overheating and coolant leak...help please

[papillon]

hi,
thanks all,
managed to set up pressure and discovered leak on top of radiator. Now have the fun of replacing it. Just hope there aren't any other problems.

[Northern Bongolow]

park bongo with the front end slightly higher than the rear. disconnect all pipework, including the gearbox cooler,when its nose high the gearbox oil lost will be minimal (because its run back to the g/box)if you remove the pipework under the starter battery/chassis rail position.
leave the fans in place on the rad and the gearbox pipework, then remove and refit to the new rad on the bench.
replace the rad then enjoy the bleed up.

good luck.

[wonkanoby]

1/4 drive socket extensions make a good bung for the oil pipes

[papillon]

Thanks for what appears to be very sound advice.

Does anyone have any particular recommendations on a replacement radiator ( supplier/ make)...avoiding an original (too expensive for me)

Thanks

[wonkanoby]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAZDA-BONGO-2 ... 2eb481dca8

thats the one i bought

only moan was cap was under rated at 0.9 bar....1.1 bar is whats fitted

but as it has no over flow i dout it evan matters

[chipvan]

same here,got that one

[johnzbenson]

This thread sounds like my recent experience I had the same symptoms and found eventually a pinhole lleak on the front of the radiator in line with where the main hose is connected on the back ( a usual failure point if system is pressurising) I bought a rethiplacement radiator off ebay for £90 quid and this has proved to be excellent. two months later the tope hose from the engine block developed a split- i replaced this and i thought things were fine. I had no coolant loss and I confirmed this by addiding a catchment bottle on the radiator over flow ( just to check if the radiator cap was intermittantly releasing pressure and some condensate) one month later on along trip Radiator cap pressurised and released plumes of steam- car taken to garage and head gasket failure- I was lucky as the head only needed skimming- but still an unavoidable bill- when changing headgasket by the way always use a Multi layer steel head gasket as these are far more reliable than most and only cost about ten quid more than the normal ones.
heck out this site and Utube for the bleeding method with the funnel and raising and lowering the funnel- its better with two people and will take 30 to 40 mins and the top tip I got off here was if the bottom hose doesnt get warm- you haven't completed the bleeding process

[wonkanoby]

A proper bongo rad does not have an overflow

if yours does you need to cap it

[Simon Jones]

He may be refering to expansion tank overflow rather than the radiator?

[papillon]

hi and thanks to all. Changed the radiator and bled system according to utube and all seems well.

Thanks again