Off to France next week - or am I? :-(

[missfixit70]

the title of this thread is "Off to France next week - or am I?" The answer to that is not in this bongo in its present condition if you want to get there & back & enjoy your holiday IMO

[teenmal]

To be honest, with no stat in, the small hoses won't be doing that much, the majority of the flow will be going through the large hoses & rad, the system is not being allowed to work as it should. Were the heaters getting hot at all after the initial "repair"?

The heaters stopped working along time before the head job.

I just did the bleed (as best I could). 10-15 mins in (and a few 3rd degree burns later) I got to a point where by it stopped bubbling when I lowered the funnel and whereby I'd filled up the expansion tank enough to reach a stable level. When I finished, put the stopper in and put the cap on the expansion tank, the levels didn't drop at all. Does that sound ok? I'm going to leave it for a bit then take it for a drive and see what happens.

The temperature gauge got to about 1/4 - 1/3 of the way along, although I didn't race the engine at all.

Hi,how did you manage to burn yourself.

[jody]

To be honest, with no stat in, the small hoses won't be doing that much, the majority of the flow will be going through the large hoses & rad, the system is not being allowed to work as it should. Were the heaters getting hot at all after the initial "repair"?

The heaters stopped working along time before the head job.

I just did the bleed (as best I could). 10-15 mins in (and a few 3rd degree burns later) I got to a point where by it stopped bubbling when I lowered the funnel and whereby I'd filled up the expansion tank enough to reach a stable level. When I finished, put the stopper in and put the cap on the expansion tank, the levels didn't drop at all. Does that sound ok? I'm going to leave it for a bit then take it for a drive and see what happens.

The temperature gauge got to about 1/4 - 1/3 of the way along, although I didn't race the engine at all.

Hi,how did you manage to burn yourself.

The funnel didn't fit the bleed pipe so it kept seeping out all over my hands

[teenmal]

jodi,
The funnel didn't fit the bleed pipe so it kept seeping out all over my hands.

That looks like a dangerous practice,hope you are ok.

Cheers.

[jody]

Not had a problem since I'd done the youtube bleed - no water loss, no gurgling no pumping out water from the expansion tank. Until tonight. There seems to be a consistent pattern in that if I stop after it has been driven and restart the engine again (e.g. have parked up for a couple of minutes) then the water will start to boil up and over flow from the expansion tank.

Anyone got any ideas on that one?

I'm going to flush it through again tomorrow and re-bleed it with the funnel. Is it sometimes necessary to do a couple of bleeds?

[scanner]

Not had a problem since I'd done the youtube bleed - no water loss, no gurgling no pumping out water from the expansion tank. Until tonight. There seems to be a consistent pattern in that if I stop after it has been driven and restart the engine again (e.g. have parked up for a couple of minutes) then the water will start to boil up and over flow from the expansion tank.

Anyone got any ideas on that one?

I'm going to flush it through again tomorrow and re-bleed it with the funnel. Is it sometimes necessary to do a couple of bleeds?

Do you just stop the engine straight after quite a long drive?

If so it could be heatsoak - the engine is very hot and just dumps all that heat into the water in the block and as that has stopped circulating it doesn't get cooled.

Try letting the engine idle for a while after you stop and before you turn it off so the engine and the coolant cools down a bit before it stop circulating - see if that makes any difference.

If it has boiled up much and lost any amount of water, do make sure you bleed it again before driving.

[jody]

Not had a problem since I'd done the youtube bleed - no water loss, no gurgling no pumping out water from the expansion tank. Until tonight. There seems to be a consistent pattern in that if I stop after it has been driven and restart the engine again (e.g. have parked up for a couple of minutes) then the water will start to boil up and over flow from the expansion tank.

Anyone got any ideas on that one?

I'm going to flush it through again tomorrow and re-bleed it with the funnel. Is it sometimes necessary to do a couple of bleeds?

Do you just stop the engine straight after quite a long drive?

If so it could be heatsoak - the engine is very hot and just dumps all that heat into the water in the block and as that has stopped circulating it doesn't get cooled.

Try letting the engine idle for a while after you stop and before you turn it off so the engine and the coolant cools down a bit before it stop circulating - see if that makes any difference.

If it has boiled up much and lost any amount of water, do make sure you bleed it again before driving.

Thanks mate, will definitely bear that in mind. I did stop it straight away. The weird thing is I left it for 2 minutes and then drove it home without a problem. When I got home I could hear the water bubbling away in the expansion tank and there was a big gurgle when the engine stopped so I'm pretty sure there is air in there again.

[missfixit70]

If you're going to try bleeding it again, make sure you get a funnel to fit on the bleed pipe properly this time, it won't help the process if it's leaking out & scalds aren't much fun.
There is very little doubt in my mind that your head is goosed, if it's boiling over with no stat in, you got problems that a bleed isn't going to sort IMO. I know it's not what you want to hear

[jody]

If you're going to try bleeding it again, make sure you get a funnel to fit on the bleed pipe properly this time, it won't help the process if it's leaking out & scalds aren't much fun.
There is very little doubt in my mind that your head is goosed, if it's boiling over with no stat in, you got problems that a bleed isn't going to sort IMO. I know it's not what you want to hear

Definitely getting a new funnel!

Am trying to get the whole head thing straight in my mind so that I can confront the garage e.g. the sequence of events. Do you think it's more likely they missed it in the first place or that it went after the gasket job in April, possibly when the radiator blew in May? The gurgling in the expansion tank was there straight after the head gasket job as I spoke to them about it when I took it in for the radiator to get fixed.

I don't want to go in all guns blazing and have them pick holes in my argument leaving me no where else to go with it.

[missfixit70]

I'd refer you back to my answer earlier in the thread

Whoever your mechanic is sounds like he doesn't know what he's doing with bongos TBH. It is very rare for it just to be a head gasket, it is usually a replacement head needed, Allans in Plymouth doesn't charge much more than £1k to do just that, if you can talk to him, I would.

He sent the head away to test it for cracks and it came back as just being the gasket. The mechanic was surprised this was the case but said it wasn't impossible.

They're honest guys, but like you said - they probably don't know what they're doing with such a sophisticated piece of kit

Even if it was tested at working temp (which I doubt) there is a good chance the cracks would not show up, or they would only appear due to the stresses of being torqued down again. Most people that reuse the old head usually end up having to replace it within 6 months I'm afraid.

IMO, they knew that they'd not done the job right, or why did they not put a new stat in? This was left out to hide an issue IMO.
Sequence of events would be hard to prove, even if you got an independent engineers report, but leaving the stat out shows to me that they knew it wasn't right. Someone that doesn't know bongos could easily fall into the trap of thinking it's just the head gasket, only to find it didn't solve the problem. It's maybe worth trying to reason with them, but personally I'd say it now needs to go to someone who knows bongos.