Bongo Fury

Hi All,

Looking for a little advise, I have a 95 Friendee, had it now for 6 years and we have put 1000's of miles on it, including several long trips to Europe. About 1.5 years ago we had some cooling system issues, which resulted in a new water pump, hose and radiator. Since then we have noticed that the coolant level often needs filling up this is also noticeable when using the heating as no heat will come through if the coolant level is low.

Firstly there are no leaks at all, the oil colour\mixture looks fine, I've taken it to two garages and both confirmed that there are no leaks in the system and neither do they see any evidence of water\coolant getting into the engine. Both garages have assumed that there is a possible issue with the Cylinder head or Head Gasket but neither are quite sure what it is, one theory was that there was a crack or very minor warping which is resulting in the water\coolant level escaping as steam?

If anyone can provide some thoughts on what may be occurring or suggestions on actions I can take it would be a great help...My main concern is that with this issue I'm not all that confident in the van getting me to the South of France and back in August!

Thanks all!

conmai wrote:
....I've taken it to two garages and both confirmed that there are no leaks in the system and neither do they see any evidence of water\coolant getting into the engine.

It must be going somewhere!

Did they check the heater matrix(es)? It could be escaping as a fine mist and leaving no tell tale drips anywhere. Mine was thowing out steam along the top metal to plastic radiator seam. If it is doing something similar in one of the heaters it may not get noticed easily.


Frank

Do you get white smoke out the back

Did your garages pressure test the cooling system warm? Heaters going cool are possible air in the system - if air is getting maybe water is getting out.

Not to sure about the garages being able to say there is no water getting in the engine. If getting in the oil you can expect some milky sludge in the cooling system. The only way I know for sure to find out if there could be any cylinder head or head gasket issues is to test the coolant for hydrocarbons.

This is called a BLOCK TEST and it detects if there is transfer of hydrocarbons (fuel/exhaust) into the coolant. It's expensive stuff and not a commonly held in the everyday workshops. The substance is a dark blue liquid, you add sufficient coolant and watch for a colour change. You are looking for a green - the lighter the green the more contaminants are in the cooling system. a minor change in the blue means there is no leakage of hydrocarbons into the cooling system.

The industry uses a threshold of up to one litre per 1000 km - if this is met/exceeded remedial works are said to be necessary!

Hi conmai,do you have an auto box vehicle,if so (a bit of a see-saw answer)it might be worthwhile checking the fluid for water.

Another thing,there is a core plug at the rear of the engine,if it leaks the coolant will go into the bell housing and might be difficult to spot.

Good luck.

Sounds exactly the same as mine was, no drips no leaks but using coolant, the garage who diagnosed mine had to do a whiffer test for 30 mins as the leak was so small from the head gasket, coolant was leaking down the exhaust port and being burnt off by the heat, had the head and gasket replaced and she hasn't used a drop since.