Having fitted a Stagweber header tank at the weekend to my MkII manual, thought I would post my experience/thoughts on the procedure which may be of use to others considering the same. No connections with the supplier.
Apart from a few alterations, my car is virtually original and I wish to keep it that way so I pondered long and hard before purchasing the header tank. I have had no overheating issues in the year that I have owned the car, in fact, the temp gauge has never got much further than half way to vertical. Without going over old ground which has been well and truly trodden in many a post here, my reason for fitting a header tank is simple. I would like to know if coolant is being lost BEFORE the temperature gauge goes up! Also, reverting to the original set up is straightforward.
I decided to take the opportunity to change the coolant so set about removing the bottom hose. I loosened the clamp holding the metal pipe and the upper connection as suggested on a post here but it still took me half an hour to get it off! Coolant was nice and clean which was good to see.
When fitting the tank to the top strut I suggest bending the lower bracket fully out of the way first and spend time getting the tank alignment correct before tackling the lower bracket fixing.
The trickiest job I found was the connection of the tee piece into the heater hose U bend. If you have a Weber carb fitted then you don't have to worry about the air intake connection. The heater hose was pushed too far onto the metal pipe and this affected the position of the tee piece which in turn affected the position of the pipe running from the tank to the tee piece. Pull the heater hose off the pipe too far and the tee piece then fouled with the rubber air intake connector. Cutting the pipe correctly to accept the tee piece was not easy. I have ended up with the new pipe from the tank touching the engine lifting eye which I am not sure is ideal? Two pieces of pre-cut heater hose would have made the job a lot easier. I may revisit this next time I change the coolant.
Wiring up the buzzer connection from the float switch was straightforward however the wire pulled easily out of the female spade connector (twice) so I ended up making this a permanent connection. The earth wire is also a tad shorter than I would like for connecting to the windscreen wiper earth as suggested in the instructions.
Refilling was a doddle and I have had no leaks or issues following a 30 mile test run. All in all a very satisfying job. Apart from my minor niggles above the kit is very comprehensive, well engineered, well made and has easy to follow instructions. Top job!
Job took 4 1/2 hours to complete including removing the bottom hose and spending far too much time cleaning the inner wing area before fitting the tank!
Next on the list will be dual temp/oil pressure gauge to put the last of my paranoia to bed. (braided pipe from Demon Tweeks on order by the way in case anyone else gets paranoid on my behalf!)
Apart from a few alterations, my car is virtually original and I wish to keep it that way so I pondered long and hard before purchasing the header tank. I have had no overheating issues in the year that I have owned the car, in fact, the temp gauge has never got much further than half way to vertical. Without going over old ground which has been well and truly trodden in many a post here, my reason for fitting a header tank is simple. I would like to know if coolant is being lost BEFORE the temperature gauge goes up! Also, reverting to the original set up is straightforward.
I decided to take the opportunity to change the coolant so set about removing the bottom hose. I loosened the clamp holding the metal pipe and the upper connection as suggested on a post here but it still took me half an hour to get it off! Coolant was nice and clean which was good to see.
When fitting the tank to the top strut I suggest bending the lower bracket fully out of the way first and spend time getting the tank alignment correct before tackling the lower bracket fixing.
The trickiest job I found was the connection of the tee piece into the heater hose U bend. If you have a Weber carb fitted then you don't have to worry about the air intake connection. The heater hose was pushed too far onto the metal pipe and this affected the position of the tee piece which in turn affected the position of the pipe running from the tank to the tee piece. Pull the heater hose off the pipe too far and the tee piece then fouled with the rubber air intake connector. Cutting the pipe correctly to accept the tee piece was not easy. I have ended up with the new pipe from the tank touching the engine lifting eye which I am not sure is ideal? Two pieces of pre-cut heater hose would have made the job a lot easier. I may revisit this next time I change the coolant.
Wiring up the buzzer connection from the float switch was straightforward however the wire pulled easily out of the female spade connector (twice) so I ended up making this a permanent connection. The earth wire is also a tad shorter than I would like for connecting to the windscreen wiper earth as suggested in the instructions.
Refilling was a doddle and I have had no leaks or issues following a 30 mile test run. All in all a very satisfying job. Apart from my minor niggles above the kit is very comprehensive, well engineered, well made and has easy to follow instructions. Top job!
Job took 4 1/2 hours to complete including removing the bottom hose and spending far too much time cleaning the inner wing area before fitting the tank!
Next on the list will be dual temp/oil pressure gauge to put the last of my paranoia to bed. (braided pipe from Demon Tweeks on order by the way in case anyone else gets paranoid on my behalf!)
Comment