P38A About time... Overheating

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xs2man

Active Member
Posts
155
So, after around 19 years of driving, and buying and selling many many cars, it's about time I bought a lemon.

So, my latest P38A is just that car. I needed something cheap, and quickly. It was local, and had some nice bits on it, was cheap enough (well, apparently not), but needed some stuff done.

I have since spent a reasonable amount (circa £700 so far in the last 3 months) on servicing and some bits and pieces (brakes and sensors mostly), and I thought it only really need a couple more sensors and it would have been braw.

Anyway, yesterday, while driving down the dual carriageway, I spotted the temperature rising. pulled over sharpish, but there was no coolant left. Took the AA an hour to get to me, and get me and the kids off the dualler. Then to a service station where it was another hour before a patrol man came round. Filled the coolant tank with water, and started the car to get heat back in it to see where the water was leaking from.

Looked like it was coming from the throttle body heater. Well, where it meets the throttle body. I thought that it may have just been a gasket or something, but I don't really know too much about these engines. What was more worrying though was the speed that pressure built up in the coolant tank. So 2 hours later, another recovery truck came and took the car to my local specialist. Broke down at 11am and didn't get home until 8pm. Grrrrrrr. ****ing AA.

Anyway, a call from them this morning, and it is either a head gasket, or a crack somewhere. They were quoting near £1k for the head gaskets, I suspect mostly for the labour there. Anyway, car isn't worth spending that sort of money on. He did say he was worried it might be a slipped liner, but doesn't think that's the case.

So I'll try driving it back today keeping an eye on the temps, and coolant level. And I think I might attempt to get the heads off myself for a look. Not really great with a spanner, but I might as well give it a go before I strip / sell it. If it is just the head gaskets, I might as well crack on and get it done, if it's worse, I'll probably just end up stripping some of the stuff that's worth money, to try to recoup some of my expenses, and then sell it as spares or repairs.

Any idea what a 2000 plate THOR engined HSE would be worth as spares or repairs? Or what might be the key parts of value for stripping it? The discs and pads all round have only done a few hundred miles, and are Mintex.
 
Wouldn't rule out the TB heater entirely - mine managed to drop quite a bit of coolant from it to the point you'd think it was something else. Don't think that would account for pressure build up though.
 
Not really. I'm not sure what more I could have done to maintain it. It hadn't missed a service in it's history, but was due one. I then fully serviced it as soon as I got it (other than the drive home) with full fluids changes, filters, plugs and brakes etc.. Was working my way through the sensors etc... Car wasn't that cheap for what it was, just these cars ARE cheap now.

Anyway, my previous posts recently are all about the servicing I have done.
 
xs2man said:
Not really. I'm not sure what more I could have done to maintain it. It hadn't missed a service in it's history, but was due one. I then fully serviced it as soon as I got it (other than the drive home) with full fluids changes, filters, plugs and brakes etc.. Was working my way through the sensors etc... Car wasn't that cheap for what it was, just these cars ARE cheap now.

Anyway, my previous posts recently are all about the servicing I have done.
Click to expand...

Checking a replacing knackered hoses is all part of servicing. They don't last for ever.
 
As you're over the water, I can't give any recommendations on who to go to there. If you had it over here, there are a few places I could recommend - one in particular who's replacing my transfer box tomorrow.

Wouldn't charge anywhere NEAR that for the HG's if you provide the parts and they're just doing labour.
 
domino said:
As you're over the water, I can't give any recommendations on who to go to there. If you had it over here, there are a few places I could recommend - one in particular who's replacing my transfer box tomorrow.

Wouldn't charge anywhere NEAR that for the HG's if you provide the parts and they're just doing labour.
Click to expand...

If the engine has lost it's coolant pressure will build up quickly. It's known as steam. :D:D:D
 
You could always bypass the throttle body heater to see if that's the cause. I had a slight leak on mine but not enough to empty the header tank between weekly checks.
 
domino said:
As you're over the water, I can't give any recommendations on who to go to there. If you had it over here, there are a few places I could recommend - one in particular who's replacing my transfer box tomorrow.

Wouldn't charge anywhere NEAR that for the HG's if you provide the parts and they're just doing labour.
Click to expand...
How do you know where he's from mate, he's not typing with an accent.:) Put in you location xs2man please
 
Ha ha. I'm in Arbroath, Scotland. I called on Domino from the landyzone international rescue first time my EAS went tits up as I was in Dunfermline, and he was closest to me. Fortunately he managed to appease my fears before coming over the water, and I drove home, slowly, bouncing on the bump stops.

Yes, having had a good chat with the guy from Mann Automotive (who looked at the car), he suspects it's most likely a crack in the block (90%) rather than just HG's (10%). So that's a bit of a pooper. I wasn't really expecting to get much back from this car when I was finished with it, but was hoping it would last a bit longer. He did mention I could try Irontite as a temporary solution, as he had found that to be the only thing that has worked previously. So that's the next thing. I'll try that, and see how I get on. £100 to see if it works sounds better than £1k to possibly not fix it, or just lose £2.5k on the car.

If it doesn't work, then I think I'm screwed. Not sure I want to spend another £100 on a HG kit, and hours and hours of scraped knuckles and frustration for the HG's not to work. So strip the bits that might be worth something, and sell as spares or repair, or just scrap it. Or possibly try and trade it in, but that might well be a complete bugger as driving it back from the garage, it overheated every 2 miles. After a few stops to cool down I gave up and called recovery. Again. So getting to a garage to trade it in might be a nightmare.
 
