Coolant exploded all over engine bay!!

no TD5..

MudRat said:

That my old chesnut is a great suggestion! I always like the idea of saving money... If I did the head, I would probably take the engine out and recondition it myself with new shells and bearings and rings etc.. Your right about the spanish head. I have heard lots of good things about those. I think the plan is to save up and then recon the whole thing with the new head..

Re the coolant dropping, too late, I added half a small bottle of rad weld. :frusty:
nothing I can do now. I will just have to wait and see. The reason why I think there is a leak, is the fact I can still smell it (fluid) burning. But it only smells when the aircon/ heater is on, which makes me think that it must have something to do with the heater matrix. Since this thread had started, I have nearly added 2 litres topping it up... That can't be norm can it??? I have inspected every other visible joint and there is just no sign of a leak in the engine bay. There is always a possibility that I have missed something.

Hey ho... I will give it a few days and hope the rad weld has not destroyed my coolant system too much. If it has clogged it up, I will be gutted and back to square 1.

Ratty, I assume soon as you changed your head gasket all the symptoms stopped completely?

Click to expand...

If you smell it when the heater is on then it's the heater core leaking ever so little. New head at turner 1100quid and its a spanish one
they used a better alloy in casting the head, thats why they are better

MudRat said:

That my old chesnut is a great suggestion! I always like the idea of saving money... If I did the head, I would probably take the engine out and recondition it myself with new shells and bearings and rings etc.. Your right about the spanish head. I have heard lots of good things about those. I think the plan is to save up and then recon the whole thing with the new head..

Re the coolant dropping, too late, I added half a small bottle of rad weld. :frusty:
nothing I can do now. I will just have to wait and see. The reason why I think there is a leak, is the fact I can still smell it (fluid) burning. But it only smells when the aircon/ heater is on, which makes me think that it must have something to do with the heater matrix. Since this thread had started, I have nearly added 2 litres topping it up... That can't be norm can it??? I have inspected every other visible joint and there is just no sign of a leak in the engine bay. There is always a possibility that I have missed something.

Hey ho... I will give it a few days and hope the rad weld has not destroyed my coolant system too much. If it has clogged it up, I will be gutted and back to square 1.

Ratty, I assume soon as you changed your head gasket all the symptoms stopped completely?

MudRat

Click to expand...

The first time the head gasket was changed (june) I initially thought the problem was sorted but after a month or so I realised that it was still the same although not over pressurising quite as bad. The main thing I wasn't hapy with was the clear, oily type stuff (aka diesel) floating on top of my coolant.

I let the engineering company that were doing the testing and skimming do the entire job as they offered to do it at a good price. I'm glad I let them do it as it meant that no matter what went wrong it was covered under warranty. As I don't strip and build engines very often I would probably have blamed myself rather than the head when it still wasn't right after the first re-build.

The guy who runs the engineering company refused to believe there was a problem. I had to argue with him for a bit to get him to take the head back off and check the gasket. He was looking pretty pleased with himself when he tried telling me there was nothing wrong and that I was imagining it. He wasn't looking quite so smug when I told him to re-test the head and he found the cracks in it when he did (august).

After the new head was finally fitted (october) I didn't check the anti-freeze protection level until the first night the temp dropped below freezing (november). I wasn't too hapy at finding the coolant had just enough antifreeze in it to give it colour but not enough to add any protection.

Apart from the lack of antifreeze my landy has been fine since fitting the known good secondhand head.

Your landy does seem to be almost matching mine when it comes to the symptoms/problems and the timescale. It wouldn't surprise me if yours goes the whole hog to match the cracks in the head too. As long as you can plan ahead, so if it fails completely you're not buggered, I'd keep it going as is.

To get rid of the diesel if it should start getting the film on top again, simply run the engine and top up the coolant right to the top of the header tank. Squeeze the top hose and the oil that's floating on the top will pour down the sides of the header tank. Repeat until you are happy it has all gone. To get the coolant level down again, remove the bleed screw until the coolant level is where you want it and then replace the screw.

Ok.. Well the big question is.. Will it be an MOT failure? I presume if the head is cracked, there will be gasses in the emissions and will this cause a failure?

MudRat

MudRat said:

Ok.. Well the big question is.. Will it be an MOT failure? I presume if the head is cracked, there will be gasses in the emissions and will this cause a failure?

MudRat

Click to expand...

Not nessy-celery. Last time I checked, steam wasn't toxic. I'd be surprised if it did fail.

Ok.. Thats good news. I will just stop panicking and just run with it the way it is until the head completely goes or I run out of patience changing the coolant. Is turners the people you bought your spanish head from? I will start saving and hopefully do the rebuild in Jan..

MudRat

MudRat said:

Ok.. Thats good news. I will just stop panicking and just run with it the way it is until the head completely goes or I run out of patience changing the coolant. Is turners the people you bought your spanish head from? I will start saving and hopefully do the rebuild in Jan..

MudRat

Click to expand...

Mine isn't a spanish head. I managed to locate a secondhand head that I knew to be good. It only cost me £250 and came complete with injectors which gives me a spare set.