P5B with no thermostat.

P5B with no thermostat.

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shed driver

Original Poster:

2,350 posts

167 months

Thursday 26th January 2023
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Bit of an odd situation, and one for the Rover beards to ponder.

I've got a 1973 P5B Coupe that had an engine swap around 7 or 8 years ago before my ownership. The engine has done about 4,000 miles in that time. Recently as I was driving I had a coolant hose develop a leak. Before that the temperature gauge was sometimes running into the red but coming down rapidly as the kenlowe fan engaged. I thought I may have had a stuck thermostat so purchased a replacement and just needed time (and space) to fit it.

I've taken the car to the garage to have all the hoses replaced, coolant replacement and for them to fit the thermostat. On picking the car up it appears there was no thermostat in place and trying to fit one will not allow the thermostat housing to seal. Clearly there's a problem - it's likely to be related to the replacement engine as several spares I've ordered (points, bolts, hoses etc) have been problematic when fitted - if they fitted at all.

A couple of questions arise.

1) Any major problems running without a thermostat? It's probably only going to be doing 2-2500 miles per annum.

2) Knowing the sheer number of 3.5 litre V8 variants around I could have one from anywhere. Is there a resource for identifying which one I've got? I'll have to delve into the engine bay to find a serial number.

SD.

kingwilliam66

11 posts

21 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2023
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Good morning

Running without a therm will not be any issue, just means your engine will take longer to warm up, and thus use more fuel as the choke will stay on longer etc. as with any cold engine, dont be giving the bean till its warm. But with a P5B you prob dont and enjoy the cruise.

There are many 3.5 engines out there from landrover, rangerovers, ST1s etc, so it might be an updaded housing. id give https://www.jrwadhams.co.uk/ a call and ask them. They have always been good to me helping with spares etc.

Ean218

2,004 posts

257 months

Wednesday 15th March 2023
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This helps a bit to find out what the block was originally fitted to:

https://www.v8register.net/FilesV8/V8%20engine%20n...