happy with the way you had to install this and expected it to leak. So I followed what a number of other builders have done and used an inline hose adapter with an M14 threaded hole to insert a temp sender.

Top tip - when cutting the hose don't use a saw - you'll frey the hose badly. Instead, fix a hose clamp or jubilee clip around the hose and use a sharp stanley blade to cut the hose - you'll end up with a very neat and straight cut.