Metal thermostat housing KV6

[Simon W]

At thermostat/cambelt change: Pete swapped the MGR spring clip on the thin pipe for a jubilee clip (no leaks from either clip on either housing on this pipe).

Last Saturday: Pete changed the fat pipe MGR clip for a jubilee clip from one of the other cars (no idea of jubilee clip size but no leaks from anywhere since then).

[Fraser Mitchell]

It just goes to show you cannot think of everything, and problems will still occur with something new no matter what care one takes.. I have to say that I don't think Kaiser can be criticised in any way for this kind of problem; he has done the almost impossible producing these aluminium replacements, and deserves a medal; I have got one in my garage ready to fit when the plastic one fails; it is a superb piece of kit !!

So thanks to all you chaps who have fitted them for giving us the benefit of your experience. This is the power of a club like ours; mutual sharing of problems to the benefit of all. New buyers of these items now know not to use/reuse the original hose clips.

It might be of interest to members to know that the early Jaguar X-types (V6 AWD), suffered many leaks from the radiator bottom hose where it went into a plastic pipe, some even blowing off with loss of all coolant The AA/RAC/garage man would usually replace the "spring" clip (like the 75 has), with a Jubilee item and all would normally be well, but some needed two clips before leak disappeared, one behind the other. I think Jaguar made some mods to stop the hoes blowing off but not before many disgruntled owners, (especially in the USA), had vowed it was their last Jaguar

[Jules]

Dare I say as mentioned in post #No 145 then, if you smooth the sealing surfaces with wet & dry paper, perhaps the spring clips would have enough strength to seal properly?

A point to note here is most of the plastic hose sealing surfaces on the CDT/i's have tiny radial rings around them, which effectively gives the hose joint many "chances" to seal along the squeezed surface under the force of the clip.

No such radial rings on the K series T-Piece & other joints which tend to leak.

[Simon W]

Originally Posted by Jules

Dare I say as mentioned in post #No 145 then, if you smooth the sealing surfaces with wet & dry paper, perhaps the spring clips would have enough strength to seal properly?

......

Wet & dry paper would certainly help Jules but I'm not sure it would do the trick - I don't think the MGR spring clips have got enough wellie to start with, even when they're new.

[kaiser]

I have adviced, and still do, that anyone installing these should buy new good quality hose clamps.
The retaining ridge on the casting is a bit more pronounced than on the plastic, and needs a good secure clamp on the side. Better use the best you can get, stainless steel hose clamps, you don't want to go there more often than absolutely necessary.

Glad the problem is sorted.

Now I think we need a new thread this one is getting quite long.

[Jules]

Worth mentioning though I've seen a lot of overtightened Jubilees in my time and all this does is start to cut into the rubber .........so be careful out there.

Rule of thumb here is to stop tightening when the metal surface of clip becomes flush with rubber.
If the jubilee surface has sunk below the rubber, then it is too tight !

[Roverowner]

Originally Posted by kaiser

I have adviced, and still do, that anyone installing these should buy new good quality hose clamps.
The retaining ridge on the casting is a bit more pronounced than on the plastic, and needs a good secure clamp on the side. Better use the best you can get, stainless steel hose clamps, you don't want to go there more often than absolutely necessary.

Glad the problem is sorted.

Now I think we need a new thread this one is getting quite long.

Hello! Could you send me a kit to Sweden? For my 2.5l. Thanks Alan

[Simon W]

Originally Posted by Jules

Worth mentioning though I've seen a lot of overtightened Jubilees in my time and all this does is start to cut into the rubber .........

Good point Jules. Someone should design a Jubilee with rounded edges - then it wouldn't cut the rubber.

Now there's an idea. In fact I'm off to the patent office.

[doggyboys]

2004 rover 75 conn, 2l kv6 34000 miles
feedback on metal thermostat.
Hi all, had kaisers thermostat fitted in november 2009.
glad to report there has been no water loss at all.
only problem is the car does not appear to be getting hot at all.
on a normal run it gets to 58c to 66c according to the han's digital gauge.
only time i get any heat out of the heaters is when i'm stuck in traffic and
the temp on digital gauge is above 69c.
[heater matrix has been cleaned and it does work]
79c is the highest the han's digital gauge has got up to with me.
readout on dash gauge is a quarter way up, goes to half way in heavy traffic.
car needs about 8 miles before it get to normal tickover at 8000rpm. ticks over at 1400 -1000rpm before then.
also noticed a drop in fuel consumption.
i'm getting a bit concerned about engine not reaching normal operating temp. which i believe is 88c. is it going to be a problem ?
also the lack of heat from the heaters in the cold weather.
i assume the thermostat is working fine, the gauge does go up and down.
car had full service & cambelts at 33000 when metal thermostat was fitted.
had han's digital gauge fitted yesterday, hence the delay in feedback.
[did get same results before using the onboard diagnostics]
regards Colin

[Jules]

Strange as i've only heard good reports to date!

Possibility 1
Sounds like stat is fully open or it's not there.
Wonder if Kaiser remembered to fit the Stat insert before he bolted housing tegether.
Did you check it when it arrived?


possibiliy 2
Perhaps check water/engine temp with a totally independent thermometer as I believe Hans Gauge gets it's data from the original Water temp sender via the I-bus
If the temp sender is faulty, Hans gauge will read same as dash.

Sounds like the engine is physically cold though if your heater is cold too.
Please report back?