Water return

[mgglep]

Hi there everyone just wondered if it is necessary to run a return to the header tank on a pinto or would just a feed do many thanks in advance

[baz-r]

a friends dad had loads of overheating problems with his pinto'ed sierra it had been to about 4 garages and to a ford main dealer and had almost evey part of the cooling system replaced as well as a few head gaskets
the ford dealer told him the block must be cracked!

i had a look at it and noted the the bypass hose (small one to top of header) was not passing any coolent on fast idle so pulled the hose off and no coolent was leeking out of the union at engine end with it all blocked up with rusty sh1t

5mins with a drill bit and was good as gold

on most engines the coolent is vented from the engine up to the header tank with the stat closed this has two funtions the air can escape when the coolent is filled (stat will not open until the hot coolent meets it) and also it alows the coolent to move slowly around the block, up and back from the header, when the stat opens and changes the path to around the rad and back to the pump.

so i would conect it other bodge is to drill a bypass hole in stat or somewhere where it has the same effect
hope that helps.

[flyerncle]

Used to happen with old cvh engine's too,lack off decent antifreeze and never changing the coolant doesn't help,also a good sign that the water pump impeller has fallen off on VAG engines if there is no flow to the header tank.

Good call Baz.