Coolant Pipes Epoxy Fix

The coolant pipes are not as expensive as the water rails, but it's still £400 to replace them

The originals appear to have a manufacturing fault the reveals itself as a weak seam that eventually fails

I used epoxy resin to flow in to the pipes to seal them, and so far it's worked well

I did a similar repair about ten years ago to fix a hole and it's not leaked since so I'm optimistic that the new fix will work as well

Hmmm I'm not so sure about putting resin on the inside of the pipe, that could bite you in the ass after a couple of heat cycles.

My ones had corroded as per yours and I suspect many others are in the same predicament.

I can't weld for toffee on thin walled metal so I asked a local fabricator, I think it came to less than 50 quid for the ends to be cut off and new ones welded on.

That was certainly a prescient warning

Yesterday I parked up in the corner of Dunkirk Carrefour car park, in order to swap out the thermostat with a used spare that I carry with me

The thermostat had stuck partially open, meaning I was cold and miserable, and the fuel consumption on the way to Dover was so bad that 140 miles cost €90

Epoxy is supposed to be stable in water, and good for up to 120C continuous

However, when I took the thermostat out, although there was no debris at all, there were signs that it was gummed up

It wasn't difficult to free it up, but I fitted the spare anyway

So my advice is - Don't be cheap like me, you might end up regretting it

And yet epoxy lined hot water tanks are a thing

What about J-B Weld?

Still an epoxy based product but specifically designed for metal surfaces.

The car has just survived a track day without any thermostat issues (or any other issues for that matter)

I will keep updating this thread, as I'm still not ready to sink £400 on a set of new pipes