Bongo Fury

Well, seems to be working.
I have a hose on each inlet facing upwards and a funnel. Got loads more crap out including 2 big lumps of plastic

The plastic from the pipe stubs breaking? that would have helped create a nice dam for the crud

Yep, and the rest!

Good news....
All clear now, hoses on, re-bled.
Heater is now hotter than the surface of the sun

Bad news......
It's made no difference to the running temp whatsoever.....still running on the hot side.

Only one thing left. The radiator. Will also change the temp sender I think.
I assume that's full of crud too and will be contributing to the hot running.

If a rad change doesn't work that's it's last chance.
I'm afraid that's where I have to draw the line.

OK, can someone please explain this?

Now I have a freeflowing heater matrix connected the Bongo is running a good 5C hotter

Heater is hot, seems to be bled OK...how can this happen?

is that measured at the top hose outlet? what is the temp reading

mountain ive just cut up the causticed coolant rad from the other thread and guess what, it still has crud in it even though it was cleaned to death!!!
will send you pics when photobucket starts behaving or all the facebook kids get off my internet.

Yep, top hose.
On a run 74-77C this afternoon with bypassed matrix. 79-84C this evening with matrix

Modded gauge is consistent with top hose....has been 50-60% now 60-75%.

Doesn't make any sense at all.

The only thing left to change is the rad. If that doesn't improve things I'm getting rid of it.

Northern Bongolow wrote:mountain ive just cut up the causticed coolant rad from the other thread and guess what, it still has crud in it even though it was cleaned to death!!!
will send you pics when photobucket starts behaving or all the facebook kids get off my internet.

I can only assume the rad is getting progressively more blocked in the same way as the heater matrix. It just has to be that surely?

The rad is getting done this weekend. Looks easy enough and I'm now a veteran bleeder.

any new rad is going to help,but just feel that there is something else going on.the stuff i tried to shift from the rad is dam near bullet proof.as we all know you have dam near rebuilt the cooling side,what about the inner water channels of the block/head.

It did run well for about 2 weeks until the matrix blocked.....a little sporadic but no really high temps.

Head cleaned, skimmed and pressure tested when I had the gasket done, so I don't think that's the problem.

Anyway, I nipped out and had a feel of the rad after my last drive...maybe 10mins after....too hot to touch at the top, pretty much stone cold everywhere else. Top hose hot, bottom hose warmer than most of the rad, all heater hoses hot.

Gotta be the rad

I simply have no more money to throw at it, but if I sell it I'd lose a few grand.....bank loan

Those temps don't seem excessive to me, mine controls between 82 & 87 on the top hose & I don't have an issue with that, the stat (brand new mazda one) opens at @82 cruising temp is just above 12 0clock on the mason gauge top temp I think I got, really pushing it was @92.
I reckon it may be apparantly running hotter cos the heater circuit controls the stat, now it's flowing, it can do it's job, so now the stat opens allowing hot coolant to flow through the top hose, into the rad & into the bottom of the stat. The main thing is, is it controlling the temp, ie bringing it back down when it should? Depends on how accurately calibrated all of our gauges are as well.
Stand back, think about what you are measuring & how the system works & then evaluate whether you have a problem or you are just chasing your tail. Judging by the sludging of the rest, a new rad'd be a good idea, & cleaning up the fan sensor & temp sender if you haven't already, but if it pulls the temps down & controls within a reasonable range I wouldn't panic.

Those temps don't seem excessive to me, mine controls between 82 & 87 on the top hose

Now that's good to hear....I think you are right it's now doing what it should be.
Just been for a drive again. A little cooler outside. 77-79C all the way. I let it tick over for 15-20mins when I got home and it took that long to get to 88C and wouldn't go over that.

Stand back, think about what you are measuring & how the system works & then evaluate whether you have a problem or you are just chasing your tail.

LOL, yes I'm having a bit of a panic But one blown head gasket is too many...I am coolant paranoid to say the least. Let's face it I've had more than 2 months of coolant issues, all thanks to the seller's poor maintenance. On the positive side, all the problems are coolant related. It would have been nice to do it all in one go....

f it pulls the temps down & controls within a reasonable range I wouldn't panic

If it drops the temp a little and smooths it out I think it will be fine. TBH I'm not going to be happy until the new rad is on. At least I will know the system is clear. I know when I changed the rad on my last car it made a great improvement.

f it pulls the temps down & controls within a reasonable range I wouldn't panic

I left work early to avoid the traffic and ended up in 3 traffic jams. It's got me thinking again...oh no....I think I'm going to need a shrink for my cooling fixation

So todays observations.

Bongo sits at around 77C for the first 15miles of the journey. Pretty flat and not much traffic at 5.45am.
Then traffic, traffic lights and hills. UP to 86-88C.
If it gets up to this temp it will only drop down to 82-83C when the fans kick in.....very slowly.

So, I get hot but not quite danger level hot.

The very slowly when the fans kick in bit is what I'm a ponderin' on.

It surely means that the rad aint working very well?

Anyway rad arrived today so guess what I'm doing over the weekend

Sounds like your control range is ok - between 82 & 88 once it's got warmed up properly (which on mine can take up to half an hour before it "settles" into that control range), pretty much the same as mine (I have an original rad in too) as to how quick it drops, you should be able to play with that, if you're sat in traffic, rev the engine at between 2500 & 3000rpm, temp should go up a bit quicker, (may drop a bit first as the coolant flow speeds up as water pump speed is directly in line with engine speed) then keep the revs on until fans kick in & as you've got faster flow through it should bring it down quicker once the fans kick in (If the stat is shutting of the top recirc port properly), then once it's dropped ease off the revs, should take a while to rise again, but if the fans kick in it's best to have a good flow of coolant going through the rad to have maximum cooling. If the engine is only ticking over, the flow is minimal & it will take longer to cool down.
Then you can go & play with engine braking down hills (should bring the temp down quite rapidly up to a certain point) & dropping down a gear or 2 AFTER it's gone up a big hill to increase the coolant flow relative to speed to bring the temp down a bit Then you really start to understand what's going on & how it works.
Have a play with that if you can before you fit the new rad & then after, see what difference there is, I'll be interested to see how much difference it'll make as our temps seem to be about the same.

Yeah, been sticking it in neutral and upping the revs a bit to cool it when possible, but I'm often crawling along rather than stop/start.


What kind of range do you get with your standard temp gauge? I presume it's modded too?

I get 12-1pm on a run but when it's hitting 88C it's just short of the line before the H....that's when I start getting twitchy

Anyway my rad defo has coldspots, and I've changed pretty much everything else so it would be rude not to.

It's gonna get a hosepipe up every orifice on Saturday. New rad and 5yr coolant. Now that's got to make a Bongo happy