P5B with no thermostat.

P5B with no thermostat.

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shed driver

Original Poster:

2,181 posts

161 months

Thursday 26th January 2023
quotequote all
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.