1989 T3 with a 1.6d JP Golf engine
Posted: 20 Sep 2026, 16:40
Good evening everyone. This is my first post so be gentle lol. I've recently bought a T3 with the JP engine. The owner said he thinks that there is a head gasket issue. The expansion tank was knackered so I changed that which stopped all the coolant from spitting out. It was missing the second expansion tank (I have it now) so I used a bottle.
I bled, or thought I bled the system and I was driving it around without issues. The other day, I got home to find that one of the coolant pipes had popped off and the fan belt was missing.
Hence the overheat. I think I got home before any major damage was sustained. I hope lol. I refilled the system and the particles in the water looked like coffee grinds. I've spent the last 2 days trying to bleed the system and I keep getting surges of coolant from the expansion tank when running at 2k revs. The radiator at the front seeps, then bubbles and this continues.
After some research and Gemini assistance, a potential reason for the boiling is they the cylinder head nipple is not connected to the expansion bottle.
I've found the nipple, which is in the picture. But it's not connected to anything. I can't find a definitive answer, does it need to have the T3 nipple which connects to the expansion tank or is the one currently fitted the correct one to use? It has a nipple with what looks like a nail blocking the hole. Thanks for your help!
I bled, or thought I bled the system and I was driving it around without issues. The other day, I got home to find that one of the coolant pipes had popped off and the fan belt was missing.
Hence the overheat. I think I got home before any major damage was sustained. I hope lol. I refilled the system and the particles in the water looked like coffee grinds. I've spent the last 2 days trying to bleed the system and I keep getting surges of coolant from the expansion tank when running at 2k revs. The radiator at the front seeps, then bubbles and this continues.
After some research and Gemini assistance, a potential reason for the boiling is they the cylinder head nipple is not connected to the expansion bottle.
I've found the nipple, which is in the picture. But it's not connected to anything. I can't find a definitive answer, does it need to have the T3 nipple which connects to the expansion tank or is the one currently fitted the correct one to use? It has a nipple with what looks like a nail blocking the hole. Thanks for your help!
