Zetec standard thermostat housing question

[Scott Grimson]

OK what do you guys reckon.

I have decided not to bother plumbing in a heater on the Leggy and will just have a 12V electric hot air blower going to a vent for the screen so i won't be needing to run any pipework off of the thermostat housing.

The way i see it i have 2 options,

1, Jubilee clip a rubber end cap over the feed and return pipes on the housing.

2, Use a short length of tube to create a "loop" from the feed straight back round to the return.

Thoughts guys?

[Dave Adams]

fit a heater....the Zetec is designed to warm up quickly....it uses the heater circuit to circulate the water to prevent uneven heatinng of the block.

[Paul Sheridan]

Heater circuit should be separate, it uses the thermostat bypass pipe to prevent hot spots during warm up .....

[Dave Adams]

One of the heater pipes is twinned and connected to the bottom hose/ water pump. If you just loop the two outlets on the thermostat housing the water won't circulate....causing uneven warming.

[Paul Sheridan]

Exactly. My heater circuit is individual, when the valve is shut the water circulation around the engine remains the same.  

[Adrian Southgate]

Why bin the heater?

Does the Zetec have a water shut off valve to stop hot water flowing through the matrix? If not then you can bet your boots it will need that capacity to help with cooling. If you have to make do without then go with loop rather than blanking it.

[Scott Grimson]

I was leaning towards a loop too but wandered what others thought. Driven around in lots of different Kitcars over the years, only once have i ever had a heater and hardly ever used it and never missed it when i didn't have one so just don't see the point. 

[Adrian Southgate]

Having mine as a daily for two or three years and driving it whatever the weather I would want a heater. If you are only using it for summer and /or trackdays then I can also understand the need to ditch it. Driving a legerra with the roof on and no ventilation up the screen in wet weather is nigh on impossible as they steam up for fun once damp inside.

[James Doulton]

I took my Legerra down to Cornwall for my summer holiday a couple of years ago. Obviously it rained all week. That meant that the car was wet inside (i.e. carpets and driver). I had a lot of trouble driving the car because of it steaming up. If I had a good demister then that would have done but the standard Escort heater struggled and I spent quite a bit of time wiping the screen with a rubber scraper.

I think quite a few modern cars have electrical heaters in the demisters but you might need to uprate the alternator to drive one of them. My Cortina alternator is 55A, so that would be about 600W, assuming that I hadn't needed lights and windscreen wipers (which I did). So you can probably only 'afford' 300W for the demister - I'm not sure how effective that would be.

[Dave Adams]

didnt realise you were playing with a Legerra......they are a pain in the arse for misting up. even on warm days in summer a small shower of rain and its fogged up the screen is quite far away so hard to reach to wipe.

if Adrian ever gets round to ordering some windscreens from pilkingtons the issue will be solved as he intends to buy them with heated screen elements...only about £30 extra over non heated. when he gets them in stock i will likely get my screen replaced.

[Adrian Southgate]

If we do go ahead with the Pilkingtons deal It would mean having confirmed and paid up orders for a minimum of 5 screens @ £380 approximately per unit. I think Pilkingtons can ship the finished screens to any one of their depot's across the UK but it would then be down to the individual to collect. 

Using the standard escort 'tin box' or the mk2 / Capri plastic box (modified) is the easiest way of getting warm air to flow up the screen. Sadly it also means cutting out the original dash to some extent to fit ducted vents as the 5 hole system isn't so good.