Club 80-90 Forums

Continuing on from my posting below...

viewtopic.php?t=176884

....... my camper is suffering from a rather strange coolant phenomenon (or is it?). I hope you can help?

A head stud started leaking. So l tightened it, only to make the leak worse! But it didnt detract me from driving in extremely hot weather. And on my nine hours drive to T3 Bus Meet the coolant dropped considerably (almost empty) in the tank behind the flap;
yet the main coolant tank stayed at nearly full.

Then l noticed a drip of coolant from the feed rubber pipe (rear off side) where it connects to the long plastic pipe. I tried tightening the jubilee clip but it continued leaking until engine had cooled down. Only then did it stop.

After T3 Meet l made my way to S Wales for a few days hiking. The camper continued to lose coolant when hot. But nothing when cold.

When l returned to Margate the replenished coolant in tank behind flap had disappeared again. Main tank still nearly full.

So l went about the task of draining coolant for the umpteenth time.
Then l noticed lots of minor coolant leaks at many joins. See photos.

Water pump to oil cooler


To thermostat housing


Feed pipe damaged and source of main coolant lose


Beneath oil cooler


To me it looks as if the coolant system is getting over pressurised. Not in the sense from a faulty fire ring though. As if the coolant is not expanding out through the blue dialek cap and getting directed to the the tank behind flap.

Yet it is drawing back from this tank into the main tank. So lm wondering about the role of the coolant expansion dialek cap? Does it use the same method for flow and return. Or two different systems.

Perhaps my coolant is being pushed out through weak spots in the system instead of the cap. But still drawing from the top up tank through the cap? Hence it emptying?

Your views please.

Regards
Stuart

Hi Stu.

Your final thesis of pressure being forced out of weak points, and coolant drawn back from expansion tank on cooling seems plausible to me.

Those dalek caps are cheap enough, so I suppose easy enough to eliminate.
I'm not going to be much help here aside from asking if it gets 'hot' when running? 
Excessive temp implies more pressure in the system.

Lastly - the long pipes front to rear used to leak on mine persistently too - even with two jubilee clips.
Turns out the metal inserts you can see in your pic were corroded through. I ended up noticing when switching my solex carb to Pierburg ( from memory ) and  changed those piped for stainless Brickwerk replacements.

A bit excessive, but by then I was changing so much of the coolant system anyway, it felt that I might as well 

 

Cheers Smiffo,
That my way of thinking at the mo. Cap works only when drawing and not feeding tank behind flap.
That is exactly the same damage on the long feed pipe here. Internal end metal support has rusted through and broken away.
I have an original used spare plastic one 025121399M. But fitting may be a bugger as it is full length. I could cut old and new then use a joining section of 38mm ID rubber hose? Otherwise its tank out time.. AGAIN!
New cap on order?
Thanks, matey!

My steel pipes came in two halves for return and send - and I still had to drop the tank.
I think I recall people advising it could be done without, but I was on my back, on the floor, mid February with coolant in my hair.

Mine were zip tied into position above the tank 

Coolant temp runs fine according to the gauge. In fact it behaved very well driving in low 30's on some days. Plus a delay on M2 homeward bound caused no issues.

BTW, lve done the cap quack test according to....

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?setm ... ORM=WRVORC

I love this. Makes me smile every time.