Bongo Fury

jody wrote:just a bit gutted really. i've spent £1300 quid on it in the last 3 months - was looking forward to a holiday (was meant to be taking 6 people with me) and a week before i head off....this.

i'll try bleeding it but I have already driven it since flushing it through and not filling / bleeding it properly so I have probably f***ed it up even more.

As that garage/mechanic/Tw@t/whatever could have cost you a lot of money by not doing the job you asked him/her to do properly, they have failed in their "duty of care" to you and I would be threatening them with a very large claim.
Try and get it to Allan's for a proper opinion, an estimate of the damage and the cost of putting it right.
Then get advice from Trading Standards with a view to a small claims court action to recover your losses.

scanner wrote:

jody wrote:just a bit gutted really. i've spent £1300 quid on it in the last 3 months - was looking forward to a holiday (was meant to be taking 6 people with me) and a week before i head off....this.

i'll try bleeding it but I have already driven it since flushing it through and not filling / bleeding it properly so I have probably f***ed it up even more.

As that garage/mechanic/Tw@t/whatever could have cost you a lot of money by not doing the job you asked him/her to do properly, they have failed in their "duty of care" to you and I would be threatening them with a very large claim.
Try and get it to Allan's for a proper opinion, an estimate of the damage and the cost of putting it right.
Then get advice from Trading Standards with a view to a small claims court action to recover your losses.

I typed something very similar and agree whole heartedly

I was thinking the same, not gona be an easy one to prove, but may be an option.

missfixit70 wrote:I was thinking the same, not gona be an easy one to prove, but may be an option.

Not sure how I could prove anything to be honest. They sent it away for a head / pressure test, replaced the gasket, flushed everything through etc. The only dubious bit is whether or not they bled it properly on Monday before I drove it as it over heated again. There advice to me was to just gently lower the bleed pipe if I was going to flush it through and refill it myself.

the important thing at the moment is the thermostat is there 1 in the system or did it get left out?

westonwarrior wrote:the important thing at the moment is the thermostat is there 1 in the system or did it get left out?

Pretty sure it's left out.

Now I am no techie and I don't pretend to be, the others who are helping you have a much better understanding of the system than I do.

But I do know the thermostat is there for a reason and that the bleed process is as it is because an airlock builds behind the stat and it needs to get hot enough to open to release that airlock.

With no stat you mech is probably right in it does not need bleeding as per the video.

A stat is is fitted for a reason and is removed by mechanics to disguise other problems like overheating.

Not just the stat that creates a need for bleeding, but it should be a quicker/easier process to bleed without one (although it should react differently from the start if using the funnel/seesaw method), trouble is, the system is not running as it should without a stat, it is there to maintain optimum temperature. An effective repair has not been made to the cooling system if there is no stat. If it cannot run with a stat in, there is still an issue that needs sorting out properly.
What is/was the temp gauge doing? has this been modified in any way to give a meaningful reading? Unmodified, it should get up to around 11 o clock on the scale by @55 degrees & will sit there until well over 100 degrees, usually starts moving as overheating starts occuring.

missfixit70 wrote:Not just the stat that creates a need for bleeding, but it should be a quicker/easier process to bleed without one, trouble is, the system is not running as it should without a stat, it is there to maintain optimum temperature. An effective repair has not been made to the cooling system if there is no stat. If it cannot run with a stat in, there is still an issue that needs sorting out properly.
What is/was the temp gauge doing? has this been modified in any way to give a meaningful reading? Unmodified, it should get up to around 11 o clock on the scale by @55 degrees & will sit there until well over 100 degrees, usually starts moving as overheating starts occuring.

Up until the latest incident the temp stat was below the scale. When it began to overheat it went to about 1 o'clock. After I let the car cool (and presumably freed the block out of the pipe to the engine from the expansion tank) it dropped down again. When I drove it home earlier it was at the 1/4 mark.

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"?

jody wrote:

missfixit70 wrote:I was thinking the same, not gona be an easy one to prove, but may be an option.

Not sure how I could prove anything to be honest. They sent it away for a head / pressure test, replaced the gasket, flushed everything through etc. The only dubious bit is whether or not they bled it properly on Monday before I drove it as it over heated again. There advice to me was to just gently lower the bleed pipe if I was going to flush it through and refill it myself.

But by their own admission "didn't follow the required procedure" so didn't do the job properly or with adequate care - let them try to prove they did.

as the gasket around the edge thermostat is also the seal i wonder in that case whats sealing it?

wonkanoby wrote:as the gasket around the edge thermostat is also the seal i wonder in that case whats sealing it?

Hi,you butcher the thermostat and just use the flange and rubber seal.

Cheers..

PS you could also make a nebar or similar seal and use it without the thermostat flange..

missfixit70 wrote: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.

Did you check the bottom hose coming out of the rad to see if it was getting warm/hot when you bled it? Not a hugely relevant test IF there is no stat in there, but at least it would check the coolant is flowing (no airflow across the rad so no real cooling @15degrees across a static rad at best once up to temp)
Bear in mind an unmodified gauge IS NOT telling you anything particularly useful, I would be very wary of driving it, without pressure testing the system etc, but TBH if there's terminal damage it's probably already done.
If the head had been done properly, the heaters should have been working again after spending £1300. The garage have not repaired it properly.