Weber carb/Edelbrock fanimold

[chesterak]

This may be a red herring....I was browsing the RPI website and noticed a paragraph in their section on the Weber carb about a "correct" thermostat housing. I rang them and this guy named Chris came on the phone to answer my question of why a different thermostat housing - he seemed to be getting very agitated as time went on as I bought my kit elswhere and he recond every other kit other than his is a "bodge" - this raised a small doubt in my mind as what the "correct" installation should be. My set up is as follows: water pump rear has two connections, one blanked, the other goes to the heater inlet. The heater outlet goes to the rear of the manifold. I've drilled two 5mm holes in my thermostat. Thats it, no other connections available that I can see. Is this ok, or what?
Your advice is, as always, appreciated.
Stan
:+

[Happy Jim]

Stan,

The Rover manifold thermostat housing is the same shape but is only for cooling water around the manifold/block. The heater hose connects to a stubby little pipe just below the thermostat that runs under the manifold (where it can't be seen).

The Edlebrock Performer Manifold (the one that comes with the Weber kit) does not have the stubby little pipe. The "correct" thermostat housing has the manifold waterflow pipe and the heater pipe connection on the thermostat housing.

Chris is right....but maybe he ought to put a piccy up on his site to show the difference

Cheers

Jim

[russell_ram]

Stan,

your installation does not sound correct!

All Rover engines should run a thermo-stat bypass otherwise you get no flow at all through the engine when it is cold! The small holes you have drilled will not fulfill this function - they only release air trapped at the top of the manifold that can't get out otherwise.

There are several ways this is done but they all amount to the same thing. There are two small pipes in the water pump rear - either one on the inlet elbow (SD1 and P6 type) or on later front covers two close together on the rear. One of these goes to the heater outlet (pipe front to rear under manifold), one goes to the thermo bypass on the front of the manifold. The heater inlet then goes to the rear of the manifold. Some 'standard' rover manifolds have a tapping on the front face that takes the by-pass (mostly injection types), earlier carb ones mostly have the bypass as part of the thermo output housing. This 'by-pass' housing type is the type you must use with the edelbrock manifold for the cooling circuit to work properly.

There is nothing 'special' about the RPI bit, real steel sell an iron one or you can use an early rover one if the orientation of the output hose suits what you want. What you can't use is a std rover part that doesn't have the bypass hose fitting.

Russ

[chesterak]

Jim,Russ,
Thanks for your reply...from what I understand you are both saying is that; a) I need to obtain a thermostat housing with a bypass hose connection and to fit this I need to remove/drill out the plug in the Edelbrock manifold; b)the front cover I have has two connections on the back of the pump, one is blank so I should drill this out and make a connction from this to the thermostat housing bypass connection; c) take the other pump connection to the heater outlet and the manifold rear connection to the heater inlet. I have assumed the two connections on the rear of the front cover are both pump inlet. I couldn't have got it more wrong, could I? (don't answer that!). Which thermostat housing would be the best to use RPI or Real Steel - as I have not seen either housing, I would prefer the lowest rise for the top hose connection.
Thanks again.
Stan

x( x(

"It may be life Jim, but you don't pipe it up like that!...."

[russell_ram]

Stan,

I'll take a few pics with my new whizzo digital cam tonight to show what goes where.

Russ

[STEVE G]

Stan
Mine uses the Real Steal cast iron thermostat housing it has the same orientation as standard SD1.RPI's cast ally housing has the same orientation as Range Rover and comes straight up at about 45 degrees and will send your top hose over the passenger side rocker cover.
Steve G
GE427-Rover 281ci.

[chesterak]

Russ/Steve,
Thanks for your replies, pictures speak a thousand words! As a follow up question...I noticed when installing the Edelbrock manifold that the rear water ports on each head are now blanked off, I'm assuming no detrimental effects, but I don't know why. Are all other non-Rover manifolds like this?
Regards,
Stan


"It may be life Jim, but not as we know it..."

[russell_ram]

Stan,

Yes you are correct. As there is only one head casting, and it fits on either bank, there needs to be a port at both ends. Water feed is from the ports that end up at the front of the engine, the 'spare' ports are blanked. No water outlet form these rear ports in any application.

Russ

[chesterak]

Just received a modified RR style aluminium thermostat housing from RPI...nice job. Hope I can remove whatever is used to plug the port in the Edelbrock manifold!!:7
Stan

"It may be life Jim, but not as we know it..."

[kirklillis]

Not quite sure if I understand what you are trying to do by removing the plug in the manifold.

Piping (ala RV8 P6) should be:

1. Rear of pump piped to 'stubby' nozzle on new RPI thermostat housing.
2. Rear of inlet manifold piped to heater.
3. Heater (other end) piped to other connector on rear of pump (or nozzle on the outlet leg, depending upon which pump type you have). This can be arranged so that this pipe runs under the manifold in the valley.

This is how Rover did it for their engines. I have an RV8 and an RPI Edelbrock with this arrangement and it works fine. This will give the required water flow before (and after) the thermostat opens.

Kirk (Captain?)

By the way, how did you know I subscribed to the forum?

"It may be life Jim, but not as we know it..."