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1985 Reliant SS1 rebuild/upgrade
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Apr 25, 2012 | 01:24 PM
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pauluspaolo
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Ages since I last updated this – not sure it’s entirely relevant on a Ford forum but it does use a Ford engine, gearbox & rear axle/diff so here goes!
As a most of you probably know t he thermostat housing on the Zetec engine is situated at the back of the cylinder head – this is fine in a front wheel drive layout but not so good in a rear wheel drive layout. It means there’s a long length of pipe from the thermostat to the radiator & it means that changing the thermostat can be awkward due to the closeness of the bulkhead – although there’s a recess on the SS1 which means that while it isn’t pressed up against the bulkhead it is buried under the base of the windscreen! As Zetec conversions/installations become more popular in things like Mk1/MK2 Escorts, Cortina’s, Capri’s etc parts are becoming available to make these conversions easier. One of these parts is the Raceline water rail which moves the thermostat housing from the rear of the engine to the side/front. This also reduces the length of pipe needed from the thermostat housing to the radiator - though it’s still quite a long run in the SS1 because the radiator's miles away from the engine & the inlet is on the far side of the radiator.
Anyway the upshot of all this is that to make my life easier (& my bank account much slimmer) I’ve bought & fitted a Raceline water rail – it’s a thing of beauty, looks like it's part of the engine & fitted perfectly. Unfortunately it means that my very nice tubular exhaust manifold won’t fit so that’s more money to be spent later on & the pile of parts to list on Ebay grows ever larger!
As I say fitting the water rail has simplified the cooling system somewhat & I’ve started a trial layout of what bit of pipe goes where. I’m going to use blue silicone hose mated to metal (a combination of steel & alloy) coolant pipes. It should work well I think despite all the joints & jubilee clips (8).
I’ve also bought various other parts, which I've yet to fit, such as rear trailing arms, an electric fuel pump, twin choke Weber carb & manifold & finally a Megajolt ecu – this last item is essential & makes sure the sparks go where they’re supposed to go, at the time they’re supposed to go there! The biggest job out of all that lot will be fitting the rear trailing arms (though I’m not looking forward to wiring up the Megajolt either) & this means that I’ll finally have to bite the bullet & start stripping the rear of the car down. This is a pretty difficult job by all accounts & it’s not one that I’ve been looking forward to at all
! Fitting it all should keep me busy for the rest of the year!
The water rail fitted.
Looking forward towards the radiator which shows the run of the pipe (as well as all the joints) – I’ve replaced the black rubber elbow with a blue silicone one since this photo was taken.
Looking down on the pipe run from above – the black metal pipe in the middle is part of the original SS1 cooling system & needs cleaning up (or replacing) & painting. You can get stainless steel coolant pipes for the SS1 but they're pretty expensive.
Thanks for reading
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