cooling system

Hi I've just got myself a 1.8 clipper cab and I want to fit a top fill rad cus I can't stand the look of a seperate expantion tank and pipe going across the engine bay. Does anyone know what rad I can get to fit it. I work in a scrap yard dismantaling cars all day so parts are easy to come by. Any advice would be great.

You'll need an early GTI one, and you'll need to close up a hole in the metal coolant pipe which is bolted to the engine too (or use a pipe with no additional outlet on it).

ok thanks. the metal pipe on mine is rusted to hell and has got a massive hole in it so i was going to get one made up for it anyway im just glad i asked before i had one made otherwise it would have been a waist of time lol

I've read that you can get issues with over heating when you change the rad and remove the expansion vessel, is this true??
I'm just looking at cleaning and flushing my coolant system..

Is there any benefit in replacing the hoses from the standard to the silicone, or is that purely aesthetic?

(Sorry to thread hijack )

i would imagine that as long as you make sure the replacement rad is big enough that it should be ok. might have to put a slightly bigger fan on it as well if need be. ive noticed loads of people have done this so it must be possible one way or another lol. i just think the expansion bottle makes the bay look cluttered witch is part of the reason i want to do away with it and i want to move the battery to the boot as well to make it look a bit cleaner and tidier lol