Mild Panic!!

Went into the garage this morning to be confronted by a very wet floor! Initial investigation showed that the Stag had dumped the contents of the new header tank into the 'V' and spilt out onto the floor. I at first suspected the water pump seal not being used to a decent head of water and started to dismantle the airbox to have a better look, fortunately I noticed the top hose was wet where it joins the thermostat housing and looking more closely at appeared that the leak was in fact from that so I released the jubilee clip and re-positioned it this time tightening it up with a socket rather than screwdriver. I also managed to get a few extra turns on all the remaining 'new' jubilee clips.

Having given the car another good run today I am now waiting for it to cool down to make sure this was in fact the root cause of the problem.

Watch this space -- as they say!

Mercedes Header Tank fitted to Stag

Just before Christmas I purchased a header tank off a Mercedes W202 (C200) to fit to the Stag after seeing a few similar conversions, particularly that done by Danny Stroud who had put an excellent description of his on the Grampian Stags website.

After conversing with Danny through email, following which he sent me further photo's I followed his lead and sourced most of the parts and hoses from Car Builder Solutions, which coincidentally is only a mile from home.

I have deviated slightly from Danny's installation and used a tee in the top hose rather than using a half inch BSP elbow in the radiator filler cap, this follows a route taken by other Stag owners.
The fixing of the tank was actually the hardest bit, identifying suitable brackets to provide the supports, in the end I decided to use some 3mm steel brackets from B&Q. I have yet to fashion one for underneath the tank, but it is well supported by those fitted so far.

A major headache was reducing the size of the hose from the header tank from 25mm to 15mm, as the alternator had been relocated to the nearside this left little room for my initial plan to use a straight reducer, I solved this by using a 90degree elbow reducer immediately below the header tank, allowing me to use the 15mm hose behind the alternator to connect to the water pump.

After a good test yesterday running the engine up to temperature and giving the Stag a good hard run for half an hour, no leaks etc were found. All I need to do now ids fit the lower support bracket and maybe think about fitting a water level sensor. Round Britain Run preparation continues!