Right ladies an gents good day to ya'll

My 19j is slowly giving up the ghost and to be honest I aint really that bothered. BUT ideally i need it to hang on a bit longer cos I dont have time/money/space right now to stick a tdi in.
Problem at the mo is is running hot. normally the dial sits in about vertical, but now its almost in the black section of the guage. visco fan working good, top rad hose hot, bottom one less hot but there's too much pressure in the expansion tank. when you turn the engine off you can hear is sizzling. first I though hgf but i cant see any oil in the water and no creamy white stuff on the dipstick. is there another way to check for hgf? or any other ideas of what it might be?

A compression test would tell you for sure. I could just be blowing from a cylinder into the water jack.

I have experienced a Series petrol engine that was misfiring and it turned out to be a head gasket failure between 2 and 3. No other symptom at all.

do i go to a garage to get a test? or do i go to halfrauds n by a tester

Garage, a diesel specialist even better.

cheers. did ur series overheat as well? is that also a symptom of hgf?

No just a mis-fire on the Series. Overheating is a symptom of many things other than hgf.

andyb66 said:

No just a mis-fire on the Series. Overheating is a symptom of many things other than hgf.

Click to expand...

right. so il get a test to see why the water is overpressurising, but how can i find out why its running so hot?

Water pump ???

If it is pressuising the water jack then the hot gases will be enough to add additonal heat to the water/coolant. I'm not saying that it isn't a symptom, I'm just saying that it is not a given

Whoa! Start with the simple and more affordable things first. It is more than likely a direct issue with the cooling system its self rather than immediate head gasket failure. There are numerous possibilities:

1) Thermostat stuck shut or only partially opening
2) Thermostat housing blocked
3) Radiator blocked
4) Water pump broken

If your thermostat is staying closed when it reaches 83 / 88 degrees, any boiling water (steam) in the engine block will backup behind the thermostat and pressurise the system whilst restricting efficient flow of the coolant throughout the system. Ofcourse, if the thermostat is closed or only partially open, the engine will drastically overheat and innevitably destroy its self.

If your radiator is blocked it will have a very similar effect to a thermostat that does not open, allowing pressure to build up in the system (no continuous flow / loop of coolant). Flushing the radiator and the entire engine coolant system through back and forth with a hose pipe until it runs crystal clear should help your problem.

If there is compression from one of your cylinders being lost into the water jacket via a blown head gasket, you'll usually find that coolant makes its way into the effected cylinder when the engine is either switched off or on an intake stroke. Steam or white smoke visible from your exhaust could well point to this being the problem at hand, but white smoke can be caused by other things that are much less serious.

Go down the engine / radiator flush and thermostat checking route first and see how it does. Maybe even try running the engine with the thermostat removed and see if it pressurises.

-Pos

been out today trying to sort the overheating problem. not luck as yet. took out the thermostat boiled it in a pan of water it opened no probs. stuck it back in the engine. flushed out the rad with a hose it ran clean straight away. whats the best way to flush out the entire cooling system at once?
also how do i check for faulty water pump?

I'm having exactly the same mysterious overheating problem. No other signs of HGF, just overheating. You might also want to reverse-flush the cooling jacket in addition to the rad.

I'm also curious about how to check for a water pump failure.

Good luck

can you explain how to do this reverse flushing?

What you already did with your rad, but when you did that I assume you put water in through the input hose and let it drain through the output hose. I believe you just run the water through in the opposite direction the coolant word normally flow. (While searching for a solution to my own overheating woes I've read) you should try that for both the rad and the cooling jacket. (But it looks like your rad is already running clean, so maybe skip that part and go for the cooling jacket.) I reckon that should help dislodge cruft better than running in the direction it usually sees water.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

Hi i'm having the same problems as yourself and was wondering if you found a way to check the water pump? Also did you find out what the problem was seeing it was over a month ago.. Thanks Ben