The bellhousing to cylinder head conflict also caused a problem with the engine water outlet. It was not possible to use the standard Zetec FC water outlet pipe/thermostat housing readily available from Quicksilver. The outlet pipe on that component had the water coming out of the back of the engine, to the right and on a somewhat downward path. The RF94 bellhousing blocked that path.
I’d hoped to be able use the Zetec Water Rail (seen in the photo above), available from the Raceline company in England. It is a nicely cast component that fits closely along the left side of the cylinder head and relocates the thermostat from the back of the engine to the forward top. A problem developed, however, once I decided that I wanted fit a diagonal brace along the top left side of the engine bay. That brace was going to run right across the relocated water outlet pipe. So it was a component that might not be universally adaptable to all FC chassis. And it was expensive: $348.12 was the Dollar equivalent for the price in British Pounds for the water rail, the fitting kit and the thermostat housing kit.
Burton Power in England can provide a Retro Ford Water Rail that is somewhat similar. It’s a little less expensive ($259.48 was the Dollar equivalent) but it ran afoul of the shock mounting point on the bellhousing of the RF94. And it ran smack into our new rear “A” Brace. So it wasn’t going to be a universal answer either.
So the decision was made to simply take the existing Water Outlet/Thermostat Housing as supplied by Quicksilver, cut it apart at the flange, rotate the outlet pipe so that it didn’t run afoul of anything and then re-weld it.
The end result was a component that was universally adaptable (cut it and reposition it in any desired direction and then re-weld it). And it’s a less expensive approach. Quicksilver sold me the water outlet and thermostat for $180 when I was working on the first phase of the Junk Yard Zetec Project.
The actual fabrication task took approximately an hour.
Zetec Conversion 