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Hi guys,

As you would probably already know, in most instances the thermostat housing on an MX5 engine is located at the front of the cylinder head. However, I was doing an image search on Google for BP engines in a rear wheel drive configuration and came across these.




Given that the BP I have is originally from a front wheel drive, the thermostat housing is located on the back of the head - which I assume is where the water is being piped to on the above engines (please correct me if I'm wrong). I know on the old Ford 2 litre Pinto engines that number 4 cylinder is known for running hotter due to a lack of water flow around it, which is why modified engines usually run an additional water inlet at the back of the block with a take off from the water pump to help circulate the water. I was just wondering if BPs are known to suffer from a similar issue, hence explaining why the engines pictured are set up this way (i.e. to help promote even water flow across the engine)?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Yes. Plenty have done the coolant reroute on the BP engine. Have a search around this very forum and I'm sure you'll find some.

Indeed Simon, which is why a coolant reroute is done to some MX5 BPs - wazman did a good write-up of his DIY coolant reroute which mentions why he did it:

wazman wrote:Time for coolant re-rout ??? Get rid of that hot spot........ its all i've been researching this week

viewtopic.php?f=76&t=40239

Awesome, thanks guys - I suspected this might be the case. I'll remember to do a search next time!

yeah the coolent re-route make the engines water circlulation system more like the lasers/astina route that the BP engines originally came out of. water goes in at the water pump and water goes out under the dissy/cas.