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Post by transitmanred on Jul 28, 2013 13:23:52 GMT 1
1979 Camper van mk2 now with new MOT. Took her out down the motorway, she started to get hot, very nearly to the red line on the gauge, turned off and slowed down and she cooled down, any idea's why? Should I take the thermostat out and run her cold or flush out the radiator? What engine oil should I be using? What do you guy's use to treat the rust on the body work, many thanks Transitmanred.
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Post by bobdragon12 on Jul 28, 2013 14:47:10 GMT 1
Silly question but have you added coolant to the water ?
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Post by FredTransit on Jul 28, 2013 15:02:03 GMT 1
silly question have you checked you have enough water? Is there heat coming out of the heater on hot? Did the fuel gauge go up too?
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Post by peterg on Jul 28, 2013 15:10:58 GMT 1
If the temp is normal at lower speeds but rises at motorway speed as you describe, I would suspect a partially blocked radiator. Can get it to overheat on a road you can stop on, if you can and while it’s still overheating stop the van, turn of the engine and quickly feel around the radiator core for any cold spots, usually in the middle in front of the fan, its important to do it quickly before the heat has chance to disperse through the rest of the radiator. It may sound a bit risky but it can be done without burning yourself, if you don’t like the idea of touching a hot radiator, an infrared thermometer should work, I’ve not tried this method due to having asbestos hands, probably caused by feeling hot radiators. Peter
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Post by muttleymk2 on Jul 28, 2013 19:24:25 GMT 1
Obviously check water level, condition of rad cap, are there any leaks in the system, any signs of pressurising the hoses (are they hard to squeeze when hot)Also check condition of radiator itself, are all the cooling fins present and not blocked? Last point to note, is the only evidence of overheating the gauge itself? If so then note that these gauges are notoriously inaccurate, also they are relative temp which means that as long as the temp does not actually rise into the red and stay there then you are ok. I have 5 pinto powered Transits and none of the gauges do the same thing, some never come off the bottom some stay in the middle and one rises to the red on motorways but never goes into the red, its been like that for 4 years
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Post by transitmanred on Jul 29, 2013 11:18:38 GMT 1
silly question have you checked you have enough water? Is there heat coming out of the heater on hot? Did the fuel gauge go up too? Topped up the rad before I set off, needle on the gauge went up to the red, but stopped just short. I will feel for heat from the heater next time I take her out, thanks.
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Post by dodgerover on Jul 29, 2013 12:15:25 GMT 1
Its probably worth flushing the rad out if its a bit crusty in there or the van was stood for a good length of time, a crushed up dishwasher tablet dropped in the radiator and then run for a while - half an hour or so works well.
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