An Idea about the wedge overheating
Discussion
One of my mates who and i quote "Works for VW" came up with a suggestion for the Wedge overheating after i asked him what his thoughts were being a professional.
His 1st question......."Has it got any water in" FFS
His 2nd question after i said "YES"
"Was the car acting different from normal"
My reply was.......... Are you serious...... "yes why wouldnt i be"........... Liseten pal stop pissing me about i need to go on PH and try and find out the problem with my cooling system. "ok if you dont want to know whats wrong with your car what do i care?"
Me...Yes mate on your way
FFS its getting worse
Dix
His 1st question......."Has it got any water in" FFS
His 2nd question after i said "YES"
"Was the car acting different from normal"
My reply was.......... Are you serious...... "yes why wouldnt i be"........... Liseten pal stop pissing me about i need to go on PH and try and find out the problem with my cooling system. "ok if you dont want to know whats wrong with your car what do i care?"
Me...Yes mate on your way
FFS its getting worse
Dix
Hi Mate..Did you recently have your coolant changed?..As mine started to play up when i had it done..I made it worst by changing the temperature sensor without calibrating it with the gauge and now my gauge reads 280F which would explode if it was true..I got a probe thermometer and checked in the expansion tank and it was 180-185F..Can you see any leaks or staining anywhere..One of my core plugs was leaking..Bar's leaks sorted it..(not the crumble in one)..If you have no leaks does your fan kick in and turn off and do you have heat coming out of your fan on high?..Zig
If your mate is largely experienced on modern cars his best guess might still be wide of the mark as modern engine management systems compensate (or try to) for more parameters being out of whack than was the case when the Lucas injection was around.
You either have a leak or a blockage. Blocked rad, stuck 'stat, blocked waterway. As you probably had good antifreeze in there the last is out. Besides, the RV8 has massive spaces for coolant to circulate, it would take a hell of a silt-up to stop it.
You mentioned an odd leaky pipe; that could be caused by excess pressure in the system, which itself might be down to a head gasket leak allowing combustion gases into the water jacket. It is, after all, quite a common mode of failure. As John the gas says, you can add a chemical to the water to check for that. If it proves to not be that AND the stat is not stuck AND you have no other leaks then you could consider an airlock - though that usually requires a leak to lose some water for the airlock to form.
One other suspect component these days is Ye Olde Ford header tank; they split like an untaped hamster.
On a modern engine I'd go as far as to suggest a cracked cylinder head; they are designed using CADCAM techniques to use as little alloy as possible with the result that you get thin walls that can't cope with the heat cycling. But on a RV8? I'll bare my arse at Andy Capp's statue if it's a cracked head. The reason you can open all the ports out so far is down to the amount of alloy in those heads.
It could be old-fashioned overheating due to the ignition timing being too far advanced - so the fuel/air is igniting before the piston reaches TDC. However you'd have to have the mechanical ineptitude of my ex-wife to not notice the engine running poorly and/or clattering like something from Fred Dibnah's potting shed. (I think I'm fairly safe in that analogy since my ex once rang me in a huff from somewhere on the A19 to tell me that the car 'made a funny noise and stopped'. I followed the trail of oil and found the Xantia in a layby with a conrod through the front of the sump. Apparently the low oil light had been flashing for several weeks and she hadn't thought to mention it
)
I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it, Jeff
Look on the bright side: my car needs an MOT... 
You either have a leak or a blockage. Blocked rad, stuck 'stat, blocked waterway. As you probably had good antifreeze in there the last is out. Besides, the RV8 has massive spaces for coolant to circulate, it would take a hell of a silt-up to stop it.
You mentioned an odd leaky pipe; that could be caused by excess pressure in the system, which itself might be down to a head gasket leak allowing combustion gases into the water jacket. It is, after all, quite a common mode of failure. As John the gas says, you can add a chemical to the water to check for that. If it proves to not be that AND the stat is not stuck AND you have no other leaks then you could consider an airlock - though that usually requires a leak to lose some water for the airlock to form.
One other suspect component these days is Ye Olde Ford header tank; they split like an untaped hamster.
