Hi all,
 
Whilst I know that the heater bubble repair topic has been covered at length, these all seem to keep the same design - essentially just repairing what's already in place.
 
I'm interested in changing the design of the heater bubble drain, so that the water run-off doesn't splash onto the motor whilst running or pool on the head when stationary. [A long story short, I was recently reunited with my car - listed here and it appears to have significant amounts of rust on the head, near the rear two spark plugs].
 
So, I've decided that the motor needs to come out again as I want it looking like this again and when this happens, I'm committed to changing the water drainage from the heater bubble. I've read some things about internal drains and know that Ford originally had a plastic drain pipe that went into the heater bubble drain hole; but I'm interested in hearing what others would do in this situation? What would you consider to be the ideal solution to:
 
* Allow water run-off,
* Not have it drip onto the engine, starter motor, etc.
* Not get clogged or require regular maintenance.
 
Much appreciated in advance.
 
Diskonekted

This is how i Modded mine in my mk1 van. .
, this should help you with ideas

Hi Marty,
 
Thanks for the picture and response. I can't quite tell from the picture, but is there an opening for the water to drain out of? Or is that handled by an internal drain?
 
Cheers,
Diskonekted

The fact that rain and leaves will always be able to enter at the scuttle panel means that these can never be maintenance free.
 
I left my drain hole standard but converted the bubble to bolt on (rivnuts) although this was done during a full rebuild so wasn't much extra work.  Periodic removal to clear the leaves and debris.  If your car isn't being repainted then this may not be an option for you.  You could remove the scuttle and put a fine mesh under it to stop the leaves (ugly??).
 
Assuming you are doing some level of repairs to the bubble anyway, you could either elongate the standard hole (to permit better water removal and also to reach in with something to drag debris out) or you could bolt on a removable access cover to do the same.
 
You could keep it all standard and fabricate something similar to the standard Ford drain pipe but make it drain exactly where you want it to drain.
 
As far as I am concerned the biggist issue is the debris getting in there causing everything to rust out.

Hi the drain slot goes from one side to the other.. but is only about an inch high at the middle.

I think the bolt on cover is the way to go. If your doing rust repair in there, which is likely, use a weld through zinc rich primer on all parts, the more the merrier.
My car isn't likely to see any rain nowadays but I'm careful to cover the vent and keep the plenum dry when I'm washing it. Not a job I want to have to do again.
Cheers Drew

Also paint all the inside of the bubble/cowl with POR15 to make it bullet proof