18 replies to this topic

[mullet]

Hi all.  I drained the coolant.  I took the radiator out, and the thermostat-valve out.  Observations:

 

 - The coolant was rusty in colour, but liquid.  But the dregs (about the last 20ml) of the coolant was really thick, almost blood-thick.

 - thermostatic value was hard to remove, but I think that was just because some of the old housing gasket had it stuck. It was in the closed position as I expect is expected on a cold engine.

 - I tested the thermostatic valve in a saucepan.  It should open at 88 degrees, but only started opening at about 93 degrees.  Going up to 96 degrees, it really only opened about 2mm at the most.  Is this a healthy valve, or defective?  Should it open more?

 - there's no "wobbly freeplay" movement in the fan to assess if the water pump is defective, so based on this external test alone it may be in good condition(?).

 

I wonder if I should go the whole hog now and do the extra work getting the pump out and replaced given I am halfway to it now, or if there's enough, above, to suggest a good flush, new thermostat valve, and good quality coolant should do the trick? 

Edited by mullet, Yesterday, 05:47 PM.

[lippo]

 It sounds like the thermostat needs replacing. I have just done a full flush for my Mini, I had some overheating and I noticed the heater wasn't hot. I ended up removing the heater and flushing it through, loads of gunk came out and I found one of the heater pipes was blocked with crud. It's all clean now and the car is rock solid for maintaining temp now.

 

 I flushed mine out (Holts flush - horrible stuff) and then cleaned out with a garden hose and a hose pipe connector connected to the heater pipe. I used Bluecol coolant as recommended on here.

[mullet]

 It sounds like the thermostat needs replacing. I have just done a full flush for my Mini, I had some overheating and I noticed the heater wasn't hot. I ended up removing the heater and flushing it through, loads of gunk came out and I found one of the heater pipes was blocked with crud. It's all clean now and the car is rock solid for maintaining temp now.

 

 I flushed mine out (Holts flush - horrible stuff) and then cleaned out with a garden hose and a hose pipe connector connected to the heater pipe. I used Bluecol coolant as recommended on here.

Thanks!   I read somewhere that for models without a lower drain plug, the lowest point is then the heater.  Makes sense to me to flush it too, especially as the dregs were already thick like blood from a higher level.  Was it a big job to remove?  Any new pieces needed?  I ask as about to order the new thermostat and don't want the engine "dry" for too long.  Thanks for the advice.

[lippo]

 My radiator has a drain plug, so I got most of the coolant out before dropping the heater. I have read that people remove the lower rad hose to remove most of the coolant and that this can be a little tricky due to space.

I had a bowl under the heater and removed the lower hose and let it drain. Dropping the heater is easy, two screws at the front, remove the 2 coolant hoses to the matrix (mine were located on the right as you look at the heater), remove the trunking to the heater, unhook the heater from the metal hooks on the bulkhead and I think there was a bullet connecter on top of the heater to separate, then the whole heater came out. The 

I didn' bother removing the matrix as I wasn't replacing it, I attached the hose pipe to the matrix and flushed both ways. Only took around 30 mins of actual work.