OVERHEATING DIESEL

[glennyboy2]

Changed my expansion tank about two weeks ago and I now get the red temp light flashing and guage going past central point.

Checked water level, all ok. The main rad is stone cold, even after twenty minutes running. Think it needs bleeding.

Trying to bleed it on a slope. Any tips. Have checked the Wiki , but am a bit confused. Is it a two man job?

[Bilbo Blue]

Red light I think is for low coolant level.
To bleed, no need for slope or assistance. Study wiki.
Fill expansion tank and top up bottle. Tighten lids. Run engine and open bleed screw on top of rad till water comes out. Top up bottles.
Why you had to change expansion tank? Trouble with possible cracked head pushing air into system?

[glennyboy2]

Cracked head? Now you're scaring me. I changed the bottle because it was cracked.
I'll try the bleeding first.

[HarryMann]

The diesels as good as purge themselves... but of course you have to let any air out of the system, get it running warm to hot and as said above, bleed the rad. If it subsequently takes any consierable degree of water, then repeat.

[dugcati]

Make sure you get the front end of the van up really high when you come to bleed the air out of the water lines.

When I did my old van I ended up sticking the van with the nose pointing up my steep driveway (lucky I have a steep drive!), then with the engine running and warm I just reached under the van and grabbed hold of the throttle cable with my left hand and then cracked off the bleed nut with my right hand.
I then pulled on the throttle cable and held the engine at fairly high revs; cracked open the bleed nut until a fair bit of water came out and then re-tightened it and let the revs drop to tick over.
After that a quick run around the back of the van to check/fill the header tank and repeat the above until I was happy only water was coming out of the bleed screw


See also this link......

https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35837


Doug[/url]

[R0B]

you dont need to raise the front of a diesel.to bleed the system..

[Bilbo Blue]

Ditto.

If the van is parked on the flat, the top of the rad is still the highest part of the cooling system.

[Ye Olde Syncrospares]

change the thermostat,cj.

[dugcati]

If the van is parked on the flat, the top of the rad is still the highest part of the cooling system.

This is true however the shape of the pipes under the van mean that you get airlocks between the rad and the back of the bus

[SkinupCamper]

Before you go green, check your sensor connections are ok. Just sorted a over heating 1.6 diesel, it turned out to be a cracked cylinder head after a week of messing about - flushing the rad, checking sensors, replacing a thermostat and constant bleeding but it kept blowing hoses. after all the farting about we checked for carbonmonoxide in the water from the expansion tank using a chemical sniffer, this told us it was gases getting into the water........... But we got hold of a cylinder head for £30. It was nice job, now she runs sweet to all the festivals............