I have ground out the crack with my dremel and used Araldite to seal (a big splodge) and so today I will test to see if it works.

On 28/02/2026 at 12:03, Tony Brooks said:

Just had a thought, I think an old stainless steel saucepan and a few tank fittings and hose tails would do the job.

I do remember seeing a boat with an enamelled steel kitchen roasting tin doing duty as an air filter housing on top of the engine. Painted in the same red and green as the engine it looked the part, but the handles and dimples in the domed lid gave its origins away.

 

13 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I do remember seeing a boat with an enamelled steel kitchen roasting tin doing duty as an air filter housing on top of the engine. Painted in the same red and green as the engine it looked the part, but the handles and dimples in the domed lid gave its origins away.

 

A charity shop pressure cooker would be ideal. Clamps together, but can be easily opened to check and fill the coolant level, already has a safety valve and thick aluminium  can be easily drilled and tapped for hose firtree ports.

A visit to a scrap yard car breaker 

Just now, Peugeot 106 said:

A visit to a scrap yard car breaker 

 

Already suggested, but breakers are just as likely as Halfords to ask what car it is off, gone are the days of rooting around the yard and taking one off a vehicle. They might look in their stores to pattern one up if the OP took the old one to them.

We used to borrow the acetylene torch (although we didn’t have much clue how to operate) and clamber over piled high cars. Engine or gearbox £5: “ bring it back if it doesn’t work”

happy days. As a kid I loved the scrappy. 

56 minutes ago, Peugeot 106 said:

We used to borrow the acetylene torch (although we didn’t have much clue how to operate) and clamber over piled high cars. Engine or gearbox £5: “ bring it back if it doesn’t work”

happy days. As a kid I loved the scrappy. 

 

And as a hard up teenager apprentice and running bangers - happy days

Job done, the Araldite did the trick! Yesterday I ran the engine for the first time since replacing all 4 engine mounts, WOW what a difference, the engine doesn't jump around anymore and when I select reverse the great big bang has gone, it is still more clunky than going into forward but nothing like it was. I was very pleased until I noticed a drip of water running down from the water pump, it's the rubber hose I had to codge up, the hose required is a swaged down one (which they don't make) the water pump end is about 43mm then it joins a copper pipe which I think is 32mm. I purchased a Peugeot replacement for a bottom radiator hose but it curves just after coming off the water pump, I need it to be straight. I messed about with the jubilee clip and the drip stopped, but I can't rest, at the weekend it's coming off, and I am going to try to find something more suitable, trouble is they never give dimensions when they advertise on ebay or the like, you can see the hoses in the picture, I need the lower one which would be the oddest shaped one.

Flexible coolant hoses are a thing. They typically have a spiral wire inside to prevent them collapsing when curved. 

https://www.carbuilder.com/collections/hoses-cooling-system?filter.p.m.custom.sub_type=Flexible&filter.v.price.gte=0&filter.v.price.lte=99&sort_by=best-selling

17 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Flexible coolant hoses are a thing. They typically have a spiral wire inside to prevent them collapsing when curved. 

https://www.carbuilder.com/collections/hoses-cooling-system?filter.p.m.custom.sub_type=Flexible&filter.v.price.gte=0&filter.v.price.lte=99&sort_by=best-selling

Thanks, Very interesting

I have purchased some better coolant hoses now, shall sort it out in the morning, the Araldite seems to have fixed the tank however, the cap is split, got a replacement coming, hope it is the correct one, otherwise it's all looking good.

1 hour ago, Sid Charles said:

the cap is split, got a replacement coming, hope it is the correct one, otherwise it's all looking good.

 

Good, worth persevering.

 

 

Those caps should have a stainless steel disk inside the cap, under a rubbers seal. this is the pressure/vacuum valve, so if both caps have different pressure valves you can change them over, although I doubt you really need to pressurise for canal and summer rive use. 

Well I wanted to replace the rubbish coolant hoses, which I fitted 18 months ago; they were made from chopped-up car hoses, however during the stripping I found horrible gunge in the hoses, it must be from the engine block because I cleaned the skin tank as best as I could, so I went the whole hog and took the water pump off to check it was all there, it was actually OK, but now I have peace of mind. Now all back together with new hoses and clips.