Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, my fan belt snapped on the way to the gower and I thought I had pulled over in time to stop it overheating. As I turned off the ignition steam blew out the back . I think it had only blown the seal on the expansion cap and I have replaced the expansion tank and a new cap. However after filling system up with water and bleeding as per Haynes manual I seem to loose water from expansion tank ( after going on a 15 mile run) and it fills up the overflow tank to above the cap opening! I just wondered if I could have done more serious damage(ie blown head gasket or liner seals) or just need to master the art of bleeding the cooling system!!! There are no leaks on pipes anywhere. I've got 6 weeks to get "mungo" running sweet before a month trip to France, so any hints or tips will be most welcome. Cheers

It could be a dodgy dalek cap you have replaced.can you suck and blow down it.If yes its knacked.Where did you buy it? I know there was some dodgy ones being sold on eBay.

WHS ^^^

But if it was me, I would be getting a garage to do a sniff test in the left hand tank as you could be right re head gasket

Also, check this out. I have had it and so have a few others on here and it causes your symptoms. The thin "bleed ring" pipe that runs around most of the lip at the top of your engine bay has a couple of "T" pieces in it and some other thin pipes attached to it, some to the stat housing and a rubber one to the rear of the left head. Any of those thin pipes and "T" pieces are prone to blocking up, like this =



(whose pic was that ? Kev rings a bell... or was it Karl-T - I have used it often )

And this can stop the flow of water, esp at the left hand side, causing the water to boil = excess pressure and too much water ejected into the expansion tank (behind the number plate).

The above was the cause of the demise of my engine (~7 years ago)

Thanks for quick replies. Replaced new tank and cap from brickwerks. The cap is blue. Will suck and blow to confirm. Ghost's reply is interesting, will check the pipework when home tonight. This could stop me from bleeding the system properley. There are no signs of Head gasket going ie, milky oil or contaminated water. The only symptom I have is water transfering from expansion tank into overflow tank and of course red light coming on!
After reading filling and bleeding on wiki I noticed it says it takes around 20 mins. I have to say water was coming out of my rad in 5 mins. Because my system wasnt drained completely I now wonder if I have left it long enough to get all the air out.

Will try filling and bleeding again this week. Fingers crossed. If that fails then its a trip for the sniffer check.

handsoff666 wrote:Hi, my fan belt snapped on the way to the gower and I thought I had pulled over in time to stop it overheating.

When that belt snapped a red light should have come on to warn you to stop. Did you stop straight away or ignore it and continue to drive on? If you had stopped straight away the rest would not normally happen as it would be the same as switching the engine off as normal.

When you blow through the cap, it should make a quacking noise, like a duck no quacky, no goody.....
Brickwerks sell two types the cheaper one is as good as the dearer one.

I am hoping Simon (Brickwerks) will pop in here. The reason is, I seem to remember him (though it may have been somebody else) saying that the "one way" suck and blow test doesn't work unless the cap is screwed in position, summat to do with the design of the seal.

Now I could be totally wrong with the above, and I got shot down in flames last time I mentioned it

In reply to Ralph. We were cruising at 60 mph on m42 heading towards Tamworth. Light came on (we are both deaf and didn't hear the belt go). Unfortunately we were 2 miles from the services so we gambled on getting off the motorway....... I know...... I know. Thought we had made it as the steam only blew out the expansion tank after I switched off the engine . I had a spare belt in the camper and changed it and topped up the water and then went to the gower and back home to nottingham. Our baby sounds sweet but just can't get rid of this air in the system