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I jumped the gun when mine over heated last week, thinking a 2 month old thermostat couldn't be faulty, ripped my radiator out for no reason at all.
If you think the radiator is suspect get the end tanks taken off and rodded.
How to's eh?
Thermostat check/change - this is a piece of piss. Take off the two upper thermostat housing bolts. You'll get a bit of coolant leakage. Save it if you can. Pull the thermostat out, chuck it in a pot of boiling water, should open up. If it doesn't open or it's stuck open, get a new one, a 92 degrees one. Scrape any of the remaining gasket off, replace the gasket (or use gasket goo as I do), whack the new thermostat in and do the bolts back up to 20nm (I guestimated in lieu of torque wrench).
Removing radiator/cooling system flush - remove lower radiator hose from the radiator (or you could do it at the water pump but coolant all over your alternator probably isn't good. If you're not using new coolant retain the coolant.
Undo the clutch fan, 32mm reverse thread, it can be tricky (read; I can't get the fooker off!). Undo the fan shrowd screws, take the fan and shrowd out.
Undo upper radiator hose, side tank hose, the hose running to the top of the coolant tank and the auto cooler lines (if it's an auto). Undo the radiator bolts and lift the whole thing out. Get it checked/give it a half arsed flush with the garden hose. I wouldn't bother trying to rod it yourself, but I'm sure many people do.
You could go about flushing it numerous ways, this is what I did;
Remove the upper thermostat housing and thermostat. Chuck garden hose in the thermostat housing, turn on. Open the heater tap (I turned the ignition to on and ran the heater). When the water runs clear from the bottom radiator hose, turn it off.
Refiting is the reverse of removal.
Cooling system capacity is 15 litres, however there's 5 litres or so you can't get out of the block. For this reason, when refilling with new coolant, pour about 5 litres of coolant in first, then top up with water until you get to the full line on the coolant tank.
Turn the engine on, run the heater. Turn engine off, refil if needed.
Presto, in a nut shell. Though it always ends up being harder, I had to cut my lower radiator hose to get it off and the side tank hose wasn't much fun getting back on.
Water pump removal - I haven't actually done this myself (need the fan off/uni joint for the socket kit/decent angled ring spanners). With the fan off and radiator out; remove lower radiator hose from water pump. Remove the drive belt. Undo the 4 bolts on the face of the water pump. 10mm IIRC. Simply pulls out after that. Replacing is the exact reverse. 20nm on the 4 bolts.
Last edited by psycho chicken; 03-03-2004 at 05:46.
But not long after my coolant empty light came on, so i topped it up. Checked it again later and it was now way fuller than i last saw it.
u say u topped it up..but im guessing u didnt top it up to full mark as u say later on it was fuller?..remember that the water will expand and make it appear fuller when its warm..i was thinking it could even be the radiator cap..and don't forget to do wat psycho chicken said 'Turn the engine on, run the heater. Turn engine off, refil if needed.'
Yeah, I was warned about striping threads when I went round to my tooled up mate to borrow a torque wrench.
He said for 20nm or so, use a socket wrench, hold it about 3/4 of the way down the handle, turn it til you can feel it tightening, then turn it just past that. I had no leaks and the threads weren't stripped when I took them out last time so I spose it works. Finding a torque wrench would be the better option.
Last edited by psycho chicken; 03-03-2004 at 17:35.
A word of warning, be careful here as it is easy to strip the threads in the alloy head, alloy is much softer than steel or cast iron.
EFJase, as cookie_thief23 said, make sure you check the coolant level when cold as water will expand slightly when warm.
If someone manages to thread a bolt hole in the head when replacing the thermostat, they really shouldnt be working on the car.
(ie last time I looked you didnt bolt or unbolt anything in the head when changing the thermostat)
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1993 ED XR6 M5 (1 of 329)
Polynesian Green
Turbo on the way!!
1993 EBII Fairmont (Now wrecking, PM if you want any parts)
1988 Nissan R31 Skyline
A good way to check if the radiator is blocked is to run in till the temp is normal then check the temperature of the radiator. Run your hand down the radiator and if its untouchably hot up top and gradually gets cooler by the time you're touching the bottom of it then it's definately blocked.
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O.F.R #12
1999 AU XR8
14.594 @ 94.40mph
152.2RWKW (APS dyno)
Switchable Shift Kit, K&N panel filter, Lukey straight thru mufflers, momo gear and steer,
DBA slotted rotors/Bendix ultimate pads (front), Pioneer MP3 head unit and BA XR carpet mats.
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