Bongo Fury

i read sumat a while ago about, the head gaskets, they are the same as the ford ranger ones, but the ford ranger ones seem to fail on the bongo, did your garage use a genuine mazda part?, maybe it may be worth checking as i thinik bumbly1 had they same problem with his when the garage did the head and it didnt presureise properley untill they replaced head gasket with a genuine mazda one.

DandyW & WayC,

I have asked MD Motors to check for distortion, but they seem reluctant to because of the work involved. I think their opinion is that seeing as the head was skimmed, passed pressure testing and refitted with genuine Mazda bongo head gasket (then removed and refitted again just to check), that by almost a process of elimination it must certainly be a problem with the block (assuming the new radiator does not resolve the problem).

I assume MD Motors are fairly competent, however, I have only chosen to use them on the recommendations of the fact sheet in the members section. I printed and posted the 2 Overheating fact sheets to MD and the experienced boys at Bell Hill Garage (who wrote the 2nd Overheating fact sheet) seem to agree with what MD Motors have done to date, albeit this has only been the result of discussing what has been done over the phone.

I will proceed with the new radiator and hope that resolves it. If it doesn't, should I request that MD check the block for distortion? I anticipate that MD will say that some problem with the block is all that it can be and that the distortion test will either (a) confirm distortion or (b) confirm that there's a problem with the block that's not distortion. Again the Bell Hill boys said that the blocks can suffer undetectable failure, though this is uncommon (but more common in bongos - I think they said that, but I can't confirm that last comment).

The other possibility is that the pressure test was incorrect and the head in fact has a crack. I understand they have something like a 95% accuracy, so I'd be extremely unlucky if that was the case.

The GreatP,

To be honest I've proceeded with getting a new radiator on the advice of MD Motors. Assuming it's the original rad in my 1995 N-reg, then I'm happy to change it, particularly if it elements the radiator as a possible cause of the bigger problem.