Zetec westfield coolant help

[Black_S3]

Hi All,

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction as I'm a bit stuck.

I bought a 1.8 zetec westfield in January and drove it 300 miles home - without any issues. There was a very slight coolant leak - literally drops on the garage floor.... So I (stupidly) decided to replace the coolant hoses for silicone ones and this is where my headache starts!

I replicated the previous plumbing lay out as close as possible, but now when driving the coolant is coming back out the expansion tank cap and leaking through into the drivers foot well. This appears to only happen when the engine is under load & revving the hell out of it on the driveway doesn't replicate the issue. Coolant gauge on dash is steady around 90c and does rise towards 100 under fairly heavy use.

So far I have tried :

reducing the expansion tank feed to 19mm (this is the inlet size for the tank)
putting the rear of the car up on ramps while running the engine to clear any air locks
Driving the car and topping the coolant up after the car has cooled down for next use, hoping it's airlocks that will clear - I've probably done 400 miles of this.
Dropped the oil and coolant to check for mixing... There was no mixing, so I don't think this is a head failure... (maybe?)
By passed the heater

Any ideas would be great, even if it's just a garage in the Edinburgh area that could fix this!

[AdiT]

Could be as simple as a failed pressure cap. Either get it pressure tested at a garage or fit a new one (they're cheap enough to take a punt).

[NoCorseChris]

As long as you replicated the layout in terms of which point went to which, then most likely is just an airlock - they can be awkward to bleed sometimes. If some of the new hoses are longer/shorter/shaped differently that really won't matter once you get the air out. I had a similar issue after doing some work on our car that involved draining the coolant and simply wasn't careful when refilling to bleed it thoroughly. It was a while back, but ISTR that massaging the top hose really helped get the air out. Our car has the Racine water rail with a blanking cap at the front mounted thermostat housing. Main venting point is the pressure cap on the header tank.

As noted, the water in the footwell is probably overflow from the header tank seeping through the scuttle and down from there - they can be a pain to seal properly and some folk don't even try, preferring to lave the scuttle easy to remove rather than bonded down all the way round.

You may even find you need to put a bleed point in the top hose - depends on how it is plumbed and laid out really.

[Black_S3]

Thanks guys.

New coolant cap & bleed valve for the top point of the heater hose ordered.

How do people go about putting a bleed point in the top hose? (there is already one of sorts as there's a 9mm feed into the expansion tank where the top hose meets the engine).

[peterg1955]

NoCorseChris said:

As long as you replicated the layout in terms of which point went to which, then most likely is just an airlock - they can be awkward to bleed sometimes.

It'll be an airlock, zetec cooling layouts in Westfields were notorious for it when I had mine and that was 15 ye1ars ago!

Try getting the front of the car in the air as much as you can (ie jack it up and sit on axle stands)then run the engine with the rad cap off and massage the hoses as much as you can... you should see a few air bubbles and obviously the coolant level will drop so top it up as you go

[Black_S3]

peterg1955 said:

It'll be an airlock, zetec cooling layouts in Westfields were notorious for it when I had mine and that was 15 ye1ars ago!

Try getting the front of the car in the air as much as you can (ie jack it up and sit on axle stands)then run the engine with the rad cap off and massage the hoses as much as you can... you should see a few air bubbles and obviously the coolant level will drop so top it up as you go

Thanks Peter. I'll persevere for a bit longer before giving up! :-)

[anonymous-user]

I recently rebuilt the cooling system on my Zetec Fury with silicone hoses and completely changed the layout as I fitted a new radiator which has the outlets on the other side, and so far I've had no issues, but I did change the layout quite a lot and also included a bleed pipe from the top the radiator back to the small pipe on the expansion tank which is also T-ed into the small top pipe on the thermostat houseing so it would bleed itself - do you have that in your layout?

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 21st April 20:24

[anonymous-user]

This is the layout that I have on my Fury now:

[NoCorseChris]

It was (almost) funny when ours started playing up after the partial rebuild - it had been so long since I had last dropped the coolant I forgot about the issues with bleeding it.......

