Bongo Fury

wanderingscotsman.........You may as well change the coolant if you are changing the stat....It will have to be topped up and bled anyway...However....unless your garage know how to bleed a Bongo...LEAVE WELL ALONE....the number of Bongo's that go into a garage for a simple coolant job and overheat within a couple of weeks is high.

Just thought I would update from the other day after taking my bongo for a check up.

All is good.... No overheating, no loss of coolant & running at correct temp.

Mason temp gauge still high tho ??? So I'm back to ignoring my temp gauge & thinking the only way I'll know of future any overheats/problems I can trust is with one of those digital display thingummyjigs. Anyhoo two of them are now on my xmas list.

As I've said before, it may be worth contacting Dave Mason on this one.

Mine sits just a gnats below that on the move & under load, then drops On the idle in heavy traffic.. Even on HOT days!
It did freak the Bellhill boys out when they replaced a top hose last October.
I told em i had a Mason fitted...
Could just be a slight variant in the gauge, check with Dave!

I can tell you that I had exactly the same problem with the Mason Alarm - which is a great bit of kit. My TM2 seemed to be reading a bit high and the Mason gauge too - changed rad, couple of new hoses and finally stat too seemed to make a bit of a difference.

However the Mason guage was still acting a bit erratically dipping and rising quite dramatically. Finally I had to replace the alternator and immediately Mason sat lower - back to where it usually sits and even more baffingly the TM2 sits 2 - 4 degrees lower too.

I think the Mason is definitely influenced by micro changes in current caused by poor wiring, duff alternators and the like - but why the TM2 is now lower is a bit more of a puzzling question - the sensor is 2 bolt down on the rear of the engine block as per Hadyn's recommendation.

I'd suspect maybe the engine was having to work harder powering a duff alternator that was struggling to do what it was supposed to, thus a slight increase in running temp?

missfixit70 wrote:As I've said before, it may be worth contacting Dave Mason on this one.

I've noticed that some owners think there's a case for, say, a Mason Alarm "Lite" which won't have such a big effect moving the engine temp gauge towards "H". To even consider this I'd need to make more sense of owners' comments about what their gauge is showing. I've prepared the picture below to provoke response (the postal strike means there's a lull in alarm sales so I have some time to spare!).

This, superimposing clock geometry on an image of the gauge, is my starting point for interpreting reports of "11 o'clock" or "1 o'clock". But, apart from the 12 o'clock position, I know this is not what most people mean. Both "11 o'clock" and "1 o'clock" are clearly thought to be much nearer the center. So where exactly?

My suggestion would be to forget the clock face as just adding confusion. Regard the centre as "50%" and "H" (the very highest edge of the markings, where my 1 o'clock line is) as 100%. The "normal" for an unmodified gauge is presumably around 40-45% and with an M-alarm is ... what ... 75% ? 90% ?

Going by your scale Dave, mine sits at about 55% as normal running temp & maximum is about 75-80%.

R.E the above scale mine is (general running) Around the 60% mark. 75% at a constant 65, dropping down the 55% mark above 80MPH.

missfixit70 wrote:Going by your scale Dave, mine sits at about 55% as normal running temp & maximum is about 75-80%.

Mines the same......

Dave
mine is normally about 70-75%, going up to 85% on long hills
malc

Mine sits at 70-75% in normal driving. It drops below that if stuck in traffic idling. It goes up to about 85% after pulling off the motorway, or on long hills. When the van is restarted 5 to 15 minutes after it has been running at normal operating temp, the alarm will peep for a few seconds with the gauge at about 85%, before returning to normal. Driving hard (highish rpm) surprisingly can result in lower readings: close to 70%.

70-75%

With new head, rad and hoses

Mine hangs around the 85 & drops to 60/70 either down hill, town drive, or idling..
The trigger's set for 5, & when that top hose went last October 08, the alarm pipped at 90 & screamed touching the hot box!

mines sits at 70 most of the time, downhill it drops to 50 when theres no engine loading.however i have got a large area on the rad thats cold so im putting a new one in this weekend to see if it drops down as towing the caravan causes it to sit a lot round the 90 mark which is too high for me.