Bongo Fury

Following my posts at the start of the week, the hose arrived this afternoon and was easily fitted.

I filled the system, this took easily 8 ltrs before the header tank stayed full. I filled from the radiator cap first, then the header tank and the bleed pipe.

Then i started the engine and revved ect. It took ages, easily 25mins before it bacame a bit hot. After about 1/2 hr i got heat from both heaters and bubbled started comming from the header tank. During the process i had the bleed pipe tied up at the grab handle and kept it topped up with fluid, every now and then it spat out froth. At no time did the temp guage go past the normal point - about three mins to twelve if that makes sense. After an hour of this it stopped needing filled up so i bunged the bleed pipe and put the cap on the header tank. I then took it for a drive, covered about seven miles up hills and sat in traffic for a bit with a final run on a dual carriage way.

Got home and let it cool downand the colant level had dropped from full to the brim to the ridge in the tank (about 2cm above the full mark i think).

Is this it? during the drive i got heat from both heaters and the temp gauge didnt move once warm. The pipe from the front of the enginemovin forwards (about 2inch thick) was very hot but still quite squishy - should it be harder ?

I plan to take it for a few short runs tomorrow and keep a stack of coolant with me to top up if necessary, if there was still an air lock how would i know?

Thanks for all the help on this so far, if its sorted then ill have a go at adding the various coolant alarms which should provide piece of mind.

cheers again

Liam

liamm wrote:Following my posts at the start of the week, the hose arrived this afternoon and was easily fitted.

I filled the system, this took easily 8 ltrs before the header tank stayed full. I filled from the radiator cap first, then the header tank and the bleed pipe.

Then i started the engine and revved ect. It took ages, easily 25mins before it bacame a bit hot. After about 1/2 hr i got heat from both heaters and bubbled started comming from the header tank. During the process i had the bleed pipe tied up at the grab handle and kept it topped up with fluid, every now and then it spat out froth. At no time did the temp guage go past the normal point - about three mins to twelve if that makes sense. After an hour of this it stopped needing filled up so i bunged the bleed pipe and put the cap on the header tank. I then took it for a drive, covered about seven miles up hills and sat in traffic for a bit with a final run on a dual carriage way.

Got home and let it cool downand the colant level had dropped from full to the brim to the ridge in the tank (about 2cm above the full mark i think).

Is this it? during the drive i got heat from both heaters and the temp gauge didnt move once warm. The pipe from the front of the enginemovin forwards (about 2inch thick) was very hot but still quite squishy - should it be harder ?

I plan to take it for a few short runs tomorrow and keep a stack of coolant with me to top up if necessary, if there was still an air lock how would i know?

Thanks for all the help on this so far, if its sorted then ill have a go at adding the various coolant alarms which should provide piece of mind.

cheers again

Liam

Hi Liam....sounds as though you did it o.k.....couple of points...you should not fill your tank to the brim "ever"
It has to have room to expand.......when cold... only have it to the FULL line on the tank....when it is hot it will expand to about 1cm above this..(this is how it should be).
The most important part of the bleeding process is getting the Thermostat open to release trapped air out of the bottom hose. You will know when the stat opens co's the bottom hose will suddenly get quite hot.

Well done

Do you know if replacement header tanks are available? mine is quite grotty, not rust just dirt, and impossibnle to see the water line.

It was fine on the run into work today, ill check tonight and drain a bit out to get the level right. I presume its ok to drain it by letting water out the bleed pipe.

I wouldn't disturbe the bleed pipe.....you can either ....use the wifes "basting sucker shringe thing" or just release the radiator cap and let a bit out......if you pm me your address I will send you a header tank dip stick (FOC).... once your Low Coolant Alarm is fitted there is no need to check the level again as the alarm does it for you every time you switch on the ignition. It's a clever little thing !!!

On the drive home (not very far - 1o / 15 mins) the rear heater got hot, but the front didnt? the bottom hose still wasnt hot either. Could this be an ailock still in the system or does it just take a long time for the stst to open.
Both were fine this morning but then i was sat in traffic for longer this morning.

