oh dear coolant issues.

spana · Post by **spana** » Sat May 22, 2010 7:41 pm

bought me a bongo thats just had a brand new head fitted etc. thought what a winner! WRONG!
after 85 miles it has developed the dreaded boiling in the heder tank...
spent all day flushing pipes, replacing thermostat and bleeding the damn thing, and what do i get in return?! thats right a plume of blacky blue smoke. head gasket if im lucky, worst case all new cooling system new head etc

absolutly gutted.

anybody reccomend garages in shropshire? does "ian taylor" from market drayton come reccomended?!

cheers in advance eveybody

Northern Bongolow · Post by **Northern Bongolow** » Sat May 22, 2010 7:49 pm

hi sounds like an eventful day,

can you describe more accuratly what happened and in what order or have you had enough today.

welcome to the forum

spana · Post by **spana** » Sat May 22, 2010 7:58 pm

thanks for the welcome,
bought it, drove it home. went to work all fine.
poped to shops on thursday, got home and had a whole driveway full of rusty coolant.
ordered new stat etc and gave up until today
set about flushing system, had a blockage by front heater matrix, flushed it through. (loads of copper swarf was comming out-is that common?)
bled it in the proper fashion, heaters get hot (only when engine is reved though) turned heaters off, then funnel on breather pretty much exsploded about 10mins later (not just air bubbles actually boiling hot water, steam loads of pressure etc.)

waited for it too cool down, tried again, similar thing. thought what the hell and took it round the block, temp needle was fine etc. got back onto drive to a black smoke coming from the exaust. is it terminal?

missfixit70 · Post by **missfixit70** » Sat May 22, 2010 8:35 pm

Copper swarf doesn't sound good, has it got a new rad? Sounds like it wasn't flushed through before & after fitting. Wonder if it's killed the water pump? heaters only getting hot when revving ain't normal either.
Is there anyway you can take it back & get your money back as it's basically not fit for purpose. If it's had a new head etc is there any warranty with that work? Did they fix the cause of the head going in the first place? was it done properly?
If you're relying on an unmodified temp gauge to tell you anything useful, forget it, by the time it moves it's too late, it's damped down so it doesn't scare people. either fit a Mason alarm which resensitizes it - http://www.townace.plus.com/ie/ietemga2.htm or go for the modification outlined in the coolant alarms factsheet.
If you're prepared to spend the money on it, I'd get it to Ian Taylor, but if it were me I'd be knocking on the sellers door

I know this doesn't help you, but to any potential new owners looking to buy a bongo, walk away if it's "just had a new head" or any simimlar work, unless it's had at least 6 months tried & tested or cast iron warranties that will sort any issues, too many times this happens

Quick bodge job to get it sold on, then a load of grief for the new owner.

spana · Post by **spana** » Sat May 22, 2010 9:02 pm

here here,
yep im prepared to spend a bit on it, i take it ian taylor is exspensive then?
private sale unfortunatly (sold as seen etc)
i think the water pump is ok?!the bottom hose was getting hot!
does anybody know if its only the radiator that contains copper or do the heater matrix's have copper bits too?
as for the heaters they were blowing hot on tickover, but getting really hot at 2500rpm...

missfixit70 · Post by **missfixit70** » Sat May 22, 2010 9:19 pm

I don't think Ian Taylor is expensive, but, there's no telling what it'll cost to investigate & sort if you go that route.
May be worth rigging up a pressure test kit on the coolant system & seeing what that reveals - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=38823, sounds like it needs a huge amount of flushing if nowt else, especially if the original head issues were caused by incompatible coolants being mixed (which it so often is), but not least to get rid of any more swarf etc that shouldn't be in there.
Pretty sure the matrixes are just ally, but may be wrong on that.

spana · Post by **spana** » Sat May 22, 2010 9:41 pm

kewl, as it'l be sunny again tommorow im going to knock me one of them pressure testers up and have a play, pretty sure the damage is already done to the head etc, so atleast if i can find a leak, i'l have something to tell ian taylors about when i conatct him...
just been googling about copper swarf in coolant etc, cant find a great deal about it,, im not a mechanic so not entirely sure what to make of it really, i can only guess that the radiator has been eroded by some sort of chemical in the coolant?! so flushing, flushing and more flushing is order of the day.

1 more thing, once the pressure is pumped into the system, will there be a hissing or squeal from the offending leak, or just a dribble of water?

missfixit70 · Post by **missfixit70** » Sat May 22, 2010 9:58 pm

If it's full of water, you should see it/hear it leaking. Re the copper swarf, that's why I asked if a new rad had been fitted without flushing it first? Or it could be a chemical flush has been used that's too strong/not flushed out properly, as you say causing break up?

spana · Post by **spana** » Sat May 22, 2010 10:01 pm

no its a rusty old rad...
thanks so much for your help, lets hope tomorow's a better day and comes up with some answers?!
then i can start fitting all the loverly gubbins that i have already bought to camper it up

Post by **aitch** » Sat May 22, 2010 10:24 pm

welcome to the forum and good luck on getting it together quickly - a good one as yours will be once taken care of is a gem and you will enjoy it - hope it's soughted quickly without too much expense...

put your location in by clicking user control panel top right then you might get some help from local people to you,

You've Been Bongod · Post by **You've Been Bongod** » Sat May 22, 2010 10:40 pm

welcome to the forum
sorry to hear your bad news
on the plus side you have a pm

Northern Bongolow · Post by **Northern Bongolow** » Sun May 23, 2010 12:22 am

the only copper in the cooling system that i know of is the oil cooler inside the bottom plastic part of the coolant rad.look for two 1 inch pipes going in at the bottom.if this has failed/leaked/broken up, it could have gone through the water pump and shreaded it,check for signs in the gearbox if its an auto

widdowson2008 · Post by **widdowson2008** » Sun May 23, 2010 6:23 am

Northern Bongolow wrote:the only copper in the cooling system that i know of is the oil cooler inside the bottom plastic part of the coolant rad.look for two 1 inch pipes going in at the bottom.if this has failed/leaked/broken up, it could have gone through the water pump and shreaded it,check for signs in the gearbox if its an auto

Hi Ady
Looks a bit like brass to me rather than copper (from your excellent p/b pics - have you spoken to Chell yet?)
The copper colour on the cooler pipe is probably left by the coolant - similar to the deposits in the stat housing - see pic

I suspect what spana is talking about is rust.

spana · Post by **spana** » Sun May 23, 2010 8:49 am

no, its definatly not rust or brass, its without a shadow of a doubt copper.
the partical sizes was ranging from microns to about .5mm and i'd say all in all there was enough in the whole system to fill something the size of a tea light candle. most of it came out through the rear heater pipework when i flushed them through.

going to have another flush through today and maybe take rad off totally,

got ian taylors number now so hopefully sometime soon i can ejoy it

widdowson2008 · Post by **widdowson2008** » Sun May 23, 2010 8:58 am

So if it is definitely copper, where can it be coming from? Could cabin heaters have some copper content?
Perhaps Ady can have a closer look at his disected rad and confirm what the ATF cooler is made of (still think that bit looks brass)
Whatever it is, you don't really want it wandering around the cooling system - needs clearing out.

oh dear coolant issues.

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