ahaggarty
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 posted on 6/9/13 at 11:58 AM |
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Badly overheating locost.
Hello All,
I'm new to this forum so please bear with me. I have recently purchased a locost and the overheating trouble started when driving
it home that same day! Basically I had a long journey back and had to stop 3 times on route to allow the engine to cool down as the coolant was
boiling over and when I had finally got home the engine had reached 130deg.
The engine being a ford kent 1.6 crossflow.
Since this happened i have been trying different things to try and rectify this overheating issue such as removing and checking the thermostat to find
it was not there! Removed and checked the water pump-seems ok. Removed hoses and flushed system through with water- all seems ok. Fitted a better fan
onto the back of the radiator so it's dawing the air through rad and blowing out over engine. Changed rad cap to higher pressure rated one as
old one let by.
Other points to mention- expansion tank is brass type with outlet near the top but piped down inside to the bottom- this I have removed and soldered a
straight outlet to the bottom of the tank and blocked of the old one. This outlet tees into the rad top hose to thermostat housing.
There is also a pipe from the water pump going into the bottom of the carb body/inlet manifold.
The top hose is on a very similar line to the outlet on the expansion tank but I cant get this up any higher than it already is under the bulkhead.
The fan is wired direct via a switch so I have this running all the time the car is.
Everytime I go out after a few miles the temperature climbs steadily past 80 onto 100 + and then I have to turn back as the coolant starts to boil.
Evidently the rad is from a 1.3litre cortina as I guess a larger one would not fit into the nose cone but tbh I dont think this is the cause.
Anyone have any ideas/knowledge that can help me sort this please?
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Mr Whippy
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 12:15 PM |
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Have you tried back flushing the radiator with a hose as that may have become blocked with sediment? To make sure you don't get and air lock
jack the front of the car high up in the air or fill it on a steep slope and use hot water out a kettle, once you have replaced the thermostat. Your
hose configuration is normal for not running a heater. Also use a 50/50 mix of antifreeze rather than plain water.
Failing that I'd do a compression check on the engine to see if the head gasket is sealing
[Edited on 6/9/13 by Mr Whippy]
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ahaggarty
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 12:20 PM |
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Ok thanks Mr Whippy i will give it a try once my thermostat has arrived!
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ahaggarty
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 12:23 PM |
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I have flushed the rad from the top hose but not putting the hose into the bottom outlet to see if it comes out the top. How does this back washing
the rad out differ from the other way?
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Norfolkluegojnr
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 12:38 PM |
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cleans out any crud/sludge thats built up in it.
I had a crossflow that ran very hot too. I'd recommend fitting a polo rad (have a search on the forum lots of info), and making sure your using
good coolant. I've been told 'Water Wetter' is a useful additive, but never used it myself.
make sure to use a thermostat too - it may be the water is flowing to freely and not scavenging enough heat from the engine (sure someone on here told
me that!).
Good luck, but the only thing that cured our over heating was fitting a Zetec 
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MP3C
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 12:38 PM |
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I had the same problem and turned out to be the return pipe to the header tank was blocked with sediment/something else and not allowing the coolant
to be pumped round the system, try taking the hose that feeds the header tank off and fill up the coolant, turn the engine over and see if the coolant
is being pumped round the system and out of the pipe (don't burn yourself). If no coolant comes out then you either have not bled the system
properly or there is a blockage, if it is pumping round the something else is causing it.
Matt
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mark chandler
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 12:40 PM |
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A cortina rad is going to be pretty old, it may be worth biting the bullet and installing a £30 polo rad instead.
Back flushing is pushing water the opposite way through the rad, it is pumped by the car into the top and extracted from the bottom, by reversing you
remove more crud as it silts up differently depending on water flow direction.
If the radiator feels heavy then I expect it is blocked, a kill or cure approach I have used in the past is to remove the radiator, fill with old
battery acid and slosh about for 10 minutes then drain and run a hose through to flush out, you get lots of rubbish removed like this.
Regards Mark
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steve m
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 12:53 PM |
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Are you sure the ignition timing is right ? as this could be adding to your problem,
also, were are you based, as someone local may be able to help
steve
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 01:54 PM |
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I had a similar problem when I first began using my x-flow - eventually I found that the problem was due to an airlock under the thermostat. I know
you don't have a thermostat, but in investigating this problem I learnt a lot about this engine's cooling system when fitted to a
Locost!
