Does anyone know the thread size for the water valve that screws into the side of the head and feeds the heater?
Bob
Does anyone know the thread size for the water valve that screws into the side of the head and feeds the heater?
Bob
3/8" BSP
Thank you.
Mmmmmm… 15mm compression fitting,with the pipe onto a piece of 15mm copper…nice one
John
You cannot imagine how hard it was to find that particular fitting; not a thing often called for. I replaced the plug-ugly standard valve with an in-line full-flow ball valve above the passenger foot-well, which I can reach from the driver’s seat.
If it?s aesthetics you?re after, Pete, you can get silly-cone hoses in black now?..
Mark (the Herald Angels Sing)
Back in the 70s I lost several gallons of blood after catching my wrist on a sharp bit of that sodding crappy valve. Fast forward twenty five years and I did the exactly same thing on my current Elan! It had to go.
I have a silly black TT bottom hose on my 26R rad (just a simple elbow, rather than the curly-wurly thing which never did fit properly). I know the blue ones look dreadful, but they work.
The crappy valve appears in loads of cars apart from the Herald, iirc.
Isn’t that interesting? I chose blue hoses because I thought they looked better than black ones.
I just goes to show — there’s no accounting for taste.
I guess I?ll have to paint them black, now.
The “crappy valve” (those Wilmslow elansprints are SO uncouth) is available from Christopher Neils. I think I paid about ?24 last month. An alternative is a 90 degree elbow as fitted to Ford Anglias and, perhaps, don
t bother with a valve at all, just close the flaps in the English summer week.
To replace the whole valve you need to undo the engine mount on that side and jack up the engine to clear the bulkhead/footwell. The usual 2 minute job that takes an hour.
Merry Christmas to all the invaluable respondents…and to the inane respondents… !!!
Jim
I think the Blue hose looks great ,but I`m a Chelsea Fan
You say
“I have a silly black TT bottom hose on my 26R rad (just a simple elbow, rather than the curly-wurly thing which never did fit properly)”…I have been thinking about that for a while but don’t think a simple 90 degree elbow would fit…do you have a photo?
Thanks
John
Another solution is to fit a modern heating system solenoid valve out of site next to the heater, behind the dash.
A system I had to adopt on my Zetec project.
Must admit I’m fond of solenoid valves; I used one to actuate the headlights which got rid of those ugly vacuum pipes running the length of the engine bay.
Each to his own
Cheers
John
Which solenoid valve did you use for the headlights and where did you get it from?
I did something similar a few months back, and used a Sirai L340 valve. The datasheet is here:
zoedale.co.uk/uploaded_photo … 0-V08G.pdf
This is a 3-port valve (so can be used both normally open and normally closed, for early or fail-safe configurations) originally intended for bio diesel applications. It has a 8mm bore throughout so you can get quite rapid activation of the lights in comparison with a lot of the valves that have only 4mm or so bores.
There is a UK distributor (www.zoedale.co.uk) but they didn’t want to do retail sales at the time. I got one off ebay (a german seller, but the price worked out around ?60).
I didn’t do any really scientific research, so there may well be better alternatives out there - but you should watch out for valves that are designed to operate with fluids under pressure, where the fluid pressure reinforces the seal - if you use these with vacuum then they leak when closed.
The reason for the swap was that the valve of the dash was leaking vacuum and I couldn’t find a replacement or any means of renewing the seals.
Paddy
The valve I intend to use came from the maker (I was in the trade until recently)
It is a fuel system purge valve from a modern VW. All other modern petrol engined cars use them; they are routed to the active charcoal filter.
Most of them have fairly small stubs for the piping which can throttle the system & cause a slowed down headlamp reaction. (My present set up!)
The valve that I will soon fit has 8mm Dia. stubs which are ideal for the existing vacuum pipes.
Beware of other variations that don’t have a vent to atmosphere facility. These will leave your headlights permanetly up.
Viagra anyone
Cheers
John
Errm,
I only just looked at the drawing of the valve Paddy has described.
Hope you don’t mind me saying that it is a bit of an overkill for the application.
Practically all of the solenoid valves used for the active charcoal purge application are designed for lower pressures & the casings are plastic moldings.
I would expect them to be considerably cheaper & more readily available than the one pictured.
I have also noted that Paddy & I share the same oppinion about the smaller stub Dia’s
Cheers
John
John,
overkill = sacrilege
Have you got a link or part no for the valve you will use?
Thanks - Paddy
Hrrm yes I do have a certain way of saying things don’t I.
Sorry not at the moment. There’s no number noted in my records.
I’ve tried to find the valve in my garage to no avail.
It will definately have apart N? on it.
I’ll post it as soon as it’s found. (Another search tomorrow if it ever gets light!!)
Cheers
John