Bongo Fury

Following my previous thread, I seem to have gone from one extreme to the other & am looking for a pointer or two. . .


Now we have a shiney NEW fully built up head, new waterpump, gaskets, oil & filter change & the old boy is running like a very smooth sewing machine.

Good job.

It seems, however to take an eternity for the temp guage to even consider moving. After 25 miles or so at motorway speeds the needle manages to make it to the C mark. Even with heater set full at 32 degrees, very little heat comes out. Off the main roads & crossing some very steep hills in the Yorkshire Dales made it drop back to -C again.

I dont believe the temp guage to be faulty as the header tank was stone cold after a couple of hours hard slogging - but the heat must be going somewhere - am I missing something obvious or risking damage driving like this??

& to be honest, if I wanted to drive about freezing my bits off over the winter months I'd stick to the motorbike. I rather like little comforts like heat!


Any clues much appretiated. . . .

Sounds like your thermostat is either missing or stuck open.

Hmmm,

Previous owner, (who - it must be said has been avoiding my calls & emails since getting his fingers on my hard earned pound notes), had a succesion of overheating problems in the recent past. Maybe he had that removed/disabled to help it keep cool. . . .

Am I doing any harm driving like this in the short term?

Yep sounds like the stat is missing,
if it is it's worth getting fixed soon as winter is on the way
and not only will the heater not give much heat but it will
use more fuel and the oil will start to look like mayonnaise,

No harm in the short term, but modern oils are designed to work best at the correct temperature. Also, the engine won't be as efficient so you may well use more fuel.

Pound to a penny of you know what that the stat is missing...

Try running the engine at a fast idle, with heaters off for 20 minutes or so,see if the header tank gets hot then That's another pointer to a missing stat,or its stuck open (or has been purposely stuck open)

Thanks Bongonaughts.

I know where to look now.

Gems.

True to form, remote diagnosis from the Techies proved right once again. Many thanks.

Our Bongo (rapidly slipping into the name Dave) has returned from surgery today with - you guessed it - a new thermostat.

It seems the previous owner or his henchmen had hacksawed off the top of the old one, thus rendering it inoperative, in an attempt to cure the overheating problems caused by the cracked head.

Also fitted one of Haydns coolant level alarms at the same time. A very "cool" piece of kit. A must have for peace of mind.

So - once again, many thanks to all for the input, this really is a great gang to be part of!

Best regards,


.

Surley whoever fitted the new head/waterpump would have noticed a missing stat. Perhaps he forgot to put it in.

haydn callow wrote:Surley whoever fitted the new head/waterpump would have noticed a missing stat. Perhaps he forgot to put it in.

Sounds like this wasnt so much a missing stat as a castrated one. Maybe the mechanic couldnt be ars*d to investigate under the fur to see if any bits had been snipped, so to speak