High Running Temp & Leaks

[lagonda 42]

Car (89 CTi) running pretty well following 2 years off road sorting out head gasket & everything else that could possibly be a problem.

I've fitted a set of BBM hoses & filled with a French ready mixed antifreeze, a cheapo one bought from a hypermarket. I'm finding it tends to run quite hot especially at speed. At lower speeds the temp is below the centre (90 deg.) mark. It quickly gets hotter around town.. just discovered low fan speed wasn't working due to resistor contacts being corroded. Have cleaned them up & it now works OK so hopefully that'll help there. Doubt it will help with the high speed hot running though.

Once I start exceeding 70, the needle starts going up. If I hold 90, for example (on my own private track of course), the needle will move to the next mark, which I believe is 120 deg. To be fair it will stay there it seems howevewr long I stay at that speed ... but if I go faster, it goes up. Not too much of an issue now, but when the weather starts getting warmer I can see it being a problem. If I slow or gop downhill, the temp comes down.

I appreciate the gauge might be questioned, in which case I notice after starting from cold, the needle will slowly climb to just right of the centre (90 deg.) mark, at which point it will then return to just left of that mark, showing presumably the thermostat opening...so I would say the gauge is fairly accurate.

The other issue is that despite all the hoses being new (BBM) ones, the hose clips being cleaned & greased, & the pipes the hoses fit on being cleaned, that I am continually chasing leaks from the hose joints. Most of the hose clips are now far tighter than I would really like them to be, some are so tight I really don't think they'll tighten much more before stripping or breaking.

Obviously the hot running is increasing the operating pressure, but I'm wondering if this is all to do with the antifreeze I'm using. It does feel greasy & I know high antifreeze concentrations seek out leaks. It also feels a thicker consistency than water ... which would mean it would flow less readily & conduct heat away more poorly.

So has anyone out there experienced similar problems with ready mixed antifreeze, especially cheap ones?!

Incidentally I've had the cylinder barrels out, there was zero silt, the radiator was new about 5 years ago & I have flushed it with descalant to be sure & the waterr pump is new. Heater works fine, so I don't think an air lock is to blame.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Why don't you just dump the coolant out and run it with a regular anti freeze mix if you suspect it is to blame?

 

Or even just dilute it down by draining some of it out and topping it up with plain water.

[sonofsam 5]

I have experienced high running temps recently also with bad coolant, wasn't the ready mix stuff, but had been contaminated somehow siting in a bucket in my garage for a week or two!

A flush out and new coolant in sorted it, and putting some PTFE tape around the hose under the hose clips

sorted out a couple of small leaks I had.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

I;ve fitted a couple of sets of BBM hoses all with new clips thou and not a leak or seap in sight, I use Unipart Antifreeze as a 50/50 mix

[sonofsam 5]

Must add the leaks I had were not from the BBM hose's. It was from the old rubber hosing of the turbo.

[lagonda 42]

Was hoping someone out there might say they'd had similar trouble with ready mixed antifreeze before I take the trouble to buy a different type to try. At least it seems the BBM hoses can be ruled out as a culprit.

 

Annoyingly after 2 years I can't recall what temp. it was running before the head gasket went. Only things to have changed that are material are the head (now a lightly skimmed 1.9 one, therefore should be no difference) and the water pump. That is a "First Line" one from QEP. It has a different impellor design to the original Peugeot one, so might be suspect, however I doubt QEP would sell something less efficient than the original.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

It's worth checking the impella as I've had them rotate on the shaft before now, rare but at least you'll be able to rule it out

[lagonda 42]

That'll be a pain in the bum to check! The previous one was the original 1989 one, but it was perfectly OK...only changed as advice (accepted as good!) was to renew whilst it's easy to get to.

I did turn the impellor before fitting, & it seemed to be swaged into place OK. With your faulty ones, was it fairly obvious the impellors were loose once checked & it was a case of regretting not checking before fitting, or did all seem well when they were being fitted first time round & the looseness only became apparent once they had run a while?

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

I always do the same, Including the one that failed as it worked OK for a couple of hours on the rolling road then on a test day the temps where all over the place, Just like the old car's are without a pump.

[16v205 9]

I bought a gallon of halfords antifreeze last year and ended up throwing it away, it fizzed up and bubbled all over he place when in the engine. Made me think Id bought window wash by mistake but it definatly smelt like antifreeze. Once i binned that and ran on normal water just to test the temps were back to normal.

 

Rich

[steve@cornwall 100]

Had exactly the same temp. symptoms in my cti last summer following a "spirited" drive down the A30- decided it was h/g trouble so filled it with pure H2O, Removed 'stat altogether and decided to drive it to destruction as I have an MI to go in. It's still going strong, unless I use full throttle for any length of time, in which case the needle rises until the stop light comes on and the oil pressure goes south! (not done 2.5K since last change). Yet it still doesn,t boil like it did the first time. Bottom end does not sound pretty now! Drive conservatively and it'll go all day so I assume something is failing under extreme pressure?

It neither steams from the exhaust, misfires nor leaves puddles, but does use more water than normal.

You say it was off road due to h/g problems, were these obvious or diagnosed from a similar problem?

Sorry if it sound like I'm trying to teach Granny to suck eggs, but I would have done the h/g last year if the engine change wasn't scheduled and I now believe it to be something different (and more terminal) because I've run it longer than any sane person who wanted to save their engine.I now reckon maybe at least one cracked liner, not being a problem until expansion at a certain temperature, which is not attained at low speeds when constantly moving as the coolant system is over efficient (no stat).Plausible?

Edited April 6, 2007 by steve@cornwall

[lagonda 42]

Fortunately I don't throw anything away, just checked the antifreeze containers only to find one WASN'T ready mixed! Doh. Just goes to show how excitement overcomes thoroughness when you're close to starting your CTi for the first time in two years. Hopefully that explains my problem ... will drain some off & add a suitable amount of water.

Steve ... the symptoms I had before h/g failure were ongoing loss of small amounts of coolant, starting on 2/3 cylinders then running OK, misfiring at speed cured by going faster, hose bursting after accelerating hard. Everything pointed to head gasket .. did 4 compression tests, each time getting really good (115/120psi) even readings, so assumed it was some other trouble/troubles. Eventually the gasket blew in a major way just as I was about to board ferry to France. This car times its misbehaviour most carefully!

Once stripped down, I found the gasket HAD blown, but also cracks between spark plugs & valve seats in head chambers 2 & 3. So I think the initial trouble was the cracked head, opening up only under certain pressures/temperatures, never of course coinciding with when a compression test was being done. Typical.

I can't say I had trouble with low oil pressure, even when the red "STOP" light came on. Could be because your engine is generally more worn. So, yes your symptoms could be cracked liner or head .. but don't rely on a compression tester for proof!