Thirsty Beast

[Barnabyp]

I ha d a problem with overheating last week and took it to the garage who changed the thermostat as it was a tad dodgy. It all seems to 'boil' down to the head being changed last month. It has been drinking water. the garage said to check the water level after a couple of days incase there was any air bubbles left, as a precaution. I checked the level yesterday and had to put in about 1.5li. Thought i'd check this morning and had to put in a further 1li plus top up the level in the expansion tank. I thought the coolant system was a closed system apart from the overflow on the expansion tank.
Has anyone got any suggestions? I'm assuming it isn't the head or gasket as it would heat up straight away? also on wednesday, just before it overheated there was a whining noise that came in with the turbo being on for a while. This happened again this morning when i was going up hill.
Please help!

[Guest]

I ha d a problem with overheating last week and took it to the garage who changed the thermostat as it was a tad dodgy. It all seems to 'boil' down to the head being changed last month. It has been drinking water. the garage said to check the water level after a couple of days incase there was any air bubbles left, as a precaution. I checked the level yesterday and had to put in about 1.5li. Thought i'd check this morning and had to put in a further 1li plus top up the level in the expansion tank. I thought the coolant system was a closed system apart from the overflow on the expansion tank.
Has anyone got any suggestions? I'm assuming it isn't the head or gasket as it would heat up straight away? also on wednesday, just before it overheated there was a whining noise that came in with the turbo being on for a while. This happened again this morning when i was going up hill.
Please help!

Do you see any water loss like dripping on the ground etc?. It shouldn't in theory use any water as any expansion goes in the tank when hot and gets sucked back in when cold. It is a completely closed system with expansion and contraction handled by the expansion bottle.

Do you also have any white smoke that could indicate that the water is getting in the combustion chambers?. Also check the oil - is it increasing in level that would indicate water getting in the oil, also is it emulsifying (white or yellow gunge in the oil (check the oil filler cap on the rocker cover and also the dipstick).

The whining was probably the electric fan at the front of the radiator cutting in (if you have one).

Who fitted the head - was it a garage, if so take it back - they didn't do a good job.

It sounds to me either the head was faulty or the gasket bad or fitted badly. If you can't see any leaks from anywhere the chances are that the head or gasket are leaking internally.

Other possible problem areas - the radiator cap, the water pump, airlock in the system (quite possible if you have to keep topping it up as it is difficult to rid the system of air bubbles), blocked pipes (maybe the heater pipes).

I'm sure that there are a number of other areas that it could be but I think that is the main ones covered.

Cheers

[Barnabyp]

I'm going to my local garage tonight to get it Chemically tested for combustion gases. Hopefully it is the head, then i can charge the garage that did the head for the whole job, including getting the timing sorted out.
Fingers crossed.
Hopefully the whole surf saga will be over and i can get back to the 'General' part of the forum, praising the surf.

[Quinn]

Over heating

Hi mate,
dont know if this helps but have you checked the heater pipes under the truck that run to the rear heating system,especially where the fixing brackets join the pipes.Mine was loosing water, this was found to be the cause.Good luck.

[Barnabyp]

I took it to the garage yesterday to be chemically checked for head problems. There doesn't seem to be any combustion gases in the coolant. The garage suggested that it may be the rad cap releasing the pressure too early. They also suggested putting a bottle onto the expansion tank overflow to see if the water is exiting there. I did that this morning and after my journey to work the one litre bottle was overflowing and the water was boiling. I'm going to change the rad cap and see if it still does it.

[Koi]

I took it to the garage yesterday to be chemically checked for head problems. There doesn't seem to be any combustion gases in the coolant. The garage suggested that it may be the rad cap releasing the pressure too early. They also suggested putting a bottle onto the expansion tank overflow to see if the water is exiting there. I did that this morning and after my journey to work the one litre bottle was overflowing and the water was boiling. I'm going to change the rad cap and see if it still does it.

Could be the stat or the cap, should allow water to expand into the expansion tank and suck it back as the coolant cools down.
Make sure both heaters are set to hot to allow coolant to flow around the matrix's. I am not saying you are doing it but a common mistake is to try and fill the system via the expansion bottle, this is very wrong. Coolant should be topped up via the rad cap only.
Top up and run engine for a minute, giving a good couple of blast on the loud pedal. Top up again as required, repeat this several times until it won't take anymore coolant. Take for a run and check again, check again for the next couple of days. They can be a pain to get all the air out.