9 replies to this topic

[rossul.burn]

Just trying to sort an issue out with my spi with regards to the water temperature.

PO had removed the water pump fan blade and fitted a electric rad fan (couldn't find any evidence of this)

I noticed on my journey home the water temperature gauge never really moved from cold. I did multiple coolant flushes till I was happy, replaced the rad switch sender and also the water temp sensor in the manifold and sorted the wiring out going to the rad switch sender. Treated the car to a new thermostat as well.

I eventually got the aux fan to fire up when the car was starting to get hot but the marker sits below the middle mark. I had a spare stack electronic water temp gauge and spare sandwich plate so I drilled and tapped that and fit a 1/8npt sensor before the thermostat. The issue I get is when car is warm the stack gauge reads 120 and the standard gauge reads just below the middle mark.


Anyone got any suggestions I could try to make sure they are both working correctly?

Thanks

[minifreek1]

Sounds like the water heated inlet manifold is blocked to me. They usually get blocked up with corrosion from the lime in the water and the wrong antifreeze used.

 

Is the car overfuelling....or using more fuel than you think it should? If thats the case, Id suggest cleaning/unblocking the water manifold. 

 

You will need to strip down the injection/inlet manifold to remove the heater pipes.

[rossul.burn]

Just had MOT today and said it's running slightly rich.

Any tips or guides on how to remove and clean or anything I need to order as I'm about to place a mini spares order?

[brivinci]

Its a tight fit back there. At the very least, you should unbold the manifold from the head and see if it will allow for better access. The best way would be to remove the entire manifold. Get a good look inside the inlet and outlet for the manifold cooling ports. Remove the new temp sensor and give the entire thing a good cleaning. The ports are not huge so maybe try and source the correct size pipe brush to run through it. Brush and bit and then flush. Keep doing that until it is all cleaned out.

[rossul.burn]

Its a tight fit back there. At the very least, you should unbold the manifold from the head and see if it will allow for better access. The best way would be to remove the entire manifold. Get a good look inside the inlet and outlet for the manifold cooling ports. Remove the new temp sensor and give the entire thing a good cleaning. The ports are not huge so maybe try and source the correct size pipe brush to run through it. Brush and bit and then flush. Keep doing that until it is all cleaned out.

Thanks for the advice, I've also read about the hosepipe method, would I fit a metre of hose to each pipe and give it a flush with the hose pipe or would this not be enough? I hate dropping the coolant on the mini!!

[brivinci]

I mean, that depends how clogged it is. Either way, you are going to lose a little coolant here. I guess you could pinch off the heater hoses to and from the intake before removing them. Then, use a bright light and a mirror and see if you can see anything in there. If you removed the sensor and shine a second light up into the hole it might help relieve if anything is in there.

 

Using a thin, long blade screwdriver all around and giving it a good scraping and then a flush might help. Think is, you are in there. Best to do what it takes and to be able to see so you know you did the job right.

[rossul.burn]

I have seen some 16mm hose stop ends which would work as a plug into the heater hose, I was thinking using that to stop lots of coolant being lost, then like you said scrape/scrub everything and flush it properly, without dropping all the fluid

[Pops_Guild]

Really should flush through the heater matrix too and expect to replace the coolant, it’ll be full of rust and bits in there too unfortunately

[brivinci]

Thats a good point. If you do find a lot of junk in there, you will want to make sure that junk isn't in the rest of the system.

Who knows, you might not find anything buildup in there.

[viz139]

I had  a similar problem with the needle just below normal and the engine running rich. Turned out to be the PTC on the inlet manifold. Check that your getting power to it and you should also  get a reading of about 2 ohms across it.