Hot and bothered in Sweden

Hello Folks,

I have a tale of woe, the TLR is I am in Sweden with the top sheared off the coolant bleed plug on the thermostat housing. Anyone know where I can get such a thing in Gothenburg, or have any ideas of a get me home (1000 km) fix?

The long story. Coolant header tank split in southern Denmark. Part shipped and replaced to today. Did a lazy bleed, squeeze all the pipes etc, and got 100km @ 70mph almost to ferry. hit a hill and the temp hit red. Pulled over cooled, limped to ferry, got to Sweden. Decided to do a proper bleed. Bleed plug head sheered off leaving big steam venting hole. Screwed in a M10 wrapped in duct tape but can get more than 10km before it overheats again. Family are in hotel in Gothenburg. Disco is a 2hr train ride away (I started 5am today to recover it from Denmark where the header tank split in the first place).

All guidance or sympathy accepted. Or offers for a Mk1 Disco, mostly a solid runner

Cheers,
R.

Domestic Radiator bleed valve

If it is a 300tdi, then I had the same thing happen. I used a std house heating radiator plug from a B&Q, not sure what you may have like it in Sweden.

Cheers

Get 2 of them. 1 for the rad as well. Means you can bleed the system when hot too.

The Mad Hat Man said:

Get 2 of them. 1 for the rad as well. Means you can bleed the system when hot too.

Click to expand...

Hot it certainly is

Seriously great idea, thanks. I will ask around and see what Swedish for radiator bleed valve is.

Radiatorblödningsventil

Make sure it's the correct size

Shimsteriom said:

Radiatorblödningsventil

Click to expand...

Tack så mycket

Well I did not find a radiator bleed valve, but I did find a plug of the correct size ...



After a few minutes removing the remains of the old plastic plug, I put this one in with a bit of teflon tape and it worked a treat.

Damn thing still overheats though. I checked the thermostat, and it opens just before water boils, so I guess the water pump has gone. I got the car up here driving about 300km @50km/h with frequent stops. Now I need to get a TDI water pump in Sweden.

The saga continues ...

Oh woe is me

It looks like the head gasket is blown. If I run the car for 20 seconds from cold and open the expansion tank, the water system is pressurised and bubbles up like the wrath of my wife when I tell her I will be spending another day under the bonnet.

A water pump is on its way to me, but I now don't know if that is broken and the overheating caused the HG to blow too, or if that's fine and the gasses caused the expansion tank to blow. I suspect the pump is buggered too as even when the engine is hot and freshly watered I get no warm air from the heater vents.

Now I have another question, how can I know which HG I need? Looking around I hear...

CARE MUST BE EXERCISE AS THERE IS 3 TYPES OF GASKET FOR THESE ENGINES ALL DETERMINE BY THE

NUMBER OF HOLES 1,2 OR 3 ( DIFFERENT THICKNESS )

Is there a way to tell the thickness before pulling the head off? Or can I just go for the 1.4mm type as a nice average?

Thanks for your wisdom folks,
R.