Water pump coolant pushes which way? Also inlet manifold removal

[RCZKam]

When the engine is cold

More for reference really as I’ve got the guts of the cooling system out I noticed the thermostat housing has two arrows which I’m presuming is one to the top hose of the radiator and other for the inlet to the heater matrix but where does the water pump send it first? Is it the rear metal coolant pipe behind the engine (which goes to the thermostat housing) or through the main block jacket (which also goes to the thermostat housing)

I’m thinking to the rear metal coolant pipe first so the water pump is pulling away the heated up coolant from the hottest place?

 

[Pedro]

Pumps through the engine past thermostat through radiator & round again never goes the other way in theory that will dissipate the heat generated through the engine & to keep the cooling system clean its recommended the Antifreeze should be changed at least every 2 years

 

[RCZKam]

Thanks Pedro

 

[RCZKam]

I didn’t want to start a new thread as it’s related to the above as I’m replacing my rear hard pipe between the water pump and thermostat as a broken plastic seal ring dropped down from the hard pipe into the water pump end so I’m guessing I found my leak!

Got 98.5% of the inlet manifold off but stuck on one connection

It looks like a set of vacuum pipes (red arrow)



I did come across the Mini R56 video online but I couldn’t see anything like this on the end of the manifold so I’m guessing they have a slightly different setup

Is the above the purge/crankcase breather hoses as below?


I didn’t want to just disconnect it just incase it was fuel related etc

Also edited title of thread!

Thanks

 

[Pedro]

Crankcase breather is primarily there to take out the waste gasses like oil vapours or condensates which are acidic from the engine its not fuel related as the petrol is burnt off during combustion so should be safe to disconnect the breather hose

 

[RCZKam]

Inlet manifold is finally out, thanks Pedro



Last bit to remove now is the lower hose from the rear coolant pipe (that goes to the expansion bottle)

I‘ve taken off the 10mm bolt for this holding the hose clamp near the driveshaft and popped off the joint so the whole expansion hose is loose but I’m unable to lift the rear coolant pipe up (to pull the short expansion pipe through) as it’s obviously snagged with the wiring back there so I understand the coolant pipe needs to be pulled out towards passenger side but how do you disconnect this lower hose from the rear coolant pipe

I’m gonna be replacing with a new hose fed through so re-fitting will be easier but I’m stuck at this point

Any handy tips to pop off that lower hose? Is it just a snap fit as I can’t “feel“ any clamp on there?

Thanks

 

[Pedro]

I recently changed my thermostat housing as it disabled my air con & I was also going to do same job as your doing swop out the rear water pipe but ran out of time I suspect as you point out that the bypass hose to the expansion tank might be a snap on type similar or same as the bottom heater hose connection on the thermo tank check this diag cant see any clip showing ?

 

[RCZKam]

Yeah I’m gonna be replacing that lower hose pipe anyway so have decided to chop into it just so I can get this rear water pipe out

I’ve decided I’m not going to be using the original type hose off this water pipe as it’s a ridiculous position to get to in future so I’m looking at two ideas?

First is I’ll be running a silicone hose fed through and clipped up to the rear coolant pipe, this will make it easier to take off again if needed. Will have shrouding and run the same way as OEM

Second is a bit out there but to make things even easier to use the mini r56 rear coolant pipe (that has no lower outlet) and to run straight from the expansion tank to a Tee piece joint inserted to the inlet hose from thermostat to heater matrix?

The reason I was asking about coolant flow direction earlier is it looks like it doesn’t matter if the coolant (that goes to the expansion tank) comes from the rear pipe or inlet to heater matrix?

Something like this, Tee piece from heater matrix to expansion tank



Maybe even from the upper hose to rad?

Any thoughts?

 

[RCZKam]

Finally managed to get the rear coolant pipe out, had to butcher off the lower hose



Pedro - you was right, there was a clip attached





For reference the way the OEM hose is shaped the clip (and straight end of the hose) are both pointing towards the drivers wheel



So pull the clip out towards the passenger wheel. I put the hard pipe back in its place to practice and managed to pull the clip out using a hose hook so I might grab an OEM pipe and plumb it back up the original way

I used to have a Toyota MR2 turbo which had a very notorious “hose from hell” I think this hard pipe removal could take its title

 

[Pedro]

Firstly I can only suggest make sure the silicone hose is the right spec as in oil & water resistant + temperature rating as the web is full of cheap crap the other one to watch is the diameter of the new hoses plus the connections as the coolant pressure is between 1 -1.05 bar & hose diameters are that size for a specific reason due to flow rate etc
If you have a camera or can borrow one have a look inside the valve ports whilst the manifold is off check to see if the carbon has built up ?

 

[RCZKam]

Helpful and informative as ever Pedro, thanks