Club 80-90 Forums

evening all
right then ive got an 81 westey 1.6 tubro diesel which keeps on overheating on me its fine when i just drive around town and short trips the temp says at just under half which is ok but if i go on a daul track/motorway and sit at 60-70mph the temp gauge goes into orbit and then some
heres what ive done so far:-

1 brand new head fitted (complete with gaskets the lot)

2 changed water pump

3 changed stat

4 changed rad cap

5 new rad

6 new secondary water pump

7 bled until i cant bleed anymore

i think thats the lot and it still overheats when i stick at 60 mph plus

has anyone got any ideas to help me i do hope so
look forward to any replys

Sounds like you covered all the bases on cooling but have you tried another sender or maybe the voltage regulator in the instruments, is it really overheating or is it just the guage? cause really I can't see anything else to check.

Let's see a picture of the front of the van and the engine bay - if it's an '81 then that ain't a standard TD install, unless I'm much mishtaken, so let's see what you've got.

Let us know where about you are and people might actually appear and help, too.......

yep your right its not the original engine it was a 1.6 diesel when i had it but they had lost the engine(a long long story!) so i put the 1.6 turbo in instead which was out of a 85 t 25, it is over heating because a friend of mine burnt him self with the water ill try and get pics tomoz just out of interest why do you need one of the front? an i live in kidderminster

you did have the front of the van raised when bleeding the system didnt you.....

Rob, diesels shouldn't need raising to bleed - it's only the petrols that require that.

Given that a normal water system should be capable of comfortably running well over 100 deg C as the system is pressurised your mate getting scalded or burnt ain't much of an indication of overheating

How old is the rad? Possibly it was producing enough cooling effect for a 1.6D NA but the heat from the searing performance of the 1.6TD is just too much for a 25 year old rad....

the searing performance of the 1.6TD is just too much

ha, ha, good point tho, and i have another....are the hoses to the rad on the correct way round at the engine bay?

you say you've put in a new rad are the hoses right at this end too

Rob, diesels shouldn't need raising to bleed - it's only the petrols that require that.

Hi i live in Kidderminster with my 1.6td westy not seen you around what colour are you.

OH yea if you want to look at anything on mine your welcome. Simon.

thanks for all the replies

hi simoncummins my van is brown!! and its got a texas plate on the back and thanks for the offer to look at yours but a couple of my mates also from kidderminster and surrounding both have t 25s ones got the 1.6 turbo diesel and the other has a 1.9 tdi so ive been looking at theres

hi Diamond Hell the rad is a brand new one for a 1.6 turbo

im sure the rad hoses are the right way round but ill check against my friends to make sure first thing in the morning

and ive tried to bleed the van by lifting the front and the rear as theres alot of diffrent posts about bleeding ive tried the lot

cheers again if anyone else has got any ideas im all ears

So you must be near catchems end then i am just up on Ferndale.

This is not the only one to have problems with water!

You say new head- that means new?, and not been cracked by overheating .
Is the expansion tank quite 'still' when revving, i.e. no air coursing through it?
You mean new rad too?, as from a VW agent with the receipt?
try drilling couple 1/8th holes in the flange of thermostat - see if that helps
Are the big coolant pipes ok?, are they rusted up at one or both ends?
this does happen.
no flexble pipes trapped are there.
Thinking off top of head

does the electric fan work ok(about half way up the gauge) and is the fan sucking air from front to the rear i have know of instalations where the radiator fan ran backwards and when slow driving or ticking over the low air speed through the grill doesnt have enough power to fight against rearward flowing cooling fan air flow but at motorway speeds forward flowing air is as powerfull as the reverse radiator fan air flow so both directions of airflow hit each other and cancel out any airflow and makes coolant warm up very rapidly its like running the engine flat out on a engine dyno with no cooling fan