11/78 mk1 gls

[Jace]

i have a welder...

provide beer and sheetmetal and I'll weld it up for you

Awesome! I'll hold you to that. You'll have to come to me though.
PMed.


Got this today. That was fast!


Had to make two lil tab/bracket things to mount the shroud.


How exactly do you short the fan to make it run non-stop? I don't believe this one has worked since I bought the car...

Much better than the original owners hack job. No more expansion tank!
Plus the less big things in the bay the better. Going to move the washer bottle next to the radiator, move the battery to the boot etc.

Nothing original, i know! It just needs to be neater!

I might buy some bolts to replace the banjo bolts for the EGR tomorrow too.

[Jarred]

fan is just 12V, one positive, one negative, that's how you can test it, but you won't (or shouldn't) need it running all the time, engine will hardly ever warm up!

[Valver.]

fan is just 12V, one positive, one negative, that's how you can test it, but you won't (or shouldn't) need it running all the time, engine will hardly ever warm up!

Running all the time won't affect the warm up cycle that much. The fan is there to remove heat from the system when the car is stationary - when you're driving, there's already airflow (far more than a thermo fan can recreate) blowing through the radiator. If you're in stop and start traffic from cold, though, then it could have an influence.

Why do you want it running all the time? The furthest I would go is to fit a lower temp fan switch so they switch on earlier (or use a colder thermostat to make an overall change).

You can also isolate the fan with a cabin switch, but then you might forget to turn it on!


Edit: you'd actually be better off without a top fill radiator (plus the caps are dodgy and tend to leak under pressure). Reservoir-filled GTI radiators are very cheap from the USA now.

[Jace]

I simply want to test that the fan actually works, not run it from start to finish.
I purposely opted for a top-fill radiator simply to be rid of the big ugly expansion tank. Didn't really need a new radiator... just needed to get it all plumbed up right. If it's not staying cooler now I'll check the thermostat (am i doing it right?).

The more **** I do in the bay, the more dodgy fixes I notice. Cable ties, electrical tape rather than actual conduit-wrap, hand-bent brackets riveted to strut towers etc. Oh well. It's progress.

Still a rats nest. I'm only half-disassembling stuff so I don't get confused haha.


Just cut some bolts down and used a bit of gasket-goo on the threads.



I still need a gasket for between the intake manifold and carby, and one for between the exhaust manifold and downpipe.
I'm annoyed that it's the weekend when I finally get some motivation after sitting at home all week!

[Jace]

Oh, and I'm waiting 'til i can drive it to a carwash to clean all the oil, grease, and plain old **** out of there.
Soak it with degreaser at home, drive ~5mins to carwash, pressure wash it, then voila!

[Jace]

Radiator is mounted. I knew it wasn't going to be a straight fit, but it's different to the other top-fill ones i've seen with mounting tabs on the sides. Still, easy swap over.

As of tomorrow morning I'll have all the gaskets, nuts and silicone to make sure the exhaust won't be leaking for a long time.
I got the feeling what was left of the gaskets were the original ones, ie. the engine's probably never been touched at all.

[Jarred]

good to hear! glad you're finally getting more stuck in!

[Water Boy]

Good to hear...

[Jace]

I know, FINALLLLLLLLYYYYY...

[GoLfMan]

good man