yet more coolant issues

[WARRIOR72]

well its gotta be looked at im so angry i cant sleep thinking about the $$$$$$ thing .cambelt story?ill have a look at that.anyhoo at least when you fiddle with stuff your outcomes pretty impressive mate (you made my light bar,and my bonnet scoops yet ) well its a bank holiday monday hope the mrs dont think WE are doing anything and i at least know how the $$$$$$ thing goes back together!! i did blow the head bolt holes out with compressed air and thought they were reasonably clean but you never know.just hope i find something after taking it all apart again for my own state of mind!!just out of curiosity how can you check the blocks ok with the head off any pointers/tips? cheers

[POPEYE]

The cambelt thing was on a milners thread, they do a cambelt for £15 as opposed the roughtrax £25, but as TonyN said, do ya really want to trust a substandard belt for the sake of a tenner,
as for the bolt holes i'd give em a good digging about with a thin screwdriver and then blow em out, check the bolt lenght against the old ones? dont know,
Dont know how you'd check the block without the head on, guess you'd have to make up a plate and bolt it on then fill and presurise it, maybe use some dye, anyway good luck with it, these things are sods when they play up,

[WARRIOR72]

you know the one thing i didnt do was check the length of the bolts just checked i had the right quantity! never mind gonna rip it apart sunday. anyone else had problems with their block?

[BUSHWHACKER]

you know the one thing i didnt do was check the length of the bolts just checked i had the right quantity! never mind gonna rip it apart sunday. anyone else had problems with their block?

Have you tried topping up the coolant and leaving the rad cap off overnight?


The only thing I can think of is the head gasket.
Did it have all the holes in it to match up with the holes in the block/cylinder head?

[WARRIOR72]

Have you tried topping up the coolant and leaving the rad cap off overnight?


The only thing I can think of is the head gasket.
Did it have all the holes in it to match up with the holes in the block/cylinder head?

yes mate it was identical to old one and the heads were identical too.(minus the cracks!)left it overnight (last 3 nights!!) with cap off heaters open on hot setting and front end 'jacked up ' i think with the small deposits of oil and the amount of pressure its either a faulty gasket(possible i suppose!!) defective bolts or crack in block! i know i took great care cleaning the block/bolt holes and to the degree in torquing it down! (78nm +90 +90 deg in correct order) will be glad to find something wrong after i take it all off again or ill go mad

[POPEYE]

Hope you managed a good night's kip! seem to remember someone haveing a new head gasket blow to the water jacket recently, you'll soon see when you get it off, also i think you can check for cracks in the block face by smearing engineers blue on it and then s$$$$eing along with a very straight edge, summat like a peice of glass, hairline cracks show up better, i've also heard of cracks being ground out, welded and reskimmed, but not sure if it's done with engine in situe, guess if you have to take it out you might as well replace it with a short engine, or flog the soddin thing,

[WARRIOR72]

had a good chat with barry at roughtrax today very very helpful bloke knows his onions!! i didnt flush the radiator out or both the heater matrixes when i replaced the head, we reckon that that and using cheap defective e bay gaskets is the problem!!! just goes to show that trying to save a couple of quid doesnt always pay off! im just kinda glad that i can do all the labour side myself and this time round i know what to expect.thanks for your help guys and a big thank you to barry at roughtrax who didnt take the $$$$ too much and make me feel like a total t w a t.

[MattF]

Fingers crossed that the gasket sorts it. With the rad and matrixes, you want to flush them every which way from Sunday until the water goes through at full pelt and stays clear.

[POPEYE]

Yep as Matt said, just goes to show about "cheap" parts, let us know wot ya find, it's a bugga but at least your not spending a fortune on garage labour,
i'd get back to the ebay guy as well, kick off a bit,
The $hite that came out my rear heater was unbelievable, and most of it landed in my lap as the pipes were pointing at me doin well, knocked a pot of hammerite red over myself yesterday, it went right through to my feet,

[splasher]

Warrior try romoving one head bolt at a time and put a washer on it and torque it down with a torque wrench to 80 ft lbs. This is what i did to my surf. I had exactly the same problems you are having and it cured it. I repaired the stripped thread in the block by tapping it out to 14mm. Good luck mate and don't let the b****r wear you down.

[WARRIOR72]

right i got the head off, think i should get a reward now as i managed to get the whole thing off in around 2.5 hours on monday!! it was blowing across 2&3 cylinders and across into the water jacket! just glad i found something after all that . i do have one question though. when ive done heads before on the head bolts ive always put a small smear of copper ease on the threads and underneath the bolt head/washer, i didnt do this last time and used a squirt of a wd40 like maintenance spray (only a small squirt!!) on the thread.... now could this of added to my problems? i only ask as when i was undoing the head bolts i got a sound of air release as i undid a couple of them,coincidentally these bolts were not near the ones where the gasket had blown across!i know these bolt holes were very clean /dry before replacing head too...... just wonder if ive made a bad decision in using a spray lubricant on the threads and thats not helped the torque process?.any one know if tony n or stevo use anything on them? cheers guys. ps my neighbours looked at me in disbelief as i forced a garden hose into my rad and matrixes,and boy the c r a p that came out.... no way im ever having colonic irrigation

[Vagrant No2]

Before you refit the head , run a bolt up and down each thread hole in block and make sure it goes down to the bottom . As you do this it may disperse any oil/water that has run into them when removing head . When they are all done you know the bolts are not hyraulic locking in threads preventing full tightening and false torque reading . As for lubing threads , I always run just a line of engine oil down the threads from an oil can and then wipe most off . Oil only needs to wet the theads to lube them .