Club 80-90 Forums

As follows:)- 2 hr plus drive to festival. Engine ran great and temp all ok. Then queued for an hour to get in. Van obviously getting very very hot as engine kept dying on me. Stopped and let it sit for an hour to cool with the engine lid off. Smells a bit of burnt rubber but started and ran fine . Checked coolant level and expansion chamber, all ok there. Water pump ok and fan works.

Ive had a recent engine change. My guess is that the donuts who installed it have skimped on the level of antifreeze. What do you think ?

Did the radiator fan kick in while you were queuing? It doesn't tend to when you're driving along as the air flow keeps the system cool but after being stationary for a few minutes the fan should kick in. It's not exactly a silent fan so you would have noticed it kicking in

It did kick in but wasnt enough to stop it cutting out when stationary . Seemed help if i revved it as think that circulated the coolant a bit. Still got mad hot n conked out. We were pretty much stood still for an hour after 2 hrs mororway driving

My second (and final) suggestion is that there's air in the system which tends to accumulate in the rad as it's the highest point. There's a bleed valve on the top of the rad - instructions in the club wiki

(I don't understand why hot makes it conk out but I can guess as to why it gets hot)

Hello,

I'm of the Aircooled faith....

But I did own several Skoda estelles, (rear engine front radiator ), and can propose a 'cheap as chips' fixit.

My problem always occured after a long motorway run, and then getting caught in a traffic jam.

All I did was to wire in an over ride switch to the fan onto the dashboard, and would put in on manually as soon as I saw trouble ahead, problem solved.

Plus it doubled the car's value

Cant see why it shouldn't work for you.

Overheating is related to either loss of coolant, loss of coolant pressure and /or circulation, or lack of airflow. if these are all ok, then you might need to look at your timing.

I run a 1600 Aircooled and am experimenting with different ignition settings according to the fuel available, eg methanol based. What I have really noticed is that the traditional ignition settings do not hold true for many modern petrols in europe.

Which could well be a source of over heating.

So maybe a look there.

Also, if you have really boiled the thing up then change all the antifreeze, use a quality product.

Cordialement,

Sounds like a blocked rad from here.

i agree with adrian , i had the same problem , changed the rad bled it as per wiki and now its great

Or the thermostat isn't opening fully

Mine kept boiling over, replaced thermostat and cleaned out rad. Eventually turned out to be a crack in expansion tank.

Update:). Just driven another 100 miles. No overheating but when i pulled up at islands the oil light kept flickering on, a few revs and the light goes out. I did notice the tickover was a bit slow whwn engine very hot. Oil ans water levels all ok. Thinnk its just a tickover issue ?.

Re the cutting out when very very hot. We were pretty
Much stationary for 1 1/2 hrs. I have however discovered that the fuel pipe into the pump was lying on the manifold. Im reckoning fuel was Vaporising in tbe pipe due to the excessive heat . What do you learned people think ?

did the said douhnuts use semi synthtic oil??!!

Em
xx

Hi em, i have no idea what oil they used , maybe too thin ?

could well be....needs a quality mineral oil from reconditioning.

Just a thought.....may be worth you doing an oil change...at least you know what's in it!

Castrol do a high mileage mineral oil - I last got it in Halfords....but sure any mineral oil of the correct spec will do. Can't remember off the top of my head what it is, sorry.

Em
xx

Sigh... once again, viscosity is relevant, base is not.

As for idling for an hour and a half, if the rad and fan are good, it should idle until it runs out of fuel without overheating. Even in 40deg.

...and once again mineral oil is recommended