Owned FC's for 10yrs, going through my first rebuild: plastic thermostat neck cracked @ a track day, overheated. I think it will be straightforward.

Motor is out of the car and I've been doing a ton of searching on the forum. So much info on here. I have a few questions:

-If everything looks good, OK to reuse all the hard parts? Replace the o-rings and re-assemble everything in the spot it came from. Motor is a low-stress S5 na with 10k on a Rotary Resurrection rebuild. Overheat was mild, champagne in the coolant but starts and runs, no warping or anything major is expected.

- Main radiator hoses: are silicone worth the price? If so, is the $90 set from RB worth it over the $45 set from Evilbay?

- Minor coolant hoses for heater and TB: worth it to source silicone?

- Underdrive pulley: Car will see half a dozen track events a year. Used as a toy. Maybe 1000mi /yr. Worth it to get an underdrive pulley? Some sources say it cavitates over 4k. RB says do not use on dd cars.

- I plan to use Evans coolant. Special or mod radiator cap so it does not keep the system pressurized?

- While motor is out of car worth it to replace pilot and/or throwout bearing? Both seem fine.

I’ll have other questions as I go through it. Thanks for input! It's friggin HOT in the garage in TX! Thank the Good Lord for margaritas

 

*chirp chirp*
nobody? nothing?

 

This is a low traffic area of the forum. Posting in the 2nd gen forum would receive more responses.

With only 10K, then yes, you can reuse all the hard seals as long as you keep them in order when you remove them.

Make sure to check all the dimensions of the housings and irons becuase any overheat enough to damage seals on a 10K engine is more than enough to cause warping damage (especially shrinkage around the spark plug area). Any overheat that damages water o-rings is not mild.

I have no experience with the eBay vs. RB, though I would tend towards RB as they are likely a higher quality part with internal fibre reinforcement. Worth it over OEM? I guess.

I've replaced mine with silicone. Available at any hose supplier.

Nope.

I don't think anyone has ever demonstrated that it's any better for the price. And consider the annoyane of having to completely flush the system and the problem of replacement if you were to spring a leak at the side of the road.

Yes!

 

Thanks much Aaron. I've enjoyed your work and posts for years. Watched your re-assemble video as well - excellent stuff. I'll move this to 2nd gen.

I caught it pretty early - I *hope* early enough. We'll find out when we get into the motor.

Hoses - would you stick with oem? I am after reliability, not bling. I figured the silicon would better hold up to time&temp, not stick to the metal, etc. Is this incorrect?

Evans - I'm torn on this. The main thing is it will not boil. Any fault in the integrity of the system will allow the coolant (40/60 coolant/water) to boil out if, anywhere in the motor, it's over 220. The gauge may say 200, but if it's 230 anywhere in the motor, away it goes, allowing localized hot spots and warpage. I've read stories of Evans motors overheating, they cool off and eveything is fine. The theory is that even though it's 'overheated', there is no phase change going on and the liquid phase allows no local hot spots. This could just be talk though.