Phew! Well that was a bit of a chore....

[Pete McCue]

While I'm waiting for the exhaust gaskets to arrive I thought I'd crack on with the other jobs I'd got lined up, namely, replacing the thermostat and it's plastic housing for alloy, replacing the auxiliary drive belt and replacing the coolant with waterless. I was expecting the thermostat to be the biggest pig but it actually went very well, no real issues at all. Same for the drive belt, very easy. Then, however, came filling her up with the waterless coolant! Following the relevant procedure, I drained down, (to do the thermostat), got all my clear tubes in place then started to "fill-er-up", first with the prep fluid that removes all of the water. Now, both the prep fluid and the coolant are a bit thicker than water/antifreeze and it took absolutely bloody ages to fill up. Eventually got it filled with the prep fluid including the heater and brought her up to temperature, ready to drain down and do it all again with the coolant! Anyway, got there eventually, although the heater was a pig the second time, and she's ready to go as soon as I get those damned gasket rings!