So for the last god-know-how-long, I've been without heaters on my GTE. I replaced the blower motors which had rusted away to nothing this week but that didn't cure it. So I'm driving back to the garage this morning, windows down so the car doesn't mist up, 17 layers of clothing on cos it's fooking freezing, lo and behold there is a b1tch of a traffic jam around South Mimms services and I'm stuck there for ages trying to get around to go through the back roads through London Colney. Big crash there on the M25 apparently, and people wanting to get onto the now closed M25 driving like see-you-next-tuesday's and cutting off all lanes including the ones going to the A1 and services.

So I'm crawling through the traffic, freezing my **** off, and the BMW in front starts to pour white smoke out of its exhaust. Wait, hold on, that's coming out around my bonnet....

Quick glance at my temp gauge, 140 degrees c :eek:

Pull over, bonnet up, steam everywhere, coolant everywhere. Oh the irony. There's me freezing my **** off because not a puff of warm air is going into the cabin, meanwhile the engine is happily poaching itself :thumbdwn:

So I left it there, walked to the nearest garage and got some bottled water and antifreeze. Topped it up, turned it over, topped it up again, the took a few pointers from the M25 lot and didn't let any kerbs, islands or grass verges cause me to sit in traffic any longer happily the Scim has good ground clearance and 70 profile tyres so you can get away with this sort of thing. Eventually dropped the car off at the garage and strolled into work a little over an hour late :(

Went to the garage tonight, they reckon the blowers are connected up and working now, but not too clear on why it's overheating. Any suggestions people?

Sounds like a blockage in your cooling system somewhere that's stopping the water circulating properly. Thermostat would be first point of call followed by a thorough flush and if that doesn't cure it, sounds like you may have to get the heater matrix out. If I'm right, it would explain both the engine overheat and the lack of cabin heat.

I would go along with Nick.

How's the coolant looking - if its very dark / brown would be a good sign of sludge buildup which would block matrix and radiator cores.

The coolant wasn't at all brown, I flushed the system and replaced every hose on it not that long ago, but I haven't had the matrix or rad out to flush them through yet. If memory serves me I didn't set the heater to hot when I flushed it through last time though...

OK, got the scim back, heater matrix was clogged, once flushed through there was some heat coming into the cabin. Still reeks of petrol when you boot it or fling the back end around though, even though they fitted a new filler hose plus clamps and filler cap seal, very weird. Also, their repair to the fan blowers didn't even last the journey home. They reckoned the switch might be duff, fitted a new one this morning, no change. Also, they said the top water outlet was badly corroded (after incorrectly identifying it as the thermostat housing) and I tracked down a replacement and fitted it today. They were right, it was badly corroded however I'm damned if I know how they knew that! It clearly hadn't been taken off the car as one of the bolts sheared off when I tried to remove it, and the paper gasket disintegrated due to old age. Both of these things would have happened to the garage if they had attempted this task, which to me says they didn't and just bull****ted me, or at least only pulled off one of the rubber hoses and had a peek inside there - with virtually no view inside to the condition of this unit. Neither the replacement unit nor the garage bill were cheap, so I'll be going back there for a strop...

It's quite hard to bleed the cooling system on the Ford Cologne V6, I'm not sure if it has the same arrangement on the Essex V6. The thermostat is low in the system, so it's important that you fit a factory thermostat, complete with a 'jiggle valve'. If this is missing, air collects behind the thermostat, which stops it opening (it doesn't get hot enough).

The other trick is to drill 2 or 3 4mm holes in the thermostat. This makes it leak water a little all the time, but it also allows air through.

MOT time tomorrow... only one iffy patch that I know of - a rust hole in the front bumper cradle that I'm advised by a Scimitar specialist is an MOT advisory and not a fail... fingers crossed eh???

Also, the exhaust is shagged and I'm having to build another from universal parts. Mostly Jetex univeral pipes and sleeves. Anybody heard of Poly-zhaust? I'm getting a pair of backboxes made by them, plastic exhaust boxes apparently:

http://www.poly-zhaust.com/