Club 80-90 Forums

Ok, yet again thanks to everybody who has helped me with giving me advice and guiding me through fixing my snapped head stud.

I am almost finished, my latest problem is I cant get the coolant around the engine. I have tried filling the system as per the wiki and Haynes manual but it still wont get around the system.

So far I filled up the system and expansion tank with the van on the ground. Then got the engine up to temperature and put the front wheels up on ramps. I have tried bleeding the valve on the engine bay and then the one on the rad whilst revving the engine a bit. I have no temperature reading on my gauge in my van and the radiator remains stone cold. I have tried running the engine without the bleed screw in the rad to try and get all the air out which appeared to work, however after a while no water or air was excaping. I have tried running the van to temperature and then opening the bleed valve but nothing is coming out. Obviously I don't want to run the engine for too long as without a temperature gauge working I have no way of knowing if the engine is overheating. The last thing i want to do is cook the engine now it is all sorted.

Any help gratefully received

Gary

Sorry mods, this was meant to be in mechanical category

there is an article on the samba called the libby bong,have a read on that and try doing it that way,worked for me,best of luck

I've had ours drained down a couple of times - intentionally and not - and not had any trouble at all. The foolproof Baxter method in the wiki just works - no need for the bong or jacking either end. Basically, just keep the tank full, and let it warm up, bleed it at both points regularly (might need some revs to get the flow up to the rad), until there's no more air comes out and the rad's hot all over. Then let the fans cut in and out a few times, bleed again at both.

Ok just a few pointers to think about after reading your post......

I don't know how you can tell that your engine is up to temp without some kind of indication like a temp gauge. First I would check that your temp sensor is working or at least the gauge. Think your engine is a late DG then it should have 2 wires going to sensor. Short these wires together with a small piece of cable and your temp gauge in the cab should rise to hot. If this is ok continue with what you are doing. Your sensor maybe U/S. As far as I am aware it will take around 15 to 30 mins at tickover to get up to a reasonable operating temp.

Mark

Have heard of many ways of bleeding the cooling system and still won't follow any of them. I use a pressure plant sprayer. Fill rear with coolant until full. Remove bleed screw and fill radiator with thin tube using the plant sprayer until full. Replace bleed screw, open heater control and start engine. Let it IDLE, no need to annoy everybody around. Keep expansion bottle topped up as engine heats up, replace cap when full and go for a drive. Top up expansion tank when cooled down to get rid of remaining trapped air.

Other uses for plant sprayer: Filling gearbox with oil and pressure bleeding braking system by yourself.

Mark Foss wrote:Ok just a few pointers to think about after reading your post......

I don't know how you can tell that your engine is up to temp without some kind of indication like a temp gauge. First I would check that your temp sensor is working or at least the gauge. Think your engine is a late DG then it should have 2 wires going to sensor. Short these wires together with a small piece of cable and your temp gauge in the cab should rise to hot. If this is ok continue with what you are doing. Your sensor maybe U/S. As far as I am aware it will take around 15 to 30 mins at tickover to get up to a reasonable operating temp.

Mark

Cheers for that Mark,

I only really knew the engine was getting up to temperature as I could feel it, it was hot but I stopped the engine to avoid overheating. I have now sorted the problem.

The first issue is a little embarrassing

The reason the temperature guage wasn't working was because one of the cables to the sensor had snapped. I can only assume that it got caught on something whilst removing or installing the engine. Once sorted the gauge worked perfectly. Unfortunately the radiator remained cold no matter how long I revved the engine for. I put this down to a broken thermostat. I have now changed the stat and after following the baxter method it is now bled and working as it should I have since bled the radiator again to let out a small amount of trapped air and revved the engine until the fan kicked in and stopped again.

Pretty much as everybody has advised you really cant go wrong with the baxter method.

Thanks to everybody for their advice