blaen99's coolant reroute
 

Hey guys, here's what blaen posted for his reroute:

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Stock 1.6 neck (No, seriously. It's identical to the KIA neck, minus a sensor hole tapped.)
Front thermo housing (Optional) or blockoff plate (optional) or BEGi 1.6 blockoff plate (If no MS)
GM Water Hose
90 degree 3/8NPT
3/8NPT to 1/8NPT fitting
Heater hose, possibly additional NPT fittings

Retap front housing to 3/8NPT (Just run a tap down it real fast, 3/8BSP is 1 thread per inch larger than 3/8NPT)
Put your 3/8NPT 90 in front housing's sensor hole.
Put 3/8 to 1/8 NPT fitting in previous 90
Use a bit of thread sealant, put the sensor in the now 90'd hole. (BSP fits fine in NPT if it's male, but not if it's female.)

Test fit now-90ed front housing. It should fit fine with some clearance for the rear firewall. NOTE: The rear sensor placement is critical. You may have to replace several times, or even potentially do slight grinding on the sensor tap to get it all aligned.

This is the only hard part of the thing. Once you get the rear sensor-to-front-housing fixed, the rest is cake.

If you have a MS, you can put the rear housing on the front, then route the front to the heater via heater hose and retain the nipples for coolant underneath.

Also, if you have a MS, you can just block off the front at the thermostat still retaining nipples for coolant underneath, and then route from the cursed water plug, a...3/8NPT to 5/8NPT adapter w/nipples (I'm not sure, you'll have to recheck - I just welded pipes together rather than using NPT fittings), and to the heater.

If you are relying on the stock ECU, you -have- to get a BEGi block off plate, use the sensor in front, and route from the cursed waterplug as above.

YMMV, the BEGi looks awfully clean, although option 2 and 3 are basically identical to the BEGi and as a bonus get rid of the cursed water seal headache forever. I've tried all 3 of the above, you don't need the BEGi front blockoff plate if you have a MS. You can make the MS run your fans fine.

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First, I'm assuming the thermostat now goes in the back. not stated, but it's the only thing that makes sense.

Also, now that the heater core is fed from the front of the engine, is it going to cause warmup problems before the thermostat is opened?

Now... what exactly causes a reroute to be EGR compatible/incompatible? I don't see anything back there that seems like it would get in the way of a hose...

final question, can I seal off the original coolant sensor hole and put it in an aluminum pipe later down the line? I've heard that closer to tstat is better, but does it really make that big a difference?

thanks for putting up with my noob.

Oh... i was also meaning to ask if that plug in the block next to the oil feed for the turbo is for coolant, and if so, would it be better to run the heater from there? at least that way its always circulating, and no long hose running to back of engine.

Seeing my username in a post title was like....Brain Asplode.

Correct.

Engine warmup is dependant on the size of the hole in your thermostat and/or if you have the heater installed.

That's only for a 1.6. My 1.6 did not have EGR, and my stock 1.6 manifold had no ability for EGR.

You could likely do that no problem.

Yes

You might be able to. I run off the cursed water plug if I want a heater.

awesome. totally forgot that water plug was there. i'll post up a pictorial step by step when I do this.

BTW, would silicone hoses have any issues running close to the downpipe? Thinking of picking up some long lines and replacing the stock rubber ones.

thanks for all the info, again.

I wouldn't recommend trying to run hoses there with the cursed water plug where it is. Just my 2c.

another idea... what about using the block coolant tap, running 2 tees off of it for the fan and coolant temp sensors, then running it out to the heater feed? this eliminates the need for a hard line run from the back of the head. i know more joints = more potential leaks, but it's in a place thats easy to get to. It'll also require elongating the sensor wires, but that's all small stuff.

Is there a disadvantage to having the sensor before the thermostat? It seems to me like it would be better, since it's the actual temp of the engine, not the post-closed-thermostat temperature.

or even easier, can the cursed water plug bung be rethreaded for the coolant sensor?

It is better to have the coolant sensor before the thermostat, yes

I might just try tapping the begi thermostat block plate for 2 sensors lol. hopefully theres enough room underneath for it to fit.

The coolant port in the block will not be a good place for coolant temp. The heat in an engine is in the head, the block will show lower coolant temp than what is really happening in the head. That would probably be ok for turbo cooling, but not great for a heater, for the same reason.