Frount Mount Rad
Turbo Mini Forums

ok, i've got all the bits now, but i'm a little confused as to one section of the plumbing. Does anyone have a diagram on how to plumb it? The bit in particular is at the the back of the water pump theres the pipe that goes off to the heater, but i'm unsure exactly how/where to plumb in the bottom pipe on the expansion tank.

basically you can connect exactly the same as a std mini setup with water from the thermostat going to the top of the rad and the water from the pump going to the bottom.

heater then goes from the heater tap take-off on the corner of the block to either the bottom hose OR back into the top hose.

Putting it back into the top hose seems much more effective!! Makes sense really as its hot water that wants to be cooled.

Expansion tank then is connected into the top of the thermostat housing via the take-off (thats if you've got the metty housing) if not just drill and tap the housing to accept a hose for the expansion tank.

Think that all makes sense and is of some use

y make sense, i do have the metro housing for the tank take-off. But still unsure where the pipe on the bottom of the tank goes - soz i'm a bit of a noob. :)

The pipe from the bottom of the expansion tank goes onto a small take off on the housing.

ill try get some photos of one ive got kicking about.

oh of course

durrrr

Make sense?

Dont be afraid to ask! Im not saying im right but thats the way id do it and im sure thats the way its been done on most of the ones ive seen. A good example is the curley miglia car that was featured in a mini mag a month or two ago. shows clearly how is done.

yup makes sense now, thanks iain :)

I used a later metro complete set up in the front of my old clubby estate.

It fitted a treat with only a bit of cutting needed to the slam panel and grille supports to fit it in closer to the front of the car.
I basically took the complete set up and transplanted the lot onto my mini engine, thermostat housing, expansion tank, cooling fan, and plumbed it in how it was on the metro.

thats what i'm doing to my estate, cutting the centre vertical slam support back so it leaves a little space for the dizzy etc, i'm leaving as much room on the left as thats where i plan to mount the intercooler with a duct.

When I did mine, I cut back the vertical slam panel support like you say. I also cut back the lip that runs horizontally across behind the bottom of the grille.
When I did mine I found that the cooling fan was fairly tight to the distributor, and in fact I seem to remember cutting off one of the four plastic 'legs' of the cooling fan to give more space.
I think I also trimmed the blades slightly as well.

suppose i could look at making a custom mount so the fans is on the right, or will that try to cool the water too l8 b4 it leaves the rad?

Edited by Mike on 20th Oct, 2004.

Up to you at the end of the day, but I fitted the std metro fan and rad in with a bit of careful cutting and modification and it worked fine for 20,000 miles until I sold the car, and as far as I know is still working fine now.
I always think its easier to use std parts if you can so that if your fan packs up or your rad starts leaking its a lot easier to source the bits to fix it.