It seems every one wants to drop ironite crap or what ever its called into there engine these days just pull the heads your self and have a look its a couple of hours to get them off.
Try taking out the plugs see if any are steam cleaned that will indicate hg problems don't write off the block until you have at least lookedd
 
wil2813 said:
so how much £££ cash buys it as is ?
Click to expand...

I'm not ready to sell it yet if I'm honest. I've only had it 3 months, and it's not quite game over yet as it currently stands me a little over £2500. So I'd want more than anyone should realistically be willing to pay for it (£1300), as it sits now (with the A bar, steps, light guard, dog guards, 18's etc... £1000 without all that, and I'm sure it would really only be worth around £500 at that point). I'm willing to pump some money into it to see if it can be at least temporarily fixed relatively cheaply first. My intention was to only run it until the winter was over anyway.

biketeacherdave said:
It seems every one wants to drop ironite crap or what ever its called into there engine these days just pull the heads your self and have a look its a couple of hours to get them off.
Try taking out the plugs see if any are steam cleaned that will indicate hg problems don't write off the block until you have at least lookedd
Click to expand...

Maybe a couple hours to you to do this, but I doubt I've got the tooling, and almost certainly not got the knowledge. Although I will give it a go for sure if the ironite doesn't work. What I don't want to do is take off the heads for a look, put on new HG's since the heads are off anyway, and hoop them in a couple hours because it was the block all along, and have to spent that HG money twice, then try the ironite anyway as a last ditch attempt before scrapping it.

I will, however, check the plugs first to check their condition. As that is something I can do relatively easily.
 
I did my hg with a basic tool kit a breaker bar and torque wrench it took me longer to remove the manifold heat shields than it did the heads. Once off if the block is cracked you will see it
 
xs2man said:
So, after around 19 years of driving, and buying and selling many many cars, it's about time I bought a lemon.

So, my latest P38A is just that car. I needed something cheap, and quickly. It was local, and had some nice bits on it, was cheap enough (well, apparently not), but needed some stuff done.

I have since spent a reasonable amount (circa £700 so far in the last 3 months) on servicing and some bits and pieces (brakes and sensors mostly), and I thought it only really need a couple more sensors and it would have been braw.

Anyway, yesterday, while driving down the dual carriageway, I spotted the temperature rising. pulled over sharpish, but there was no coolant left. Took the AA an hour to get to me, and get me and the kids off the dualler. Then to a service station where it was another hour before a patrol man came round. Filled the coolant tank with water, and started the car to get heat back in it to see where the water was leaking from.

Looked like it was coming from the throttle body heater. Well, where it meets the throttle body. I thought that it may have just been a gasket or something, but I don't really know too much about these engines. What was more worrying though was the speed that pressure built up in the coolant tank. So 2 hours later, another recovery truck came and took the car to my local specialist. Broke down at 11am and didn't get home until 8pm. Grrrrrrr. ****ing AA.

Anyway, a call from them this morning, and it is either a head gasket, or a crack somewhere. They were quoting near £1k for the head gaskets, I suspect mostly for the labour there. Anyway, car isn't worth spending that sort of money on. He did say he was worried it might be a slipped liner, but doesn't think that's the case.

So I'll try driving it back today keeping an eye on the temps, and coolant level. And I think I might attempt to get the heads off myself for a look. Not really great with a spanner, but I might as well give it a go before I strip / sell it. If it is just the head gaskets, I might as well crack on and get it done, if it's worse, I'll probably just end up stripping some of the stuff that's worth money, to try to recoup some of my expenses, and then sell it as spares or repairs.

Any idea what a 2000 plate THOR engined HSE would be worth as spares or repairs? Or what might be the key parts of value for stripping it? The discs and pads all round have only done a few hundred miles, and are Mintex.
Click to expand...

Domino says that you're across the water : what's your location ?
 
TAKdriver said:
Domino says that you're across the water : what's your location ?
Click to expand...

I'm just outside Arbroath.

West Slope Rover said:
You've checked the hoses that go to the throttle body, right?
Click to expand...

I have had a good look around the hoses. The leak at the throttle body is currently the least of my problems though. When driving it back last night from the garage it would go into the red after a mile or so. When I pull over, the water was obviously boiling, and as the pressure was released, would drain away completely. Luckily I only had 10 miles to drive, so not so bad, but still, far from ideal. It did not drain through the crack at the throttle body though, too much fluid to pass through that minute crack so quickly. I'll bypass that heater when I get round to that point, but before that, it looks like I will be trying out the Irontite.
 
Don't use Irontite. It makes problems much worse. It has a tendency to block the coolant channels. It is a bodge to get rid of a car quickly and dishonestly. It is not a fix by any stretch of the imagination.
 
Bix said:
Don't use Irontite. It makes problems much worse. It has a tendency to block the coolant channels. It is a bodge to get rid of a car quickly and dishonestly. It is not a fix by any stretch of the imagination.
Click to expand...
Think your thinking of Kseal etc. Irontite is a ceramic seal & for around £40 is worth a go over scrapping an engine block or even the whole car. Has good results for porous / cracked blocks.
 
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