Sooooo, head gasket or duff radiator cap?

[Beeper 82]

1/ yes it does.

2/my hose pipe won't reach the garage which is 1.8 to 2.0 miles away, depending which route I take!

3/ yes, my finger can vouch for that as in the video.

4/ so am I.

Thanks for your input.

Edited April 6 by Beeper

[TimB 98]

I had a similar episode with one of my cars, an Avenger sorry for swearing. Had to change the thermostat housing and after I changed it, it did the same symptoms.

It stopped bubbling up when I took the thermostat out and it holds its water with no pressurising. Run it up hot and driven it, no pressurising. I’ve not checked the old thermostat or put a new one in yet, it’s a low use car, but suspect it was just a stubborn air lock somewhere in the system or faulty thermostat.

[Beeper 82]

I never thought of taking the 'stat out. I'll try that next time I go over to the lockup. I'll take a flask of boiling (almost) water, also I'll take my full size 'water' fire extinguisher with me as a stand in for a hose pipe, see if I can reverse flush some of that brown silt out! Watch this space.......

[Beeper 82]

Hi, I'm back again. I took the 'stat out, brought it home and tried it in a pan of boiling water, it eventually opened. Now let's go back a few years, around about the time I put the car away in the lockup I had the radiator re--cored. A year or three (maybe more) afterwards I noticed that the bottom of the rad where the galleries go into the bottom part, was a bit wet. "Great!" I thought, so I bought some radweld stuff and put that in. Now it cured the weeping rad but do you think that maybe it caused the thermostat to stick shut? As I said, it eventually opened in the pan, but not as quick as I expected.

 This afternoon I went to the lockup with two Ad-Blue containers full of fresh water (didn't take either of my big water fire extinguishers because after inspection, neither of them have a tyre valve on them, so I can't refill and repressure them! So no back flushing today! ) I took the bottom hose off, emptied the block, refitted it and put the housing back on without the 'stat. Filled it with clean water and started it up. Now I don't know if it is the head gasket of not! It's stopped flowing out of the top of the radiator but there are some small bubbles to start with and a little steam out of the tail pipe! I was just going to get a new gasket and take the head off today but I said to myself, "That's a job for another day!" (lazy git)

 

[sheffieldcortinacentre 747]

That amount looks like it's from condensation, you've got decent flow.

It shouldn't have jammed stat,was it all gunged up?

Did you have a thermometer in pan with stat as you heated it up so you could check temp it opened at ( it should be stamped on it)?

[Beeper 82]

No I didn't, I'll try it again now that I've remembered where my thermometer is! A nice long glass one from work! 88 is stamped on the 'stat, so now I'll have to double check it. It was a bit scaled up, kind of like what you get in a kettle. I know that varies depending on your location, but it wasn't anything like the kettles on the east coast. They look like the inside of Wookie Hole! Our water is pretty soft in this neck of the woods but, I don't know how long that thermostat has been sitting in that engine, and remember, I bought it from Wisbech!

 Well that's effed that up! I boiled a kettle 'cos I couldn't be bothered waiting for the pan to boil. I poured the boiled water into the pan, turned the ring on full, suspended the thermostat in the water and placed the thermostat, which I've had for years, into the water and CRACK!  The bulb on the bottom broke into pieces and there was a nice little blob of silver mercury rolling around in the bottom of the pan!  Yes, I should have put it in the cold water and waited but, I'm 60 now and I can't waste what time I have left.

Edited April 18 by Beeper

[sheffieldcortinacentre 747]

Lol seen worse scale.

 

We used to have to take a big bottle of tap water to caravan every time we went ( chapel st Leonard's) as dog wouldn't drink the water full stop down there.

[Beeper 82]

I remember when I was about 14, we went to Butlins Skegness and the kettles in the chalets (we went with friends) were totally choked up with lime stone. I can't call it scale because it was like a solid rock inside, covering the element, the base and half way up the sides. We all suffered from mild constipation for the week we were there! The water must have been clogging up our internal plumbing as well!

[sheffieldcortinacentre 747]

Yep used to break it of in chunks . I've not been back since I had to sell our last one in 03, we had three over the 28 years on same site happy memories. I want to remember the place like it was rather than the clone it is now.

[Beeper 82]

That's like Butlins Pwllheli in north Wales. I had a few very enjoyable holidays there as a kid, even took my at the time, GF/fiance' (that didn't last thankfully) along with my younger sister and her boyfriend there for a day visit back in 87 when I had my awful Mk4. Yearrrrs later, I took my wife, but it's now a Haven site and Jeez what a disappointment?!!! Nothing is free anymore. EVERYTHING is pay pay pay. No fairground, no snooker hall, no roller rink, no train or chairlifts to the beach,  which was a struggle for the Mrs who was walking with a stick at the time. Haven took a great camp, filled it with static caravans and turned it into a sh!t camp. I'll never return.

[sheffieldcortinacentre 747]

Everyone is obsessed with making everything the same now, but it's said it's because no one is willing to try anything new incase it doesn't make more money than last year, god forbid it makes a smaller profit as that means the investors will pull out.

Edited April 19 by sheffieldcortinacentre

[TimB 98]

Enjoying the tales of the past but back onto subject. 

If you put radweld in then parked it up soon after it may have settled and clogged up some small coolant passageways in the head, block, radiator etc. Then over the years of no use caused a partial blockage that is now upsetting free flow of coolant and maybe making air locks. Latest video doesn't look like enough pressure for head gasket problem. Other silt settling could do the same thing.

The stat saga, even with what you did I wouldn't expect it to explode. But suggests it was not in good order. 

I think it needs a course of short drives, warming it up, letting it cool then check coolant level/loss. May just settle down.

Exhaust mist looks like condensation from lack of use.

Pulling the head may find something but until you are ready to use the car regularly, I'd let that wait. 

Good luck.

[Beeper 82]

Unfortunately, going for short drives is out of the question due to the lack of brakes, so I agree, it's  probably clogged up with silt, especially as I pulled the bottom pipe off thus emptying the system, only for more silt to appear in the rad when I refilled it with fresh water and restarted it. I really want to get the old fella (my cars are always male, it makes them less tempremental) drivable again this year. Especially as the previous owner bought a brown 2Ltr GXL (spotted and posted on this site a few years back) and it doesn't even show up on the DVLA site anymore!

Edited April 22 by Beeper

[sierra3dr 53]

I would empty all the water you can,and flush it out with neat (undiluted) blue coolant

[markymarkthree 178]

2 hours ago, sierra3dr said:

I would empty all the water you can,and flush it out with neat (undiluted) blue coolant

Very much this.

If you are leaving just water in there, all you create is more rust.