Cooling system
Discussion
I have never had cooling issues and the system has always been easy to bleed and would work first time, so when stationary the fans would cut in and out around the indicated 85 to 90 deg range, during the winter one thing I did was to remove the heater pipework and just linked the feed and return to the heater together as recomended by some on here, but my issue now is that the fans will not reduce the temp far enough to cut out, they come on around 85 and rises and then holds around 88, that’s not so bad but I would like the fans to cool it and cutout, I have burped it, raised the front end etc but still no good, after every drive I check the bleed valve on the top right of the rad and find that the level is a little low and it takes about 100ml of water to refil, if I then open the swirl pot it is also a little low, maybe an inch, the expansion chamber is normally about 1/3 full although after todays drive I find it about 2/3 full, any ideas ??
Which system do you have? The later ones (not sure if introduced before serp engines) have the swirl pot fitted with brass cap and an expansion tank, fitted with blue pressure cap. The earlier ones had the swirl pot with the blue pressure cap and no expansion tank. IIRC, the latter's normal level on the swirl pot is about 1.5 inches below top, the later swirl pots should be 'full'.
It does sound as if you still have an airlock, have you tried the fill-it whilst-running (1500rpm) method? It's possibly covered in the handbook and it's in Steve Heath's book (I presume it's applicable to both versions).
Are you saying that the expansion tank is filling up, but the rad's level is lowering (so presumably the later system), is the small diameter inlet pipe on the expansion tank clear? - they sometimes clog up.
According to Steve Heath's book the serp cars have an H-shaped thermostat bypass pipe underv the dash, allowing a slight coolant flow to the rad even when the thermostat is closed. Presumably, disconnecting the heater pipes would affect this but not sure it would cause your issue.
Is the seal okay on the pressure cap?
It does sound as if you still have an airlock, have you tried the fill-it whilst-running (1500rpm) method? It's possibly covered in the handbook and it's in Steve Heath's book (I presume it's applicable to both versions).
Are you saying that the expansion tank is filling up, but the rad's level is lowering (so presumably the later system), is the small diameter inlet pipe on the expansion tank clear? - they sometimes clog up.
According to Steve Heath's book the serp cars have an H-shaped thermostat bypass pipe underv the dash, allowing a slight coolant flow to the rad even when the thermostat is closed. Presumably, disconnecting the heater pipes would affect this but not sure it would cause your issue.
Is the seal okay on the pressure cap?
Edited by TarquinMX5 on Sunday 2nd August 07:27
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