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Hello everyone,

I have a 61 mini and have just bought a new SU pump after the old one decided to start leaking then fell apart! this new pump comes with the breathers out of the body, now as I understand it, originally these fuel pumps only had breathers from 64 onwards and were vented into the boot through the floor? So I don't particularly want to drill the floor on my car, what has everyone else done to overcome this?

Next question.. I am wanting to fit a temperature gauge to my mini 850 and have bought a thermostat housing with the threaded section which would usually take an electrical sender (my 850 head doesn't have a hole for a sender) I would like to fit a mechanical gauge but think I may need an adapter so the end of the gauge fits without touching the other side of the thermostat housing, has anyone done this? Or is it better to just fit an electrical temperature gauge.

Any help or comments would be great
Thanks in anticipation

Andy

a slightly un elegant solution is to use the oil cooler temperature take off, but fit it into the heater hose

the mechanical temperature gauge (or an electrical one if you earth it) will screw into it and it works fine

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we used to do this on the might mini racers as the head was not drilled for a take off.

rich@minispares.com wrote:a slightly un elegant solution is to use the oil cooler temperature take off,
but fit it into the heater hose

... and only get a reading in the winter when the heater circuit is "live"?
In the summer, when the engine might overheat, we will never know!

I am sure that I must have mis-understood this somewhere...


On a Race car with no heater, maybe,
but on a road car a bit of a no-no, perhaps?

Ian

ianh1968 wrote:

rich@minispares.com wrote:a slightly un elegant solution is to use the oil cooler temperature take off,
but fit it into the heater hose

... and only get a reading in the winter when the heater circuit is "live"?
In the summer, when the engine might overheat, we will never know!

I am sure that I must have mis-understood this somewhere...


On a Race car with no heater, maybe,
but on a road car a bit of a no-no, perhaps?

Ian

ian



I did say 'un elegant solution'......

its one that saves the hassle of drilling and tapping the head in situ....

if you fit it between the lower hose and the heater pipe it will read close enough to give a decent idea of what is happening to the engine, even if the heater tap is closed.

try it one day, you might be surprised.....

Wasn't Andy's question whether or not the mechanical (Bulb) type of sender would fit in the early 850 thermostat housing with the tapping for the electrical sender?

I'm not sure but I don't think it will without an adpator. My recollection is the 'bulb' is too long to go into the housing and tighten down to seal. I could be incorrect there, it is a long time since I had one of the housings with a sender in. As I recall the thread is the same so getting an adaptor made out of some bar should not be that difficult or expensive.

you can buy the adaptor 'TE5', but I think that it would push the cable out so far that it would hit the rocker cover

you also have to be careful that the bulb doesn't hit the actual thermostat and puncture itself

its also reading the wrong side of the thermostat, which isn't a big problem as long as you get used to it

the other problem is that if the water level drops it can be operating in the 'steam' which kills the bulb dead

smithyrc30:
You're right, but it was also inviting general discussion on the matter...

As far as I see things, yes, just fitting an electric gauge would probably be easiest.
The mechanical type have two styles:

1) The "Gas fitting" type which is 3/8" BSP and requires an adapter to convert
the BSP to the 5/8" UNF in the head/housing. At the BSP end, sealing is via a
very thin section copper washer.

2) A direct 5/8" UNF type which requires a sort of "pilot hole" with a tapered
seat at the bottom for the bulb assembly to seal against. The sealing method
here is the tapered seat. I suspect that the hole in the stat housing may go
right through at the drilling diameter required for 5/8" UNF, but the gauges
do normally come with a 5/8"-5/8" UNF adapter with a small hole and seat
which would theoretically make this type usable. (See Rich's TE5)

The BSP version has a much fatter "probe" than the other version....

However, both of these "bulb" types would very most likely be way too big to
fit in the thermostat housing without fouling the top of the actual stat. In fact,
I'd guess that it would be not a viable proposition.

Rich,

LAME-OH?
(And/or other lists of random letters which no-one understands 'cos we're too thick...).

etc

My post wasn't intended to be negative - It was just attempting to highlight
some important considerations in this area.

As you rightly said, an in-elegant solution on a race car might be acceptable,
but would not always be appropriate in a road car. There are always options!

There's also the consideration of what temperature we are actually measuring.
With the probe in the head, we will be measuring the actual engine temperature
in that area, whereas if we use the return hose, we will be measuring the
temperature on side where some of the heat has been dumped by the
radiator and/or the heater matrix.

The analogy here would be on the oil system where we can measure either
sump temperature, or the temperature of the cooled oil going to the bearings.

Ian

rich@minispares.com wrote:you can buy the adaptor 'TE5', but I think that it would push the cable out so far that it would hit the rocker cover

you also have to be careful that the bulb doesn't hit the actual thermostat and puncture itself

its also reading the wrong side of the thermostat, which isn't a big problem as long as you get used to it

the other problem is that if the water level drops it can be operating in the 'steam' which kills the bulb dead

I had a capilliary tube fitted to one in 1968 my first car no problems if they (Therm housing) are the same now length of bulb end can vary.