Details of my annual road trip to Wales is in my blog (with video at the end):
https://zerolifebuild.blogspot.com/2023/09/another-year-another-wales.html
Ironically, most of the digital dashes I've seen have been on bike-engined cars. Maybe their looms are better suited to a digital dash? Might be a struggle to get the existing wiring into a digital dash?
Personally, I just added mine in because they looked cool:
I just googled 'bonnet louvres' and found a local guy who had the machine at his house - £100 and 1 hour later, all done.
Dunno if you made it, Bob? Sorry, I forgot to look out for you....and very sorry for not reminding everyone.
Details of the day in my blog:
https://zerolifebuild.blogspot.com/2023/09/cars-in-school.html
Just a reminder - weather looking great and I will be there (although possibly not in my car as I sort of broke it and I may not have it fixed in time). Look out for my son's black C63 AMG...hopefully, I'll be parked next to it
I have a Zetec so this may not help you at all but until a Pinto expert comes along...
There doesn't feel like a lot of coolant in that setup so I imagine a header tank would be good, if not for the visual check but also just because the extra pipework and tank will give you more volume of coolant.
My setup is in my blog here:
https://zerolifebuild.blogspot.com/2016/04/28.html
You don't have to do/prove anything. Take it to the MOT, they put the reg in and the machine tells them what the emissions should be.
As too taking too long, that's BS; they obviously don't want to do something that's going to have to make them think . Go elsewhere...
I did that on my Zetec and it was fine. The only problem was that I was getting a fine mist of oil in the engine bay over time. So I added an oil catch tank - details in my blog here:
https://zerolifebuild.blogspot.com/2021/12/keeping-it-cleaner.html