‘68 1600 Spacer under thermostat housing

[Jorge0227]

Quick question: is it necessary to keep the spacer between the thermostat housing and the block? Other than having a useful Clío to hold the fuel hose, it seems to do nothing but add an additional gasket. Does it serve a purpose with the thermostat?
Thanks!

A348EF1A-2BC9-47D6-A506-49A7AAD843AA.jpeg

[notoptoy]

Is that on correctly? Isn't that supposed to be the front engine lift hook? If it is the hook, then that is on upside down and backwards. What year is your roadster?

[Jorge0227]

It is a ‘68 1600.

[mraitch]

I thought the engine lift hook was bolted on to the head.

[notoptoy]

There is one hook at the back firewall on the head, and the other is at the Thermostat housing on the front.

[Curtis]

The housing is necessary if you have a stock 1600 radiator with no fill neck. If you have a 2000 radiator or someone has added a fill neck then you can get rid of it.

The engine lift hook should be on the front of the head bolted to a stud just to the side of the housing. Three hole thermostat housings have the lift eye between the head and thermo housing.

[notoptoy]

I guess I am confused about what is being referred to as a "spacer". There is the tower, and the "bracket" under the tower.
As Curtis stated, the tower is required if you do not have a radiator fill. If you remove the bracket I would be sure to check the length of the bolts that hold the tower in place, if the threaded part is too long, you could crack or damage the housing on the head near the threads in the head. You might need whether slightly shorter bolts or to add a washer to make up the difference removing the spacer/bracket creates. Part images reflect that there is a engine lift bracket under both 2 and 3 hole Thermostat towers on the 1600.

[Linda]

You don’t really need that lift bracket if you prefer to use straps to lift the engine out. I got rid of both brackets, front and rear.
Also I am using studs, not bolts, on the water tower
Linda

[Curtis]

So the stud on the front does double duty. Cars with the alternator on the left side may have the eye hooked to where the alternator bracket stud is. Or they may have the other lift. I've seen both.

As many will tell you removing the housing can be a real job since it gets frozen on there.

[Jorge0227]

I think these are better pictures. It is not a hook to lift engine. I don’t have bolts. It has studs. It doesn’t look like the ones on the diagram.

[Curtis]

Like this unless I'm mistaken.

IMG_2732.JPG

[Jorge0227]

Ok, I think I will remove it then. The stud used to attach the engine lift hook is actually behind what I’m showing in my pictures. My spacer only has a hose hook attached to it. I wanted to make sure that the spacer holds the thermostat in place or some other weird purpose.