Bongo Fury

This bleed pipe (deliberately split to clear blockage) was completely blocked for a length of about 400mm.
Ady will be able to add more info if he sees this. He bled the said Bongo at the bash, despite the state of the bleed hose.
The blockage was of the consistency of damp clay - very fine particles.
Could this be the gunge created when mixing Jap and English coolants? or is it simply a build up of rust particles?

Oh dear, that doesn't look good!
I would undo the tap on the drivers side bottom of the radiator & try taking a sample of the coolant from there.
If the coolant sample has traces of crud/sediment in it , you may have to consider a thourough flushing of your coolant system.
( if you take the header tank top off first, the head height of coolant should prevent air entering the coolant syatem as you collect )

Nigel.

the owners of the bongo had arrived arrived at the bash in their newly purchaced bongo, to find no coolant in the exp tank.
on checking the system through with a view to filling/bleeding/pressure testing the pipe was found to be blocked.
it was not practical to flush the system at the bash as we would have liked to, the mission really was to get the owner home in one piece, this we did.
the whole cooling system was coloured like this,but at least the coolant was flowing, the owners father is a mechanic so it was going to be done when they got home.

i have had pm's from the owner who says that its in the garage as we write, but no info yet as to what was found.
they may read this and comment.

dont know exactlywhat the stuff was but as steve says it looked and felt like clay deposits, which when dried out went into a very fine powder.

recomended a sever flush through and maybe a new waterpump/rad/stat.

Well I would say it's either steel seal or another type of leak sealant. It goes into like a wall paper paste after a few weeks and by the looks of that photo it Looks like its been put into a car that has rust in the system and has collected the rust in with the paste and has set into what you see here.

I wouldn't be surprised if the said bongo has a cracked head and the old owner put some steel seal into the system and not flushed it out before hand.

What was the rad like?, did this have any sort of blockage in Ady?

This is just my opinion and not meant to be fact, the reason I think this is because when had an issue with the works merc sprinter van with a leaking rad, I recommended steel seal as a temporary measure as we need the van for a fitting job and didnt have time to wait for it to be repaired, so we put a bottle of steel seal in and used the van for a week, then it was sat in the yard for a week after that untill the new rad was fitted (without any coolant leaks I might add).

When I picked the van up from the garage the mechanic showed me the old rad and it had what I can only describe as thick wall paper paste in the neck of the rad, he knew straight away that it had some sort of rad weld put into the system.

So maybe worth checking your system especially the rad neck and the bleed hose if you have used steel seal on your bongo>

My goodness, does that ever look familiar! I discovered much the same when my RAD shop cleaned out 'each' vane.
It was like mud/shale mix.

I totally agree with Hadyn's evaluation when this happens. Clean-out/Replace the RAD, Engine, Heater(s), pipes, and install new stat, pump & hoses. Clean out Expansion tank thoroughly too!

That is my 2p [pennies!] worth.

you could be right wayne,didnt find any blockages and it bled up fine.
but the main concern was getting it watertight/airtight and bled so they could get home.

Kseal wouldn't do that.... cant answer for Steel Seal.........for me it looks like a UK/Jap coolant mix...... that is if of course the coolant was a sludgy brown when flushed....

The Mojo wrist band you are wearing on the left wrist has caused a "reality drain" on the bleed hose replacing coolant with clay..!

The rest of the coolant system may have been coloured like this but wasn't as heavily affected due to the low level effect of the Mojo wrist band...

I wager Steve, you were at the bleed hose end at the time??

The "reality drain" can only have caused what is known as the Swayze effect...



Ady.. You will learn next time not to listen to the Righteous Brothers when bleeding a Bongo!

Unless it tasted like marrowbone....?!

widdowson2008 wrote:

jaylee wrote:
The Mojo wrist band you are wearing on the left wrist has caused a "reality drain" on the bleed hose replacing coolant with clay..!
Need to get onto Mojo if it has that effect
Do ya think I'll get a refund?

The rest of the coolant system may have been coloured like this but wasn't as heavily affected due to the low level effect of the Mojo wrist band...
So you think it may have something to do with the proximity?
.....cos..........
I wager Steve, you were at the bleed hose end at the time??
Yes, I was at that end

I've been saying all weekend at the bash those bands are no good man...!
People with transponder immobilizers not getting home...? & now its worse than i thought!!

thanks for your valuable imput jamie .
the record on her radio did make you smile as i remember .
maybe it is the swayzee effect after all. you're barking mate .

how was the wine, or did the mrs drink it all

The wine was actually very nice Ady, thank you again!

I still can't understand what i did to deserve it.. However as they say, never look a gift horse in the mouth, but always check a Bongo under the seat!