Head gasket gone

[Velocette]

Head gasket failed tonight. Had been in heavy traffic for twenty minutes then climbed a moderately steep hill a couple of miles long. Stopped at some lights and Mrs V said there was smoke coming out of the bonnet. I pulled off the road into Ashton Court Estate,, all sorts of things going through my head, and stopped the engine but then saw it was steam so started the engine straight away and let it tick over and the guage which had gone right up went back almost to normal. Found the expansion cap an 1/8 turn loose and clutched at the straw of that being all that was amiiss.

Topped up the tank with what water I had which was about 500ml which took it to 10mm on the dipstick. Drove it anouther 500 yards to the cafe where there is an outside tap and toped it up again. The water level seemed to be sinking which worried me greatly but eventually stopped going down. Took both engine covers off checked dipstick looked good no sign of leaks knew now if it was leaking anywhere it was internal. checked the level again and drove another half mile, all going well and then the guage shot off the scale so I pulled straight off the road, let it tick until the guage went down a bit and then called the RAC. My fears confirmed, I got him to tow me to ADS and will get them to take it from there.

Hope I haven't done too much damage.

PS it has been a bit lumpy on starup for the last few weeks, did I miss a warning here?

[missfixit70]

You didn't bleed it at any point then? It'll have been airlocked where it spat out cos the cap was loose, just topping up with water/coolant is no good, it needs bleeding, this gets stressed time & time again, if it overheats DO NOT DRIVE IT until the problem has been sorted/leak found/bled.
You may have got away with it, worth just trying a proper bleed. How did he diagnose a head gasket gone?
Good luck with it

[Bob]

Really bad luck mate, ADS should sort you.

Hope it isn't too bad.

[Velocette]

You didn't bleed it at any point then? It'll have been airlocked where it spat out cos the cap was loose, just topping up with water/coolant is no good, it needs bleeding, this gets stressed time & time again, if it overheats DO NOT DRIVE IT until the problem has been sorted/leak found/bled.
You may have got away with it, worth just trying a proper bleed. How did he diagnose a head gasket gone?
Good luck with it

I'm ashamed to say that I haven't watched the bleeding video yet. I did find the bleed hose but not knowing the procedure I thought I might do more harm than good.

He diagnosed it by chucking a load of water in it and starting the engine for a few seconds and seeing that it was pumping out bubbles. Hope he's wrong but it does look like it.

Another hard lesson learnt is I need to get the temp guage undamped as it is useless as it is.

Thank God I wasn't belting along the motorway when it decided to go.

Will keep you all posted. The other worrying thing is I think ADS close down for the Bash but not sure when exactly. Oh well I'll have to go back to being an all weather biker for a bit,

[Velocette]

Really bad luck mate, ADS should sort you.

Hope it isn't too bad.

Thanks Bob. fingers crossed eh?

[missfixit70]

This is one of the situations the low coolant alarm high level add on would have shouted at you as soon as it started happenning if it was spitting out the expansion cap.
Not exactly a scientific way of diagnosing head/head gasket failure, unless it's bled, it will be bubbling out no matter what. You may have got away with it, convert to Zoroastrianism immediately & start praying to Ahura Mazda - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda

[Velocette]

This is one of the situations the low coolant alarm high level add on would have shouted at you as soon as it started happenning if it was spitting out the expansion cap.
Not exactly a scientific way of diagnosing head/head gasket failure, unless it's bled, it will be bubbling out no matter what. You may have got away with it, convert to Zoroastrianism immediately & start praying to Ahura Mazda - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda

I must admit I thought that but I guess he has seen hundreds and there might be a bit of Spidey sense involved too!

I don't think he knew much about Bongos though because when I got in his van he nodded towards the Bongos in the yard told me that "all Mazda ones are four wheel drive and all the Bongos are two wheel drive"

Nice bloke though and gave us a lift home

[helen&tony]

Hi
Ah...Zoroastrianism...they have a flame in a remote part of Iran supposedly burning for eternity without fuel....
the flame often linked to the olympic flame....Funny, isn't it, that the current concept of the olympic torch relay was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler....the flame being one of the Nazi symbols...(no criticism of Zoroastrianism intended)...
Cheers
Helen

[Northern Bongolow]

I don't think he knew much about Bongos though because when I got in his van he nodded towards the Bongos in the yard told me that "all Mazda ones are four wheel drive and all the Bongos are two wheel drive"

