P38A Coolant woes

myfirstl322 said:

The basis is that in days of yore all heaters had a valve wot woz operated by a solid push pull cable wot woz moved by the heater knob or slide... my van, being old, still has this eminently simple but reliable set-up.

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There's that. My 2A has a screw tap under the bonnet, but the folks spouting the nonsense are usually too young to even know what a manual choke is

kermit_rr said:

There's that. My 2A has a screw tap under the bonnet, but the folks spouting the nonsense are usually too young to even know what a manual choke is

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The choke on a car I had in my yoof sparked alarmingly and the knob quickly melted, it was amusing watching it wilt before dropping off onto the carpet... it culminated in the cable welding itself together as it sought, and succeeded, in becoming a viable earth route for my non-relayed spotlight upgrade wot became broken and wet by a snowdrift I careered into.

enjoi said:

So I installed all the new things and it seems coolant isn’t circulating properly. I couldn’t see it coming back into the overflow tank. Well, I did see it initially, then it stopped.

Also, I seem to have completely lost power to the HEVAC unit and radio which is just amazing
So I wasn’t able to crank the heater when topping up coolant.


Not that I could tell.

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I've had mine sat with the drivers side raised and this has helped to purge the coolant

kermit_rr said:

There's that. My 2A has a screw tap under the bonnet, but the folks spouting the nonsense are usually too young to even know what a manual choke is

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You tell em kermie

Mark Piercy said:

I've had mine sat with the drivers side raised and this has helped to purge the coolant

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+1. Otto bled through much easier with the driver's front wheel corner elevated to help everything bubble round to best effect.

IIRC there is a bleed / you can fill with the bypass pipe from the throttle plate off so it vets air from that loop better?

On my sons 38' the return pipe from the rad is almost straight, mine drops and goes around the battery tray so it doesn't bleed out the rad so well. The later return is much better at bleeding the system I found.

I just use a vacuum on the bleed pipe until coolant comes through. Seems to fill the system much better, even if thermostat is closed. Then with bleed reconnected to header tank, let the engine warm up, and coolant should flow correctly.

Mark Piercy said:

On my sons 38' the return pipe from the rad is almost straight, mine drops and goes around the battery tray so it doesn't bleed out the rad so well. The later return is much better at bleeding the system I found.

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Hmm, I have an ‘01 P38 and my return hose drops around the battery. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding. In any case, I tried parking up the drivers side on a gutter and ran it for a bit.

The coolant seems to be circulating again, I noticed some coolant dripping from the return hose and I think it was a bit clogged because when I took the hose off and blew threw it, it took a bit of force, then coolant blew everywhere
After that I hooked it up and…….

The system held at 94 degrees!!!!
Drove the Rover around the block a few times and the coolant sat around 92-94 so I’m absolutely over the moon at the moment. Hopefully it stays that way with further testing!
Thanks everyone for all your comments, really appreciated

You're supposed to blow the pipe clear, it's part of the bleed process, one to remember for next time

kermit_rr said:

You're supposed to blow the pipe clear, it's part of the bleed process, one to remember for next time

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Never had to do that and I change the antifreeze every 2 years.

Datatek said:

Never had to do that and I change the antifreeze every 2 years.

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I've had to, takes a hefty blow even though there's no kink or blockage, once clear it's fine

kermit_rr said:

I've had to, takes a hefty blow even though there's no kink or blockage, once clear it's fine

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Maybe it is affected by different water and antifreeze types or mixes? Especially if at some point someone has topped up with hard water or kept the mix in far too long?

Scotiawhiskers said:

Maybe it is affected by different water and antifreeze types or mixes? Especially if at some point someone has topped up with hard water or kept the mix in far too long?

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It's never been in that long haha
I think it gets some kind of airlocked with bubbles