On a modern engine I'd go as far as to suggest a cracked cylinder head; they are designed using CADCAM techniques to use as little alloy as possible with the result that you get thin walls that can't cope with the heat cycling. But on a RV8? I'll bare my arse at Andy Capp's statue if it's a cracked head. The reason you can open all the ports out so far is down to the amount of alloy in those heads.
It could be old-fashioned overheating due to the ignition timing being too far advanced - so the fuel/air is igniting before the piston reaches TDC. However you'd have to have the mechanical ineptitude of my ex-wife to not notice the engine running poorly and/or clattering like something from Fred Dibnah's potting shed. (I think I'm fairly safe in that analogy since my ex once rang me in a huff from somewhere on the A19 to tell me that the car 'made a funny noise and stopped'. I followed the trail of oil and found the Xantia in a layby with a conrod through the front of the sump. Apparently the low oil light had been flashing for several weeks and she hadn't thought to mention it
)I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it, Jeff
Look on the bright side: my car needs an MOT... Ian you need to write a novel sunshine. Every line of that was informative but yet held with contempt and a chuckle in every key you hit
! truly the funniest and cleverest wedger we have on this forum, and yes Ian we will get to the bottom of this if it kills me. Thanks for the advice an Friday and taking the time out to listen to a panicing northern lunatic whao had ran out of "Chuddy"
Dix
! truly the funniest and cleverest wedger we have on this forum, and yes Ian we will get to the bottom of this if it kills me. Thanks for the advice an Friday and taking the time out to listen to a panicing northern lunatic whao had ran out of "Chuddy"Dix
When I first got my 350i, it would take forever to heat up - had a look and sure enough, no thermostat fitted...
Put in a new thermostat and it heated up fine on the drive. First decent run out, hit some traffic and the temperature just climbed and climbed even with the fans on full. Got it home, tested the thermostat in boiling water and it opened no probs. Drilled a 1.5mm hole in the outer flange and installed it with that at the top and bingo - bye bye airlock and it was fine from then on.
You can also get the stat with a jiggle pin - has to be at the top - which does the same thing.
Just an idea?
Put in a new thermostat and it heated up fine on the drive. First decent run out, hit some traffic and the temperature just climbed and climbed even with the fans on full. Got it home, tested the thermostat in boiling water and it opened no probs. Drilled a 1.5mm hole in the outer flange and installed it with that at the top and bingo - bye bye airlock and it was fine from then on.
You can also get the stat with a jiggle pin - has to be at the top - which does the same thing.
Just an idea?
Run the engine from cold and check the top hose by hand. If it doesn't heat up after a couple of minutes then the water pump is ineffective or the stat is not opening.
If you haven't been using inhibitor or antifreeze you can end up with the water galleries eating through and leaks there.
If the car warms up on idle and the fan comes on and it doesn't overheat (all on idle) and no water pisses onto the garage floor (i.e. an obvious leak), but then when you take it for a drive it chucks its water out, this points to a head gasket leak. It might even be the heads lifting cos the bolts are stretching.
Make up a temporary catch tank to see if it's chucking out water and when.
If you haven't been using inhibitor or antifreeze you can end up with the water galleries eating through and leaks there.
If the car warms up on idle and the fan comes on and it doesn't overheat (all on idle) and no water pisses onto the garage floor (i.e. an obvious leak), but then when you take it for a drive it chucks its water out, this points to a head gasket leak. It might even be the heads lifting cos the bolts are stretching.
Make up a temporary catch tank to see if it's chucking out water and when.
Appart from the obvious that others have already mentioned make sure you have sufficient antifreeze in the system and that you hve the correct LBS pressure cap on the expansion filler as the system works best at the correct pressure. The cap on those I belive is 15 LBS but check that in the book just to make sure.
GV said:
Are the pressure caps on in the right places eg: Spring loaded cap on to header tank - blank cap on to swan neck?
Yup all same same the only difference is i have changed the thermostat so i could keep a constant temp of 82 degrees in the car. Incidentaly when i think about it changing the thermostat didnt make any difference to the temp whatsoever on the way to Blackpool it was still sat at around 60-65 degrees! Could that be a pointer to a problem?Dix
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