Hi all,

Well i went and got myself a rossa, 8 hour round trip and it landed at mine last saturday, and i purchased a radiator and some minor bits while i was in holland with work this week.

Now i want it running. been working on it today, getting the engine back together, but ive come across a few problems.

The thermostat has a sandwhich plate, then the top hose connector. but i have no idea where the sandwhich plates connection goes. any ideas?

apart from having the wrong clutch arm and a dodgey paint job everything seems in order.

Can anyone help me out (photos would be a god send! had a look around here but none of that corner of the engine bay up close)

Thank you. Nathan.

If it's around 5/8" the heater springs to mind.

everything else is connected though. i genuinly cant see what connects to it.

What engine do you have? Mine's an MG Metro 1275 A+ and it goes to the heater (via the inlet manifold if it's water heated) and the heater returns to the leg that comes off the bottom hose. If your cylinder head has a heater tap or connection on it then the heater connects to there instead of the bottom hose (the A+ engines don't have the connection on the head). If you just want to get it running then you can connect the sandwich plate stub to the head (or bottom hose) thus bypassing the heater. Hope this helps

i just wrote out a massive reply and decided to check the pictures i was given during the decision to buy.

turns out it had a piece of hose with a bolt in it. dosent go anywhere!!

crisis averted. i would leave the sandwhich plate off but then the top hose dosent clear the engine steady bracket.

thanks for all the help guys. nathan.

Mine's exactly the same - piece of pipe blocked up with a bolt!

That connection definitely goes to the heater (via the water heated manifold if you have one). The return from the heater goes to the stub on the bottom hose, or into a connector on the radiator return. A copper plumbing connector did the trick for me. If you have no heater, then it can be blanked off or connected to the stub on the bottom hose (via the water heated manifold if you have one), which gives you a faster warm-up .

Roger

Austin/Rover fitted the sandwich plate when they deleted the small bypass hose between the cylinder head and the water pump.

The hose from the sandwich plate should go to the interior heater then back to the small leg in the bottom hose. The heater then becomes the bypass circuit for the engine. This circuit may also include a water heated inlet manifold if fitted.

You must use one of the two bypass systems. If you don't have a bypass circuit in the cooling system then no water flows around the block when the thermostat is closed and this can cause the thermostat to stay shut for too long and can cause hot spots in the block.

Thanks - that's really interesting. I was thinking of doing what you suggest, i.e. removing the bolt/plug and connecting the outlet on the sandwich plate to a heated inlet manifold, then on the heater.

At the moment the heater hose comes from the heater valve at the other end of the cylinder head, so I'd have to block the outlet on the head. Does anyone know if you can get a ready made sealing plate to do this, or do I need to knock something up myself?

Mini Spares part 2A180 £3.42 ☺

Thanks, Raymond.

The other advantage of getting rid of the valve on the cylinder head is that the length of the cable makes it really difficult to operate. I was going to fit a valve next to the heater - should I not do that because of the need for a bypass circuit?

I fitted an in line valve from Car Builder Solutions next to the heater (a copy of their new free catalogue is highly recommended ) but it spends all its time closed - I needed a working demister for IVA so had to get heat in the heater. To overcome the bypass/circulation issue if you blank it off drill 4 or 5 3mm holes in the thermostat so a little bit of coolant can still circulate when it's closed.

Thanks, Raymond. I'll give that a go.