Boiling up

[minicountryman1961]

Originally Posted by aerosam

Progress on this at last - but backwards

fitted a new stat and it boiled up as before............................................ .................................................. .................................................. ...............

Remember when you stuffed those paper towels in the lower radiator hose to stop the dripping, did you take them out?

The more I look at your photos, I think you motor is so freaking big it fills the engine compartment and the air can't go through the radiator cause it has nowhere to go.

[aerosam]

Originally Posted by minicountryman1961

Remember when you stuffed those paper towels in the lower radiator hose to stop the dripping, did you take them out?

The more I look at your photos, I think you motor is so freaking big it fills the engine compartment and the air can't go through the radiator cause it has nowhere to go.

Yeah there's no blockages. It is a massive motor dimensionally, the 90 degree vee makes it very wide. The photo's don't show it very well, but there is about 10" clearance bewteen the rad and the engine, and there is no bodywork within the wishbone mounts, providing large holes for the hot air to exit.

[js1uk]

Your header tank looks lower than the engine, The tank has to be slightly higher other wise the tank becomes just like abit of pipework. No expansion. Think of it like a central heating system.
What temp is your fan starting to come on????

[aerosam]

Originally Posted by js1uk

Your header tank looks lower than the engine, The tank has to be slightly higher other wise the tank becomes just like abit of pipework. No expansion. Think of it like a central heating system.
What temp is your fan starting to come on????

I've been wondering about the tank, the water level is higher than the top of the heads, albeit marginally. I was wondering if raising it some more would give a head of water above the engine which may help?

The fan isn't coming on as I'm not getting any waterflow through the rad as the (NEW) stat is apparently remaining closed.

[gaz05]

I'm trying to figure out your system. I take it the water is pushed through the heads/block by the water pump to the water rail at the back and then down the pipe in the centre back to the rad. I see the pipe is connected to the pump but I assume this is straight through the pump body to the rad.

Correct me please if I'm being thick but I notice on my tintops (both Zetecs) that the hose coming off the thermostat goes to the top hose on the rad and the pump is fed from the bottom hose. Yours appears to be the other way round.

[aerosam]

Originally Posted by gaz05

I'm trying to figure out your system. I take it the water is pushed through the heads/block by the water pump to the water rail at the back and then down the pipe in the centre back to the rad. I see the pipe is connected to the pump but I assume this is straight through the pump body to the rad.

Correct me please if I'm being thick but I notice on my tintops (both Zetecs) that the hose coming off the thermostat goes to the top hose on the rad and the pump is fed from the bottom hose. Yours appears to be the other way round.

the pump draws water from the block, and pushes it through 2 external pipes in the vee between the heads to the rear water rail where it flows back into the rear of the heads and round again. The rail also has 2 ports for the donor's heater matrix. The return from the matrix was a Y-pipe witht he expansion bottle on one end, I have attached the expansion bottle directly to this port and blanked the other.

At the front, the pipes from the pump are arranged as per the donor, with the thermostat side going to the bottom of the rad.

[flyerncle]

Check that you have flow returning to header tank otherwise you will have curculaition problems and it will boil.

The Ginetta I have stripped to make a decent car from (Roadster)has a feed to bottom hose from lowest part of header and returns to top of header from top hose.

[aerosam]

Originally Posted by flyerncle

Check that you have flow returning to header tank otherwise you will have curculaition problems and it will boil.

What do you mean? My header tank has only one pipe, rather than an inlet and outlet.

[flyerncle]

Usually a cooling system feeds water to the bottom hose from the base of the tank and returns through a pipe in the top hose to the header tank that is again usually seperate to the rad.

Beemers have a vent in the rad that must be bled otherwise you get problems with airlocks and overheating.

I have not checked the zetec from the Ginetta donor but suspect it has no stat in the back of the head but it used to run at about 70/75 deg at race speed and no more.

In my years as a mechanic I've done more than my fair share of Rover head gaskets and changed the stat and put two small holes in them to allow the water to flow easier and stop airlocks everytime I did one,this may help.