The original design for the upper radiator hose was a combination of three random rubber hose bends joined together with a coupler down near the engine block, and another coupler with temperature sensor port in it.
I never really liked this idea as it looked a little too "hobbled" together once the six hose clamps were fitted. I will no longer be using the sensor adapter for a coolant temperature sensor so I had to redesign the hose layout.
This was a relatively easy task of getting an elbow and straight stainless steel pieces which had the same internal diameter as the coolant outlet on the engine (22mm). This was some 1" / 25.4mm OD tube however to match the 28mm OD inlets on the engine & radiator, I machined some thin couplers on the lathe and machined in some beads onto the couplers. These were slipped onto the ends of the tube pieces and everything welded together with Stainless Steel wire for the MIG, then cleaned up on the lathe.
I found a single radiator hose CH1550 which I cut up for the hose bends. Now if the radiator hoses ever have to get replaced it will be as simple as buying a single CH1550 hose rather than hunt for 3 pieces of varying shapes I had previously.
The coupler with the sensor port in it (silver block see the first two photos above) is now redundant. I found that one of the coolant sensors near the thermostat housing is used by the factory Starlet HVAC control module. This HVAC module has been removed in the Mini and decided to use this spare port for my coolant sensor for an aftermarket digital display.
Another change to the Mini was to mount a pair of new horns. I wasn't happy with just the tone of the single disc horn that was on the Toyota Starlet front cut. I purchased a pair of Hella (low & high frequency) compact disc horns and made a bracket to mount them. Space was very tight in the front bumper area for two horns so I mounted them on top of the gearbox, facing forward. Each disc horn had a pair of terminals so I made a pair of short wires so the bracket acts as the earth/ground connection. The second pair of terminals will be connected to the Toyota Starlet wiring harness for the 12V source (using same wire colour as the Toyota Starlet wiring loom)
I never really liked this idea as it looked a little too "hobbled" together once the six hose clamps were fitted. I will no longer be using the sensor adapter for a coolant temperature sensor so I had to redesign the hose layout.
This was a relatively easy task of getting an elbow and straight stainless steel pieces which had the same internal diameter as the coolant outlet on the engine (22mm). This was some 1" / 25.4mm OD tube however to match the 28mm OD inlets on the engine & radiator, I machined some thin couplers on the lathe and machined in some beads onto the couplers. These were slipped onto the ends of the tube pieces and everything welded together with Stainless Steel wire for the MIG, then cleaned up on the lathe.
I found a single radiator hose CH1550 which I cut up for the hose bends. Now if the radiator hoses ever have to get replaced it will be as simple as buying a single CH1550 hose rather than hunt for 3 pieces of varying shapes I had previously.
The coupler with the sensor port in it (silver block see the first two photos above) is now redundant. I found that one of the coolant sensors near the thermostat housing is used by the factory Starlet HVAC control module. This HVAC module has been removed in the Mini and decided to use this spare port for my coolant sensor for an aftermarket digital display.
Another change to the Mini was to mount a pair of new horns. I wasn't happy with just the tone of the single disc horn that was on the Toyota Starlet front cut. I purchased a pair of Hella (low & high frequency) compact disc horns and made a bracket to mount them. Space was very tight in the front bumper area for two horns so I mounted them on top of the gearbox, facing forward. Each disc horn had a pair of terminals so I made a pair of short wires so the bracket acts as the earth/ground connection. The second pair of terminals will be connected to the Toyota Starlet wiring harness for the 12V source (using same wire colour as the Toyota Starlet wiring loom)
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Very neat solution!
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