bigdaddycain wrote:This is an excellent thread for any newbie on the forum!
As it's varied in it's nature, yet maintaining the overall subject matter, thus covering a few aspects of one particular issue.
It's brilliant that the whole coolant debate (for want of a better term) is now taken seriously (sometimes a little too seriously)
when i'm in the correct state of mind i "contribute" what i can here and there on the subject. I'm no expert, have no mechanical background, but i have been told i'm quite sympathetic with anything mechanical. I'm also the type of fella that you won't see arguing unless i'm pretty sure i'm correct! (that's why i don't lose many arguments)
So let's get this whole subject into perspective... I have (as have others) Carried out a bit of research in Japan to see if they too have issues regarding our beloved bongo's overheating... (the biggest barrier in easily attaining info is the language barrier)
Computer based translations just don't cut it
The japanese appear not to have an issue with bongo's overheating... EXCEPT, if work has been carried out on the cooling sytem and the follow up bleed is problematic. I maintain, (as i have said previously) A fair share of problems with UK based bongo's can be attributed to the wrong type of coolant being added to the original japanese coolant with dire consequences. Until recently this has mainly been overlooked. Of course, another issue is that old,tired hoses have passed their prime, fail, then perhaps minor undetected damage has occured which would eventually lead to a major failiure (usually the cylinder head). Thankfully, no matter what bleeding technique is employed over here, the bongo has a back up self venting feature that often saves our bacon. The self venting isn't always adequate to remove all the air quickly enough, hence our efforts to intervine with our own bleeding. Bottom line? If the majority of the air is shifted, the bongo does the rest in a healthy system (yeah i said it!)
Now you can debate this with me as much as you like, but the fact remains that's just how it is!
We can argue the toss over the subtle nuances of the finer points of bleeding till the cows come home, the main thing is, we know we need to bleed,we know we have to be vigilant, we know to respect the system, if we look after it...it'll look after us!
so the old saying goes, same with bleeding the bongo engine , everyone has a preferred method to do this LITTLE job 
especially when it gets technical. 
for what its worth 
