Automotive Plus Coolant Reroute Spacer Thickness

[hks_kansei]

I've been googling and came across the outlet from a 94 Falcon 4L. Right orientation for the front of the engine and looks pretty close in size.

Supercheap sell them too. Struggling to find info though on the bolt hole spacing and the thermostat hole size.
Looks like I'm going to have to try to find the time to compare the Ford housing with a mazda gasket at Supercheap to see if the bolt holes line up and if there will be enough meat in the middle to hold the mazda thermostat in place.

Might be easier to head to the local wreckers and grab one, it's off a Falcon so they'll likely have a few, will be dirt cheap, and if you find it's not right just hunt the other cars there for something that works (323, 626, Laser, etc)

[Roadrunner]

So in the end I ran out of time to go car wrecker hunting for outlets that would fit. (Hole in the top hose was getting worse and had a motorkhana day on the weekend so didn't want to tempt fate.

What I ended up doing, is use a Maruha sensor adaptor (no more cut top hose) and Mania changed out the thermostat (turns out the young girl at super cheap sold me the wrong one ) to the correct one that has two jiggle valves on it.
We removed one of the jiggle valves to allow just a small amount of flow past the thermostat to the temp sensor. So now I have temp readings all the time!

Doesn't appear to have slowed down the warm up time either which is great!

[jp928]

Couple of queries re coolant reroute, for an NA8 engine.
Is there enough space in the REAR head cavity under the cap(the one with the heater hose and sensor) to fit a thermostat?
What would be the smallest diameter in the front coolant fittings - the water feed from the head out to the thermostat housing?
My thinking is that if the heater hose outlet at the rear of the head is not a lot smaller than the narrowest part of water neck at the front of the head, and a thermostat will fit inside the rear of the head, why couldnt one use the heater hose outlet to connect to the radiator top inlet, and achieve the same water flow and cooling ? Does anybody have the bolt spacing of the rear head cover, and is it the same as the front thermostat cover?


Can Nitrodann still supply the Kia thermo covers ?

thanks
jp 96 na8+ turbo

[smy0003]

The rear cap (above in image) will not fit over a thermostat.
The front thermostat housing (below in image) will fit over a thermostat (obviously) and has been used succusfully on the rear of the head (see beavis' garage thread).

The heater hose diameter is very narrow (see comparison in photo) and I can't imagine it would be in any way a good idea to connect that as an upper radiator hose, if that's what you're asking.

Both the front thermostat house and rear cap are the same flange/bolt pattern.

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[jp928]

Thanks for the quick reply! I know the hoses are very different in size, but to my mind the water flow limit of a combination of hoses and metal fittings will be controlled by the smallest diameter passage the flow goes through; it seems to me the smallest hole in the front system is the water neck that comes off the head, probably from what was a core plug originally when the head was used east-west in a 323 or similar. I suspect that the 32mm radiator top inlet and its connecting hose are bigger than the water neck passage, just need to verify that.
Looks like the front thermo cap might not fit the rear due to interference with the other fittings on the rear of the head, hence the need for the Kia thermo cover.

thanks
jp

[smy0003]

The water neck is still significantly bigger than The heater fitting. It's small. Really small.
You can use the front thermostat cover on the rear. See beavis' white track car thread.

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[jp928]

Thanks. Beavis's posts are very useful, so will look at going that way some.

jp