Fuel and water issues

[davelou]

Hi all,
I have had intermitant problems with my van cutting out and stalling on ocassions .As in driving up to islands and junctions my tickover drops and starts dipping and rising as if lack of fuel When this starts sometimes the van will cut out as i'm driving along This happens randomly,but seens to be when on a journey of over say 60 or so miles never when doing short runs, work ect Yesterday went to nottingham and after about 70 odd miles started stalling ect. Decided to try and clear any possable rubbish out of fuel system by holding it in gear up to about 4000 rpm,eased off and made no difference, all the time keeping eye on temp gauge which had moved up to 12 oclock.Shortly after normal driving, needle started to rise Pulled over and the header tank was spitting out water through top overflow pipe Waited for some time and saw bubbles comming out of top hose into header tank Topped tank back up after waiting ages and continued on way. On getting to location after strugling at islands as before we parked up for about 5 hours.The water level slowly dropped as the engine cooled When we set off for home topped back up to normal fill level and carried spare water with us.After about 50 miles temp rose to 12 oclock and same fuel type issues started We pulled over and let engine cool but no water spat out ect After letting engine cool down we drove home another 30 or so miles slowly watching gauge slightly rising droping back to normal ect On getting home we hadn't lost any water or had any bubbling but water level had risen up to top of header tank Any ideas I'm worried how much this will cost me ect Dave

[francophile1947]

Is there any sign of steam in the exhaust? It rather sounds as if you may have a head gasket problem. You certainly sound as if there is air in the cooling system, so bleed it in accordance with the fact sheet in the Member's Area.
The stalling could just be a blocked fuel of banjo filter, but it sounds as if you may be losing coolant into a cylinder once the engine overheats.
The standard temperature gauge doesn't go above 11 o'clock until the engine is seriously overheating.
Fingers crossed for you, as a new head and gasket costs well over £1000 fitted

[mister munkey]

Whats under the seats Dave?

Diesel, V6 or four pot?

[davelou]

Hi franco, my thoughts as well, but there is no steam in exhaust or any difference in the oil either why would i get two problems at the same time though, or am i just unlucky Dave

[davelou]

Hi munkey, diesel. Dave

[francophile1947]

It may be that the two are unconnected.
Stalling could well be due to fuel starvation, especially the little banjo filter on the pump.
The overheating could just be due to a small leak somewhere (have you got a low coolant alarm?) and, as you don't appear to have had serious overheating, you may get away with just bleeding the system

[davelou]

Hi franco, Thanks for the reply, no coolant alarm fitted I've checked everywhere but cant seem to find any leak, but i do seem to loose a very small amount of fluid ,so i am loosing it somewhere Dave

[dobby]

Dave

We've just had the head done on ours If you are worried its gone then see if you can get a sniffer test done, we had a hose go first and then the head went after that.

Don't want to be a prophet of doom. Hope its ok

I've got a coolant alarm on mine and it didn't detect as the system pressurised.

[scanner]

The standard temperature gauge doesn't go above 11 o'clock until the engine is seriously overheating.

Yes, if you don't have a Mason Alarm fitted so that the temp gauge is modified to actually give any sort of meaningful reading, anything it tells you could be way too late.

[davelou]

Thanks for the replies, I've got to phone my mechanic up to do some tests Dave