Who's done a coolant reroute on a 1.8?

[Westcoast]

Here I've tried to take the photo from an angle where the routing of the flexi hose is most visible.

reroute-hose.jpg

[Westcoast]

Here you can see the two 45 degree elbows (one in the blue silicone hose, one in the metal pipe) which keep the routing down below the throttle linkage.

elbows.jpg

[Westcoast]

No unsightly, redundant thermostat neck here thank you. ;)

thermostat-neck-gone.jpg

A view of the freeze plug blocking the outlet that the thermostat neck was previously fitted over. As you can see, I must have been feeling brave and trusting my work with the freeze plug, as I didn't install a retaining plate over the top like some people do.

freeze-plug.jpg

[Westcoast]

great stuff, would like a look at those pics.
You can upload them direct or link to them on some other image hosting site, heres the instructions :
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5157

Thanks Steve, I ran into a few PHP debug warnings at the top of the browser window, some of which referred to invalid image dimensions, even though my largest one is ~304kB and I was still able to attach and post them inline. Are there some limits on file size, image width or height? (Perhaps reply on that other thread you linked?)

[Steve]

there was... just ignore the warnings, haven't fixed that bug yet

Thats a nice neat job, how was the fiddling round the rear of the block?

[Westcoast]

It was fine really. I took my time and removed the coil pack and cam angle sensor. I later found I had to cut the lower bolt fitting off the coil pack bracket anyway, otherwise it would not fit due to fouling with the new thermostat outlet/assembly.

If I remember rightly, I had the heater hose already attached to the new 'thermostat neck' (spacer) before installing it on the back of the head. The fiddliest parts were scraping off the old gasket from the back of the head after removing the heater hose neck, and ensuring it was properly clean. One of those small inspection mirrors on a telescopic handle helped there. Getting the new radiator top hose (flexi hose) attached to the new thermostat outlet was awkward too, as mentioned previously. To be honest, the fiddliest part of the job was probably reshaping the hard fuel pipes and one or two hard brake pipes out of the way so they wouldn't get fouled by the new radiator top hose when the engine moves under load. If I was doing the job again I'd be prepared in advance to simply replace these hard lines as necessary, rather than try to coax them into a new shape without buckling them. (When I talk about pipes/lines I mean the hard pipes, as opposed to flexible hoses which attach to the pipes.)

Edit: I'll have a look through my old photos and see if I took any of the back of the head while I had the coil pack and cam angle sensor removed.

Edit: I took the opportunity to replace the cam angle sensor O-ring, which is a common source of oil leak and which can make it look like something more serious in the engine/gearbox is leaking. I'm hoping that this leak will be less likely in future now, due to lower temps at the rear of the engine - maybe they were cooking the seal. (I had already replaced that seal at least once or twice in the many years I've owned the car.)