First of all, fit a thermostat! But before you do, drill a small hole through its base plate to let some air through. Something around 2.5mm - 3mm
dia is fine, well away from the important bits.
When you fill up with coolant, keep squeezing the big hose connected to the water pump - this pushes the water around and (hopefully) pushes air along
with it. The hole in the thermostat plate helps with this process as it lets air through during bleeding; it also lets air through while the
engine's running. I have
this sort of
thermostat housing, and you'll need something similar if you fit a Polo radiator as that doesn't have a filler cap. It has the
bonus that you can look down on the thermostat while you're clearing the airlocks and can see when the bubbles stop. I should point out that it
was far cheaper when I bought it, and some shopping around may be in order!
There's a very good description about overflow tanks and how they work here.. He's talking
about a Pinto engine, but the x-flow is identical in this respect.
HTH,
David
[Edited on 6/9/13 by David Jenkins]
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ahaggarty
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 02:20 PM |
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Thanks guy's, all points much appreciated. i'm based near Sudbury in Suffolk.
i did wonder whether having no stat at all would hamper the flow of the coolant, especially around the block.
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carlknight1982
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 02:59 PM |
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I had no end of coolant problems with my pinto, in the end i decided to bite the bullet and re did the cooling system completely i brought 2 bottles
of coolant flush and flushed all the poo out the system before stripping down and replacing the head gasket, water pump fitting a low degree opening
stat, replacing all the hoses with silicone from ebay and fitting a new Rover 25 header tank with a new polo rad and a 86degree fan switch for the rad
fan.
the other thing i did was install the rad sitting verticle as my original install had it stilling slightly back and this was hampering the coolant,
and causing air locks, now i rarely get over 88 degrees even on the hottest of days and the fan keeps the engine cool in traffic nicely.
the other thing to check is that the mesh in the nose cone isnt causing the air to be restricted coming in the front end, i remember reading about a
guy on here who had fine mesh in his nose cone and it was acting like an air damn causing overheating.
Logic will get you from a A to B
Imagination will take you everywhere.
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wicket
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 03:11 PM |
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Cowling in the front side of the radiator up to the nose cone is also a good idea to make sure that all the air goes through the radiator. Air will
find the path of least resistance and without the cowling a lot will bleed around the edges.
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steve m
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 03:59 PM |
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I run a xflow, and do not have a header tank (now), just the filler that David J has,
before I went down the route of the thermostat /filler I had no end of problems, so ditched the header tank
and now it runs fine
steve
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at
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ahaggarty
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 04:07 PM |
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Thanks again for all your replies. I will let you know how I get on!
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Not Anumber
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| posted on 6/9/13 at 05:54 PM |
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When replacing the core plugs as a matter of course when rebuilding a crossflow in a mark 2 escort years ago I found the remains of a couple of even
older core plugs sitting in the water jacket. Whoever had done the job in the past must have just knocked the old ones in and forgotten about them.
It didnt take too long to fish them out with the engine on a bench and it did run a bit cooler afterwards.
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snapper
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| posted on 7/9/13 at 06:07 AM |
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Essex Kit car club
Perhaps we can help, your not far away ( I have friends in Sudbury) and Chelmsford where we meet is an easy drive
I eat to survive
I drink to forget
I breath to pi55 my ex wife off (and now my ex partner)
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bigbri
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| posted on 8/9/13 at 04:55 PM |
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Run the engine with no stat,with no rad cap on you will see the air bubbles comeing out ov the system keep squeezing the hoses.also put heater on so
you no system in completely full and no air locks . Refit cap feeling the veins in rad to see if is all getting hot .if this fails I'd advise a
local garage were they will do a chemical head gasket test.
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r1_pete
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| posted on 8/9/13 at 05:57 PM |
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What pressure caps do you have fitted?
With your brass tank type, you need a plain cap on the rad, and the overflow blanked, and the pressure cap on the brass tank.
If you have the pressure cap on the rad, and the radiator top tank is below thermostat level, the water level will settle way too low, and cause the
overheating.
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