Hi, ive posted before about my car cooking itself when driven 'spiritedly' and managed to solve the problem by wiring up the fans to the sidelights and turning them on when needed.

Bearing in mind it would spit a load of coolant out and bring up the warning light almost daily, i managed to go about 2 months after the fan mod without any trouble.

Now its started again - but worse. The temp needle has never risen above 90 (dead centre) but today it went up to about 110 (3/4 over) and lost alot of power. After stopping and checking the coolant tank, it was almost empty and with coolant all over the engine bay.

So far to try and sort this ive - had the radiator checked for leeks (its ok), changed the cooling system for new parts and the fan mod.

Darkside are scratching their heads on this one too and suggest it could be the head lifting and could possibly be solved with uprated studs etc.

Do i need a new headgasket? The coolant is its normal colour too.

Ive had enough of it cooking all the time! Please help me! Any advice would be most appreciated

Thanks

Tom

have you checked head bolts/ studs torque? they may need nipping down a little more although if it has been lifting and water / oil etc been passing over the gasket i would imagine it is damaged so may need replacing

I havent checked them, but they are on the list of things to do now! That sounds like it could be the answer, it must have been lifting and now its one time too many? Thanks for your help

Are head bolts on the PD engine one time use bolts?If so I would see about pulling the head off and fitting new bolt's

was just a thought ..... a fellow fitter at works father has a shogun which was leaking oil out of the head gasket re-torquing the head bolts solved the problem .... might be worth a shot for the sake of 10 mins vs the cost of a new head gasket etc.... its not unheard of for the pd engines to have the head lift a little

yes i believe they are stretch bolts so if you did have the head gasket changed they would be replaced

Oh yeah it's worth a try first of all to see if it cure's it, then pull apart for new items ideally. When I've changed HG's on other car's, I usually run the engine up on tickover without any water in till the block/head is coming warm to the touch then knock it off and then re-torque the head down and fill up with coolant.

Sounds good to me. As its been overheating for a while now, would it not be more likely that the HG was ruined now anyway?

Oh yeah it's worth a try first of all to see if it cure's it, then pull apart for new items ideally. When I've changed HG's on other car's, I usually run the engine up on tickover without any water in till the block/head is coming warm to the touch then knock it off and then re-torque the head down and fill up with coolant.

i would defiantly not recommend running an engine without any coolant in it. it would be very easy to damage the engine

if its been overheating for a while you may just have to bite the bullet and put a hg on it unfortunately

Edited 23 February, 201313 yr by Holmesie

Yeh i thought so! Nevermind, as long as it gets fixed il be happy thanks!

Never had headlift on mine and it runs 2.3 bar of pressure, Who did the mapping as that can cause lift when settings aren't quite right?

i would defiantly not recommend running an engine without any coolant in it. it would be very easy to damage the engine

Fastest way to cracked head . And tip from abroad .IF you loose coolant and find system very low -don't fill up with cold with engine off. Leave engine for a little time, then CAREFULLY remove cap . Once volcano has stopped, start engine and fill whilst running. less chance of warping this way ,as cold is circulated into hot . Done it in darkest ,hottest Africa ,where engines show 40c FIRST THING IN MORNING.

Fastest way to cracked head . And tip from abroad .IF you loose coolant and find system very low -don't fill up with cold with engine off. Leave engine for a little time, then CAREFULLY remove cap . Once volcano has stopped, start engine and fill whilst running. less chance of warping this way ,as cold is circulated into hot . Done it in darkest ,hottest Africa ,where engines show 40c FIRST THING IN MORNING.

agreed lol boiled engine and cold water isnt the best idea ..... never seen it done but heard of it ..... apparently it makes a awesome cracking noise

It was darksides old mapper from September last year who did it. There have been lots of others running maps by him on a big turbo and they arent experiencing any trouble.. its just me :( lol

I also have the same turbo from D S (albeit for just over a week) my coolant warning has been coming on occasionally since, I just added about 50ml of water to bring the level up enough to turn the dash warning off again. I'll keep an eye out for this.

Could be that the radiator core is partially blocked.

I would be inclined to run up the engine with the cooling fan wiring put back to standard. Then use an infra red thermometer scan the radiator from the front as see if there are any cool spots.

IR themometers are quite inexpensive. I got mine from Maplins.

SN

Blocked radiator was an inital thought but ive had it tested and it was ok. Its turned more serious now, can only drive the car gently for a short period and then on checking the coolant, its about an inch from the top. Not good.