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MG TD TF 1500 - New Stainless Thermostat Housings from MGT Repair

NB - photographs will follow.

To make thermostat problems a thing of the past, I have commissioned a run of new, stainless steel thermostat housings. Using the expensive lost-wax process and cast in 300 stainless for a smooth and original finish, they come with a replaceable 180° stainless thermostat, and include gaskets and correct cheese-head screws for your elbow. One great advantage of this design is that the thermostat itself is held in with only a snap-ring at the TOP of the housing, and can easily be accessed by removing the top radiator hose. Other replaceable thermostats on the market are only accessible from the bottom, which means removing the entire housing just to change the thermostat. A substantial top ridge insures that the top hose clamp cannot not slip off. Some restriction is necessary to prevent hot coolant from bypassing the thermostat, and the outlet at the elbow of my housing is machined with a small hole for normal running. If your car has a heater and is driven extensively in the winter, you may wish to drill out the restricted hole for faster warm-up.

T-series engines often overheat, and one common reason for this is a defective thermostat, The original iron thermostat housing had a non-replaceable thermostat; when the thermostat stopped working reliably, the entire housing had to be replaced. The iron housings also corrode at the top hose lip, resulting in a thin and uneven, weakened and often leaking thermostat housing. Various replacements are currently available on the market, including cast iron as original, aluminum and bronze. But each has significant problems: the cast iron has a non-replaceable thermostat and is a very rough (Chinese) sand-casting. Aluminum thermostat housings corrode very quickly (I have seen the usual Chinese-made thermostat housings crumble and clog with white aluminum debris after less than a year), and current bronze housings tend to have porous castings that weep coolant.

My custom stainless thermostat housings withstand very high temperatures, are extremely corrosion-resistant, are externally as original, can easily be painted or polished, and are manufactured with the greatest of care. This is a quality product unlike anything else on the market, and will literally last many life-times – yours and your car's.

The price is $210 complete, including US shipping. When this first batch of thermostats is sold, the price will go up to $250. I have four left of the first run, and there will be a 3-month delay before more can be made up.

Tom Lange mgtrepair.net 207-288-0978
t lange

I've sold two of my four remaining thermostats.

Please send me a direct e-mail if you would like to see pictures.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

TO ALL,
This is one photo of Tom's stainless thermostat Housings,,

STEVE WINCZE

Photo of the inside,,,,

STEVE WINCZE

I have sold all available thermostat housings. I will be ordering more from the foundry in Australia, but it will no doubt be some months before casting and machining can be completed. I will be happy to accept orders in the mean time (without obligation), and will notify everyone when more are available.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Tom, does your thermostat & housing unit operate in the same manner as the original, that is as the thermostat opens the bypass port closes allowing a variable temperature control? It seems that the unit you have designed operates in a similiar manner to the existing aftermarket replacements, albeit with two very definite advantages. The first being the longevity of its stainless construction & the second, the top mounted & more accessible thermostat, presumably of the Waxstat kind.

However if cost & originality are a concern it is possible to modify an original housing to incorporate a top mounted Waxstat thermostat. This is achieved by removing the crossbar near the top of the housing, tapping two holes 180 degrees apart to mount the unit (I used a Thermostat from a Holden Commodore purchased through Repco for about $15) & then drilling a further two holes in the lip of the thermostat to act as pressure relief until the thermostat opens. I also installed a blanking plate across the bypass port with a 3/16" hole to prevent air locks.

This approach does not provide the variable temperature control of the original unit however but does enable retention of the original housing. I also had to thicken the rusted lip of the original housing with my MIG welder. I've attached a couple of pics.

Regards
Peter
TD 5801

P Hehir

And pic 2

P Hehir

Peter - I do not believe it is possible to duplicate the original system, without a great deal of expense and design work. And, the disadvantage of the original is that it is still a disposable thermostat if/when it fails.

It is certainly possible to rebuild an original housing to accommodate a modern thermostat element; there are a number of designs circulating. As your photographs show, there is a fair bit of fairly rough work necessary to make it fit, without a comprehensive machine shop at one's disposal. And even then, one is left with a cast-iron housing that will rust, and which may need a good deal of rebuilding now and in the future to allow for a satisfactory seal at the top hose.

My goal - as with ALL my MGT Repair products - is to provide a "lifetime" product - a new housing, made of stainless steel that would not rust or corrode in any way, with a high-quality stainless thermostat held in with one simple snap-ring, accessible from the top of the housing.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Tom,

Congratulations on this 'work of art'. It looks so much better than other 'modern' replacements.
Willem van der Veer

And will last longer!

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

I hope you didn't get the impression I was denigrating your work Tom. As I said the top mounted & accessible stainless solution of yours is a significant step forward particularly as it looks much more like the original that any other aftermarket housing. The few people who have seen my poor man's fix were quite impressed, with no concerns or comments about the quality of the work. It functions as well as any modern unit & from a visual point of view, it is absolutely identical to the original, because it is original right down to the cast part number. Except of course for the thin blanking plate which you can just see in my pic..

My solution WAS criticized however for allowing an uneven build up of temperature in the head before the thermostat opens. I'm just a humble carpenter with some engineering skills & a die grinder, not an automotive engineer, so I was not able to counter this concern.

Perhaps someday, someone will manufacture an original looking housing out of stainless with a quick release & replaceable top mounted thermostat, incorporating the sleeve over the bypass port, thus permitting the apparently very desirable originally engineered variable temperature control. Until that day comes, there is no argument that your fix is better than mine! Certainly from the lifetime point of view. My solution to that problem was to source a couple of spare original housings which I've modified in the same way. So when rust indicates that the time has finally come I'll just bin that one & fit another. If I live long enough that is! So I'm going to persevere with my $15 modification.

Don't get me wrong. I do applaud your efforts. Questions of uneven temperature build up aside, at the moment yours is obviously the best commercially available solution out there!

Regards
Peter
TD 5801

P Hehir

I received Tom's 'stat in the mail today. Beautifully cast and machined. Even came with gaskets and screws. It is so nice to receive a truly well made part that someone obviously put a lot of time and effort into. George
George Butz

This thread was discussed between 18/11/2013 and 20/11/2013

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