Both your heaters should be blowing nice and warm after about 5 mins as they work off a "sort of" bypass system and do heat up quickly. The fact that the front one was cold suggests that all is not well...Are all the linkages connected on the big white plastic thing by the drivers left foot...if that seems o.k. then perhaps you have air in the system that has found it's way to the heater.
When you bled it...did you actually check the bottom hose was HOT ??
Didyou have the bleed hose stuffed up a funnel ??

I'm not sure if i was at the right hose when i checked it. I'll have another go at the bleeding process tonight. Cant hurt anyway.

The bottom hose is (looking at the front of Bongo) right hand side of the bottom of the radiator....about 4cm dia...if you stuff the bleed tube up into a funnel you can then keep some coolant in the funnel and NEVER let it go empty (same applies to the header tank.) When you replace the bung in the bleed tube only do it when coolant is coming out...(so there is no chance of air getting in.) wear rubber gloves as it gets very HOT

last time i bled mine i used about 6 foot of clear hose onto the the bleed pipe and had a bucket at the front of the bongo ( chocked the accelarator to get the revs up a bit ) watching the header tank allow water to trickle through the pipe watching the air bubbles come along .when the header tank was almost to the low level raise the pipe to stop the flow put thumb over end top up header and repeat this process for 20 mins or as long as it takes to get the thermostat open ( this is the most important part ) . when happy stat is open all pipes should be very hot . replace stopper in bleed pipe etc . job done . its amazing to see just how many air bubbles come along the pipe .

haydn callow wrote:The bottom hose is (looking at the front of Bongo) right hand side of the bottom of the radiator....about 4cm dia...if you stuff the bleed tube up into a funnel you can then keep some coolant in the funnel and NEVER let it go empty (same applies to the header tank.) When you replace the bung in the bleed tube only do it when coolant is coming out...(so there is no chance of air getting in.) wear rubber gloves as it gets very HOT

Does tend to hurt & remove several layers of skin Take heed.

missfixit70 wrote:

haydn callow wrote:The bottom hose is (looking at the front of Bongo) right hand side of the bottom of the radiator....about 4cm dia...if you stuff the bleed tube up into a funnel you can then keep some coolant in the funnel and NEVER let it go empty (same applies to the header tank.) When you replace the bung in the bleed tube only do it when coolant is coming out...(so there is no chance of air getting in.) wear rubber gloves as it gets very HOT

Does tend to hurt & remove several layers of skin Take heed.

I agree. I found that quite a scary aspect of doing the bleeding. At teh end of it all you've got to try and stuff a bung in a pipe thats spewing out boiling hot coolant, preferably without causing any to spray around the cab

Got some more bubbles out tonight. Tried the see saw method with and without the header cap on, got loads of bubbles out with the cap off. Put the bung in and scalded my hand. then ran it with the header cap off and the throttle depressed, again more bubbles and every now and again half the water was sucked out of the tank.

took it for a run and all seems well and both heaters were giving heat.

For anyone new, like myself, trying this it takes ages for the thermostat to open. I'm not convinced it opened for about 40mins - but it was a cold night. I didnt get the fans on for ages either but near the end of the process, nearly an hour, the fans came on.
I guess its easier on a hot day. The coolant wasnt a great colour, i'm pretty sure it wasnt changed in the last 4yrs. If we get a hot day over the summer i might try and flush the system completely, going to try and enjoy the wagon first though.


thanks of the help, fingers crossed this time.

definitely worth doing a complete flush, I backflush the rad, then used Holts 2 part flush system, I did it with the stat out, just left the rubber seal in situ, then once I was sure it was completely clean several hours later, rad backflushed again, I put a new stat in, added 5 litres of coolant & topped up with water.
Theres a lot of nooks & crannies for the old coolant to hide, I disconnected several of the pipes after each flush & drained & backflushed through the various parts of the system with a hose (allowing time for it to cool), took a long time for it to run out clear from everywhere.
If you can afford the hoses & the time, it'd be worth replacing them all if you intend keeping the bongo for any length of time, good opportunity to clean up & check all the metal pipes are ok too .
When I bought the coolant, I got an extra 1 litre container of the same stuff for top ups, no confusion with mixing coolants then in the future.

The Bung should not be replaced untill right at the END of the process. The header tank cap should be OFF for the whole process.
If as you say there were bubbles in the tank AFTER you replaced the bung then ther "could" have been air trying to get out the Bleed tube and getting trapped.