Using a BP 1.8 in my 7 style kitcar. Looks like doing the coolant reroute would be a smart idea. My question is will the front inlet/thermostat housing fit on the rear of the engine (with or without thermostat)? If so will it point in a usable direction?
For the sake of argument I have no heater requirement. I have plenty of clearance between the rear and the firewall. I have limited clearance around the intake side of the engine very limited clearance on the turbo side and none over the engine. So most likely the hose will go around the outside and slightly underneath the inlet manifold or under the turbo close to the block.

I wouldn't be asking these Q's if I could just go out to the garage and test it but I'm away overseas at the moment so trying to plan the next few stages of the build.

Thanks in advance - Luke

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eh, it'll work. You'll have to flip the cover so it'll face the intake side, and it'll sorta be at a 120* angle, as opposed to the 90* the "normal" spacers provide, and of course it'll stick 6" out the back, and our normal Gm hose might not work.

Question is making it seal, and getting coolant flow before the thermostat opens.

 

Quick look on google images suggests the 1.6 housing has better exit angle. Are they compatible?
What is the issue about getting it to seal?
Would it be wise to make a small hole in the thermostat itself to keep the coolant flowing a little when cold? Or run the front thermostat housing as well teed into the main line with a restrictor and no thermostat?
Actually what about not swapping the housings at all and running the rear heater housing teed to the top radiator hose - not sure if the smaller diameter hose would flow enough though.

 

The front neck is a o- ring seal. No idea if it'll seal on the back.

1.8 bolts on to 1.6 neck and vise versa.

The heater hose will not flow enough

 

thanks - I will see what I can find on ebay

 

I use the 1.6 housing with a gasket and 1/8" hole in the stat iirc. No heater, works perfect.
I think it was a Chev 350 stat that I used, just measure the depression in the head and ask your parts guy for a conventional stat that fits the hole.

Ron

 

The neck would bolt on, the block bolt patterens on each end of the block are different, the thermo housing cover bit with the actual water neck on it will swap sides. I've seen people use the 1.6 water neck, there's no ******* way the 1.8 will work. The kia waterneck is the most common one used. You could also in theory use the water pump inlet if you were going to mount the thermostat remotely since the water pump inlet and the water neck both have the same bolt pattern.

 

If you have the room in the back which from ur pics looks like you do i'd run a begi spacer and the front stock mixing casting.

BEGI Rear Thermostat Spacer 1990-2005

 

Yes it will fit. I have done exactly that with my DIY reroute on my 99. Swapped from and rear housings. There is an unused bolt in back of head right next to the that you can remove to screw the temp sensor into, to avoid needing to extend the wiring to reach the sensor if you left it in the housing. Then use this bolt to screw into the now front housing to block off the port that the temp sensor used to plug into.

I ran heater hose from now front housing to firewall for heater hookup. You could just block off this port as not running a heater.

The front housing now on the back does stick upwards more than the orig but not badly, and doesn't impact use. Fab up some hoses with alloy joiner tube to the radiator and its all good.

My total cost of my diy reroute was under $50, and last weekends track day was over 100deg F and temps were normal all day..

 

Get a spacer and a Kia housing...thank us later. The rest of the routing is customizable.