[Steve_D]

Silly question but you do have the water pump running in the right direction?
Seem to remember there are two different layouts.

Steve

[Black_S3]

JimSuperSix said:

This is the layout that I have on my Fury now:

Thanks Jim. Yes, identical to that including pipe diameters - apart from the 9mm feed from the top of the rad to the tank. Have a plan now to add a bleed on the top hose where it joins the rad - one of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151096580954?_trksid=p20...

I think that will achieve the same thing? I'm not skilled enough to weld onto the rad...

Edited by Black_S3 on Friday 22 April 04:02

[Black_S3]

Steve_D said:

Silly question but you do have the water pump running in the right direction?
Seem to remember there are two different layouts.

Steve

It's not a silly suggestion for this as searching brings up loads of people asking the same question with no answer apart from air locks. I am completely lost and actually hoping it was a head failure so I at least knew what the problem was!

This will be on the list before i take the car to a garage . I trust the engine though as it was built by the guy who did the cambelt change guide for wscc.... Also it was fine before i got my mits on it!

Thanks

[Black_S3]

NoCorseChris said:

It was (almost) funny when ours started playing up after the partial rebuild - it had been so long since I had last dropped the coolant I forgot about the issues with bleeding it.......

Funny it is not glad to hear someone else has had the same issues... Makes it easier to keep trying!

[NoCorseChris]

Part of the problem with this sort of thing is that there are so many ways it could have been done, many good and some bad, that specific advice is difficult, but all you've said does suggest nothing more sinister than an airlock.

But, for the sake of rigor, do make absolutely sure all the hose clips are tight, and seating properly. A while back now, but a mate had an Alfa V6 engined kit and it kept barfing coolant, but only under certain circumstances and not all the time either. After an awful lot of grief...it turned out to be a loose clip on the bleed line that went to the header tank.

[Black_S3]

Steve_D said:

Silly question but you do have the water pump running in the right direction?
Seem to remember there are two different layouts.

Steve

Please excuse the ignorant question, but which way would people expect the coolant to be flowing? Out at the thermostat? Or out at the bottom hose/water pump.

[Steve_D]

I'm not a Zetec specialist so someone may have a better answer but I believe the Zetec had two different versions during its iterations with different flow paths.

Most engines have the stat at the top of the engine and in the flow to the top of the radiator. The water pump then effectively sucks the water from the bottom of the radiator and pumps it into the bottom of the engine. The heater normally takes its supply from the top of the engine and before the stat so the heater comes up to temp before the stat opens. The heater return often goes directly onto the pump but will be thereabouts.

Steve

[Black_S3]

Thanks - Mine is as you explained. I'll do some more digging on the engine codes to confirm it's not an odd one.

[Steve_D]

Post a picture of your drive belt routing.
I know I have seen plenty of engines running an extra idle wheel so the belt can route the right way.

Steve

[Steve_D]

Just copied this over from locostbuilders. see link below

All 2l mondeo zetecs pumps are designed to run anticlockwise viewed from in front of the engine(apart from the usa one). 1.8 silvertop escort water pumps are designed to run clockwise and bolt straight on to 2l silvertops. Get the 1.8's ribbed pulley as well. Phase 3 or blacktop zetecs can use the usa pump or more usually an idler-pulley fitted above and to the right (viewed from in front of the engine) of the pump pulley so the pump can be driven anticlockwise from the back of the belt.
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=...

[Edited on 23/11/07 by Dusty]

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/2/viewthread...

[anonymous-user]

There's a good list of engine numbers and dates on Burton's website:

http://www.burtonpower.com/tuning-guides/tuning-gu...



Lots of good info here:

http://www.toyne.org.uk/docs.html



And also here, including belt directions and runs and cooling layouts etc..:

http://www.zetecinside.com/xr2/stepbystep1.shtml#s...