Bongo Fury

First of all I may be the guilty party because I had overfilled the header tank when its level was a bit low and was too bloody lazy to drain it down to max as my Range Rover used to find its own equilibrium within a couple of hours, or I may have ignored first symptom of trouble to come.

So before I went off for a business trip my wife tells me about this pool of liquid under the car. I check the levels and all looks OK. Must have been the overflow ejecting excess liquid so off I went. On my return my other half tells me that she has heard a bubbling under the bonnet. I ask about the temperature gauge but must have been speaking martian. Within a few miles on test drive the gauge went through the roof and before I had stopped there was a high pitched sound from somewhere and the heaters all started working again and the temperature gauge fell.

Yeas I know what you are thinking but clutching at straws I replaced the thermostat and using the hose method see/saw bleed had cool engine and heaters working for a while then pressure in the header tank followed by loss of heaters and lots of liquid coming out the h tank.

Is there anybody out there who thinks that I just haven't bled it properly yet before I limp to the nearest recommended garage?

Stuart

If it wasn't overheating before you changed the thermostat.......

It looks like you have hot spots caused by an incorrectly bled system.

You have air thats found its way into radiators and needs bleeding out

Leading to boiling up

Keep em crossed and do it again as per instructions on this site

Good Luck

OK. fingers crossed I'll follow the first method and see what happens.

I know you don't want to hear this...I think you have either blown the head gasket or cracked the head. If the gauge moves from it's normal 11 o'clock position then it is almost always terminal.

Yes, I think I'm 90% sure I have at least a gasket problem. No water in the oil though and no filthy black stuff on start up so I'll try one more bleeding episode before giving in to the inevitable. I notice a big price difference for heads on ebay. Is there a recommended supplier as I don't see heads just gaskets and kits on the online shop?

When I had overheating problem The guage went over the limit several times till I flushed the coolant system, fit new stat, rad and expansion bottle caps and correctly bled the system, gasket stood up to all the abuse, lets hope yours does the same

I have just spent a rather frustrating evening trying to follow the exact bleeding process:

This is a summary of the procedure:
· remove air duct
· open service hole cover
· remove air bleed hose plug
· remove reservoir tank cap
· loosen radiator drain plug
· drain coolant
· tighten drain plug
· remove under cover
· drain radiator hose upper pipe How? As far as I could see there was no water in it after draining
· remove plug and drain coolant
· replace drain plug.
2
The air bleed hose can be found under the passenger seat.
· Set the hose in a downward position
Plug removed?
· remove filler cap
· fill coolant up to upper filling flange
With bleed plug removed water pours out so filling up to flange is not an option...
· attach filler cap
· remove reservoir filler cap.
Idle engine for approx 10 minutes then run the engine at 2,500 rpm for six
minutes. If the lower radiator hose is cold, run engine at 2,500 rpm for further
three minutes.
With plug from bleed pipe removed water shoots out and wold leave the engine dry in minutes.?
Then:
· attach air bleed hose plug
· attach filler cap
· run engine at 2,500 rpm for further five minutes
· idle engine for three minutes
· run engine at 2,500 rpm for five seconds.
Repeat this revving cycle four or five times.
Stop the engine and check the coolant level. If it seems OK,How can it be OK. it has not been topped up again? re-attach the air
bleed hose to the body of vehicle, close the service hole cover and attach the air
duct. Re-check for evidence of coolant leakage and re-attach under cover.


Has anyone successfully followed all of this and managed to bleed theirs?

Pete i am still holding out some faith here!

Stuart

I am under the impression that the original bleed method becomes clearer with the associated diagrams in the workshop manual?

I had the same problem bleeding mine and opted for the see saw method because it seems a simpler method and comes highly praised by a lot of members.
Although after replacing the main pipes,the thermostat, flushing through and replacing with new anti freeze and spending hours upon hours bleeding my Bongo it begins to overheat when putting the engine under high load which is something it has never done before.

And I know about the frustrating evenings...

Mr Halibut wrote:I am under the impression that the original bleed method becomes clearer with the associated diagrams in the workshop manual?

I had the same problem bleeding mine and opted for the see saw method because it seems a simpler method and comes highly praised by a lot of members.
Although after replacing the main pipes,the thermostat, flushing through and replacing with new anti freeze and spending hours upon hours bleeding my Bongo it begins to overheat when putting the engine under high load which is something it has never done before.

And I know about the frustrating evenings...

Hi H, Mine was getting too hot under high load. Turned out to be a defective radiator fan. (the blades were detached from the motor) Changed fan and problem gone. The fans are two speed, the low speed is all thats needed to keep the engine cool when idling in traffic, under high load the high speed is needed, even when the bongo is tanking along. Just a thought.

Dave

There is no need to drain coolant out of system before starting the bleed process.
The sea saw method works well.

Remove rad cap and top up rad.
Replace cap.
Remove header tank cap and fill to full line.
Release rad cap till coolant flows out and retighten.
Fill header to full mark.
Raise bleed tube and fit a funnel OVER the end.
Half fill the funnel and hang under passenger seat.
Start engine .
Rev/idle/rev/idle.
Check heaters blow hot and switch off.
Raise/lower/raise/lower the funnel.
During all this keep topping up the tank/funnel.
Rev/idle/rev/idle till bottom hose gets HOT (stat open)
Bottom hose HOT...job done.
Replace bleed plug whilst coolant flowing out. (bloody hot)
This should have taken you about 30/40 mins (MUST GET THE BOTTOM HOSE HOT)
Top up tank to full, replace cap, and go for a run (the Bongo that is)
Check level when cold and top up to full line.
Keep a eye on things for a few days.

Any more problems and you have a gasket/head problem.

Thanks for this but when do you put the expansion cap back on?

After you have topped up for the last time and before you go for a run.
Leave it off for the whole process.
I still suspect you have other problems...but...fingers crossed you could be one of the lucky ones..I hope so.

Thanks Hadyn,

I have hot bottom pipe, heaters blowing warmish air and no bubbling over in the expansion tank at 2500-3000 revs. There is just water in the system at the moment no coolant. I should be bale to take it for a run this afternoon and see if I can maintain 11.00 o'clock. I didn't want to waste 5 litres on a bust gasket etc. If all goes well I'll repeat the process with the real thing.

Stuart

I mwould run it for a couple of weeks before putting coolant fluid in. It won't come to any harm at this time of year.
Good luck.
Heaters should be blowing HOT

I assume there is not another bleed for the heater matrix. The heaters may not have been hot enough yet without driving under load but I won't be going far from home on the test drive......