OK, I want to fit the silicon hose that bypasses the heater throttle body direct to the expansion bottle. The Duchess is using too much coolant, and I'm worried that the many-joined pipe will let go some time and cause a big problem.

So, I can't fit my sausage fingers behind the aircon compressor to get to the stub pipe on the top of the... whatever the stub pipe sticks out of. It looks like I should be able to move the aircon compressor if I undo a couple of bolts and also remove the plastic belt guard. Is that all it is? Should I be wary of anything else? Will I break something, release the gas and kill all the dolphins?

I do have the remote clippy pliers/clip remover things but I can see that there's pink staining the stub pipe so the seal isn't great. I really hope I won't need a jubilee on there because the access is woeful...

We have had the aircon compressor off a TD5 on a Disco 2 this weekend, mounting looks similar to where the space where one would be on my Thor engined Disco 2, 4 bolts one on each corner. We just undid the bolts and slid it to the side (needed to get to the water pump beneath it now we have fixed the rest of the leaks and found what looks like the original leak). Can't guarantee that there was anything actually in the a/c system there though, as we noticed the condensor was disintegrating when replacing the radiator. But you should be ok as your not moving it very far.

You might find it easier to take the front bit of the manifold off or separate the throttle section from it (i'd need to have a look to see exactly where it splits, but you can separate the front bit from the Bananas I think)

Removing the AC pump is nice and easy.

Take off the top of the fan shroud and the plastic belt cover then use a 15mm spanner to release the belt tensioner. I use a 15mm spanner with a socket attached to a 1/2 inch extension bar over the end to make it really easy to lever.

Then it's just the bolts in the top of the AC compressor. The rear right bolt can be tricky as it's really close to the throttle cables. I used a 1/4 inch 10mm socket on an extension to get at that one - it fits down between the throttle cable and the cruise control cable. You'll find that once it's undone you can't remove that bolt but it will come out by lifting the compressor once they're all undone.

The lines are long and fairly flexible so you can move it right out of the way.

Great news, thanks guys :)
I'm on call this weekend so I'll be mooching round the house, so this looks like a nice job to get cracked. With a bit of luck I won't get a call when the car's in bits or I'll have to bike in to work!

Dead easy to get to it on a GEMS, although it does have to be routed behind the alternator rather than under it. Not got a Thor here to have a look at I'm afraid, all 3 parked outside are GEMS, but I would suggest that it does need a clip. Rather than Jubilee you'd be better off with fuel hose clips or the springy ones used on LPG hose. Thinking about it, the throttle body can be removed on a Thor, why not take it off, change the hoses and put it back on?

I think I'd have to take the intake manifold off, it comes quite a way past the bit I need to access the hose....it's really a choice between aircon compressor and the alternator.

As others have said, just move the compressor :) Remember to unplug the connector before lifting up as the wiring probably won't put up much of a fight!

Try and avoid straining the metal pipes too much, but it should just flop over and sit on/around the airbox/headlight etc. Had mine like that when we pulled the engine out not long ago and mine is gassed up and working - so I was paranoid about it :P

Any guesses as to whose website tells lies about what is in stock?
You guessed it. The silicone hose people who I'm starting to think don't actually have a warehouse but just a Alipay account in China and we bear the shipping times.
Gah, they're really shite - that's three orders now I've had to chase from those useless barstewards.

They are utterly shite. Really piss me off.

Must be somewhere else we can get it from.

I just got mine from eBay

From ASH per chance?

The last time I bought it from them on eBay they sent me 3 ply as an 'upgrade' - but its useless... as oddly enough its 3 times as thick on the side wall and doesn't bend anywhere nearly as nice.

I'd like to get my hands on some more single ply for the red P38.

What does the internal diameter need to be? LPG suppliers sell water hose down to 10mm ID.
https://www.lpgshop.co.uk/10mm-water-coolant-semperit-hose-1-meter/
I haven't checked TinleyTech but they probably sell a wider range, their old Bigas systems used narrow water pipe.
Not silicone but is that such a bad thing?

8mm sadly - its for the bleed hose from the radiator, and throttle body heater.

The nice thing about the single ply silicone hose is that it remains flexible and pretty much won't ever go bad. It's pretty much perfect for the job... it just seems to be unobtainium.

Mine has had a replacement OEM hose, it’s quite flexible, I have man handled it more than once.

Sloth wrote:

From ASH per chance?

The last time I bought it from them on eBay they sent me 3 ply as an 'upgrade' - but its useless... as oddly enough its 3 times as thick on the side wall and doesn't bend anywhere nearly as nice

Nope, I got this: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F401073216147

It's really flexible

At last - an alternative!
Definitely 8mm ID from the throttle body to the expansion bottle? I had it in my mind it was 10mm so ASH might be getting a cancellation anyway.

I'm pretty sure that hose I got is single ply. I don't rember seeing any threads or layers to it.

It's really flexible and was nice and cheap.

I should have some spare kicking around somewhere. I bought enough to replace both pipes going to the throttle body heater but in the end Simon ended up doing the bypass for me when he did my LPG, so it didn't all get used.

That stuff doesn't have the reinforcing so the burst pressure would be much lower than the single ply that we all want or the triple ply that ASH try to palm off as an upgrade but, as Sloth says, is much thicker and less flexible. In saying that, the single ply is rated with a burst pressure way above what you would ever achieve in the cooling system so is overkill really. The best part with the silicone hose is that it never goes hard unlike normal rubber coolant hose, no matter how long it has been there it remains flexible so you can remove it. I've got about 4 feet of the unobtainium single ply hose and will be using a short piece to replace the inlet manifold to throttle body heater on the car that I'm currently bolting back together. The old hose had gone so hard that even with hose clip removed completely it still wouldn't pull off the manifold, so I just chopped it in half.

As an alternative to ASH, there's this place http://www.silex.co.uk/shop/silicone-braided-hose/silicone-braided-hose-70%C2%B0-shore-red-outer/c-24/c-77/p-699, slightly more expensive than ASH but they may actually have it in stock.

Ah, looks like I've misunderstood the term single ply then.

Is single ply a silicone hose with one additional layer surrounding it?

I took it to mean the hose was comprised of just a single layer of material, which is the case with the hose I linked.

Single ply means it has a single layer of polyester braiding around the inner core and then a further layer on the outside to protect the braiding. The stuff you have is just a tube with no reinforcing in it so could, in theory, blow up like a balloon if you put enough pressure into it. But, as said, you're never going to achieve that sort of pressure in the cooling system. My local factors used to stock that stuff in 5mm ID which was excellent for replacing the cruise control tubing but they haven't had it in for a while now. I wish I'd bought a few metres of it when they did.