Nice bloke though and gave us a lift home [/quote]

this is getting all to common,if we dont kill our bongo's then the recovery guys do. isnt it time that an official spokesperson from the forum(elected of course)my vote is for mike ,contacts the big recovery guys and gives them the heads up regarding the bongo's cooling system bleeding.
this may backfire though and they refuse to cover us , so a plan may have to be well thought through.
i came accross one the other month in a laybye, i asked the owner of the puddle under his bongo if he was ok, he said that one of the big 2 recovery services had just left for the recovery truck, the rec man had just filled him up with water and steelseal and revved it till it spat the coolant out again. if the owner hadnt killed it then the rec man did.
i know the responsibility for the wellbeing of the bongo is the owners, but when you ring and pay for help it would be nice to get some,even if that means taking the motor to someone who knows.
(sorry rant over )

[Nevets]

As a patrol working for one of the big 2 recovery/breakdown companies for over 17years owning a Bongo for 6 years

I've yet to come across an overheated bongo so far

Due to the very very low amount of calls for assistance for a more than likely already cooked/killed 13 year old jap imported bongo it's unlikely any info distributed to patrols would be any use.We do have a source of info via a laptop database(bongo's not in) I'll try and update if possible(like pulling teeth)

Unless it's only a minor leak caught in time by the means of lca of regular under bonnet checks it would be advised of you keeping a printed off copy of the bleed procedure in the glove box as only a bongo garage(or me) would know of the sensitive and correct procedure.

If you have a good reason to think further damage "may" of been caused at the side of the road by the patrol you can contact the claims dept who have a great team who look after these kind of queries.

Also not forgetting what the non-bongo garage's also do whilst in for diagnosis( which is usually the same as most patrols actually)then of course administer the blame elsewhere without knowing the full extent of the overheat situation. #

Cheers all and see you next week At the bash not in a layby
Steve

[Nevets]

BTW if the header tank starts pumping coolant out on crank after refill its usually a bad sign of a fubar head/gasket and damage done

[Northern Bongolow]

good to see it from the other side nevets ,think the fact sheet print out in the glove box has been suggested and some members do this .stickers on the x tank have also been suggested, (re bleed pipe)
it just seems that if you are unaware of the poss problems of the bongo,you are in the hands of the rec man,who may or may not help the situation.

see you at the bash mate.

[Velocette]

BTW if the header tank starts pumping coolant out on crank after refill its usually a bad sign of a fubar head/gasket and damage done

Yes I think so I had been experiencing lumpiness on starting in the last few weeks and put it down to the cold nights we were having a couple or three weeks back and then sort of got used to it. May have started as compression loss and then worsened to involve the water jacket I suppose but no signs in the oil or exhaust.

I find denial is often a factor long before something goes belly up, is that just me?

it was pumping out on tickover but not in a spectacular way, just big lazy bubbles. I only ran it for about 4 seconds for the RAC guy, it had already run half a mile with a problem due to one thing and another, damped temperature guage, getting safely off the road, me stupidly having a second go after filling up etc. The expansion tank never went much below 10mm above the "shelf" during the whole episode or I wouldn't have restarted it after the first boil up.

If there was any damage done at the roadside it was by me and I hold my hands up.

I am still sweating on a verdict from ADS. The good news is my RAC warranty that I took out covers it but the bad news is that Adam won't have anything to do with a warranty company due to past experiences so unless they will pay me out on an estimate and a receipt I'm up the Swanny.

Lessons

if in the slightest doubt about any noise smell vibration or whatever, get it checked
get the temp guage derestricted
get a high coolant level sensor added to the LCA and a temp alarm
learn the bleeding sequence
Laminate the above and fix it to the underneath of the bonnet
If it overheats, DONT DRIVE IT AND DONT LET ANYONE RUN THE ENGINE.

[Bin Bongoed]

Really bad luck Velo. Lessons learned, perhaps this will help others.

If I can successfully bleed a bleeding Bongo, just about anyone can!

[mikexgough]

As a patrol working for one of the big 2 recovery/breakdown companies for over 17years owning a Bongo for 6 years

I've yet to come across an overheated bongo so far

Due to the very very low amount of calls for assistance for a more than likely already cooked/killed 13 year old jap imported bongo it's unlikely any info distributed to patrols would be any use.We do have a source of info via a laptop database(bongo's not in) I'll try and update if possible(like pulling teeth)

Unless it's only a minor leak caught in time by the means of lca of regular under bonnet checks it would be advised of you keeping a printed off copy of the bleed procedure in the glove box as only a bongo garage(or me) would know of the sensitive and correct procedure.

If you have a good reason to think further damage "may" of been caused at the side of the road by the patrol you can contact the claims dept who have a great team who look after these kind of queries.

Also not forgetting what the non-bongo garage's also do whilst in for diagnosis( which is usually the same as most patrols actually)then of course administer the blame elsewhere without knowing the full extent of the overheat situation. #

Cheers all and see you next week At the bash not in a layby
Steve

Good advice Steve.... see you next week at the Bash bud....