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[Jimbob]

Not mine, but I fitted a new plastic Coolant Flange Housing to a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 petrol. The old one split right down the middle and spat the coolant contents everywhere, and left a massive trail of steam.    Not a bad little job, although access is tight down the side of the engine, so I opted to add an extra five minutes to the job by choosing to remove the battery and battery tray to improve access.
This is the second plastic housing to properly let go on two separate family members cars. The first plastic thermostat housing to let go killed the Qashqai engine (engine has since been replaced FOC by Nissan), and now the Corsa has let go for the second time (the first time being a pin prick hole). As the Corsa was close to home, it appears to have escaped any serious injury.

That was the main issue on my Project Corsa....Which breakdown services convinced SWMBO's mate was a head gasket failure so he bought a new car the next day!

A minor leak can run down the block and drip off the bell housing and the engine heat can evaporate
the evidence up higher, making it harder to spot with the bendy mirror and a torch. As you know, a pressure tester comes in handy in that scenario, enabling the system to be tested when cold. In our recent case, a pressure tester wasn’t required, as it had a ruddy great split down the side of it. 

When I recovered it, I changed the also leaking thermostat on his drive...and stopped to top up coolant 7 times in about 10 miles on the way home!  no temp guage either so wait for warning light city, then pull over!

You’ve probably already found this menu since you bought it, but you can bring up the temp gauge and other information between the dials by pressing and holding the trip reset button.    These engines seem to run naturally hot. I’ve run live data on this one from cold and the temp runs to around 107-109 before the stat opens and the fans kick in. It then drops to normal temperature. The book says 103. 

Indeed I have, given there is a little trip computer, beggers beleif they didnt think to add temp as a view on there.

[YZ250]

Not mine, but I fitted a new plastic Coolant Flange Housing to a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 petrol. The old one split right down the middle and spat the coolant contents everywhere, and left a massive trail of steam.    Not a bad little job, although access is tight down the side of the engine, so I opted to add an extra five minutes to the job by choosing to remove the battery and battery tray to improve access.
This is the second plastic housing to properly let go on two separate family members cars. The first plastic thermostat housing to let go killed the Qashqai engine (engine has since been replaced FOC by Nissan), and now the Corsa has let go for the second time (the first time being a pin prick hole). As the Corsa was close to home, it appears to have escaped any serious injury.

That was the main issue on my Project Corsa....Which breakdown services convinced SWMBO's mate was a head gasket failure so he bought a new car the next day!

A minor leak can run down the block and drip off the bell housing and the engine heat can evaporate
the evidence up higher, making it harder to spot with the bendy mirror and a torch. As you know, a pressure tester comes in handy in that scenario, enabling the system to be tested when cold. In our recent case, a pressure tester wasn’t required, as it had a ruddy great split down the side of it. 

When I recovered it, I changed the also leaking thermostat on his drive...and stopped to top up coolant 7 times in about 10 miles on the way home!  no temp guage either so wait for warning light city, then pull over!

You’ve probably already found this menu since you bought it, but you can bring up the temp gauge and other information between the dials by pressing and holding the trip reset button.    These engines seem to run naturally hot. I’ve run live data on this one from cold and the temp runs to around 107-109 before the stat opens and the fans kick in. It then drops to normal temperature. The book says 103. 

Indeed I have, given there is a little trip computer, beggers beleif they didnt think to add temp as a view on there.

Indeed, I agree. 

[VXL V6]

Not mine, but drove a Rover SD1 for the first time.

All I can say is that I am glad my first car was a MK2 Granada...

That said it was nice/fun/interesting spend time in something that analogue 

I owned a Moonraker Blue 3.5 Vitesse TP for around five years. It seemed a big car back in the day but it’s not when compared to today’s offerings. It seemed a comfortable car back then and mine had the ten digit keyboard for average mpg, ETA etc., so looked quite smart at night for its time. What didn’t look so good was the display showing less than 12mpg when doing 135mph, and as mentioned, the steering was frightening light at that speed. 
It rusted at the same rate that it used fuel but the engine never let me down. My wife hated it the day I bought it and still hated it five years later when I sold it. 

Frightening how much TP Vitesse's sell for now.... Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

I think kicking around in a 3.5 Series one before I was old enough to legally drive on the road (no comment) and then a 3.5 Series two SE is probably part of the reason in later life after the company cars, I bought the Omega's, just that barge with a big engine feel and that's probably led onto why i have the F10 530D and E92 330i now!