Engine Overheating

[rsg]

Hello all,

Hope you guys had a good christmas & new years - I'm sitting in South Africa enjoying my last 2 days of sun before I return to London.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's the weather (near 40 degrees in the sun today), but my GR started overheating today. The temp gauge always sits just below half way, and it started climbing while I was driving around today. I pulled over and filled up the reserve tank (about 1L was missing) and off I went.

A few km down the road I see the temp has started climbing again. I pull into a petrol station, fill it up and let the car idle. No leaks whatsoever.

I rev it a little, but still no leaks. I did a search but haven't found much on anything to do with this. Do you think it could be pressure in the cooling system somewhere? The radiator fan works just fine, yet my water level mysteriously keeps dropping, but only when I'm driving around.

Any ideas?

[kevinod]

Water disappearing in the engine somewhere can't be good... was your cylinder head gasket ever replaced?

[rsg]

Nope, never.

But the car is running prefectly fine - this is just bothering me a little. I've just fitted some iridium plugs and new leads, plus intake gasket - but thats been running fine for the past 2 weeks.

I'm letting the car cool down for a few hours and I'll take her out once the sun has gone down - I just thought someone might have an idea of what this could be...?

[kevinod]

Any mustardy stuff on the coolant filling cap? Just worried if your head gasket is leaking is the water getting into the head...

[rsg]

Just had a look, all the caps are clean.

I thought perhaps when driving around that pressure is higher and only then the water is leaking out....?

[kevinod]

Well when you're not driving around, the water and everything is sitting still, not getting circulated around by the water pump. If its not leaking when sitting still it must mean the leak is somewhere the water gets circulated to, if you follow.

I'm no mechanic, but I reckon if its not leaking anywhere you can see, and happens when you're driving (gets circulated around the block/head) it must be getting into somewhere it shouldn't be.

[Muad_dib77]

I'd try pouring in a couple of bottles of Rad-seal..

Might not be ideal - but if there is a mysterious leak somewhere it'd fix it..

** Click for mysterious bigness **


** No apologies for lame joke & "Huzzaaaah" for mspaint**

[CJ]

Check all hoses carefully and stick a roll of cling film in the glove box just in case:

http://www.fto-ireland.com/forum/phpBB2 ... php?t=4280

CJ

[The Bull]

Find a Bruce Sprinsteen CD and some cable ties also another FTO nut with a box of beer helps too

[rsg]

Well I'm back in London now - I don't get to drive my baby for another year!

I took the car out the other night and had cable ties, cling wrap and 5L of water - surprise surprise - no leaks or overheating. The problem seems to have just disappeared now so I'm stumped as to what was wrong.

Maybe I'll look to import the car here at some stage.

BTW, I fitted some dials from Funky Styling and they are the business. They come with a dimmer and colour changer, plus look very classy compared to some of the others I've seen. I'll try get some pics...

[Storm]

If you are only topping up through the overflow bottle then air will probably stay in the actual engine itself. you need to always top it up from the spout in the engine bay to ensure you have no air in the system as air will expand much more than water.

Arashi