Irish Mini Owners Club

Drove home the other night and when i parked up noticed that the fan was still spinning once i turned off the car (nothing unusual there i suppose). Anyway after at least 5 mins it was still going so i turned on the ignition again to see the temp gauge was well into the red. Eventually it stopped so i left it til the next morning to check the coolant level. It was very low so hoping this was the problem i topped the expansion tank to the max line with a 50:50 mix of water and antifreeze and took her for a spin. Within 10 mins the temp gauge was creeping towards the red. Parked up and popped the bonnet to see the expansion tank bulging so stayed well away from it.

To cut a long story short does this mean i have a head gasket problem? How much would i be looking at to skim and pressure test or replace altogether? Or is it another problem with the cooling system altogether? Haven't noticed any leaks etc under the car.

Any help would be great, thanks.

Just replace the head gasket and should be fine.

gareth wrote:Just replace the head gasket and should be fine.

How much do you think i'm lookin at?

€250

you may have other problems, get it checked out properly

thats funny,cause i had the exact same problom,

now im no expert but as a young fella thats tight for the few bob, start with the cheapest solution and work your way up!

first of all check that the valve for the heater which is situated on the head on in some cases further back up the pipe is open, sometimes this causes over heating because the water wont circulate around the engine,

flush out the water system wit some sort of rad-flush, you can get that in the moterfactors, put about 60miles up and then take the bottom hose off the rad and flush all out then top up wit water/antifreeze again, while your at that flush out the rad too, there can often be gunge in the rad

if that dosnt work see if your therostat is working by placeing it in hot water from a kettle,if it eventuly opens about 10mm its working ok, if it dosnt open atall or very little, replace. put up some more miles and if that dosnt work its probabley something to do wit pum or rad

now in my case that didnt cure it at all and it still would boil all the water out of it,so my brother and myself both agreed because we were going on the track day down in corkhttp://www.irishminis.ie/forum/viewtopi ... 9&start=75, we decised to replace the rad and while that was out we decided to replace the water pump too. for me that solved the problem 100%

no need for skimming heads of replaceing head gasgets.

jason

i would be thinking along the lines of water pump myself but its best to get it checked out properly

i d agree, we changed it before we left for cork, while we had the rad out, the vein on the end of the shaft was spinning on it, which meant it was nt actually pumpin anythin. however, because jason had nt a centre oil pick up after a few spins on the track, the shell bearin went, it rebuilt again though

just realised i m logged in in jason s name oops

I agree with the lad could prob be the pump but just check the termostat first. it is on top of the engine on the rad side in the alloy casing were the pipe from the rad goes into the head. if it is gone it would not let the water circulate and would cause same synptoms.

If you can get hold of a rad cap off an old vw beetle and put that on should sort it out......

give paul kelly a ring in minifix.

He sud sort it out for you.


his number is 087 2597085

Has he a stock of beetle rad caps too????

No, I have the last 6 and im not selling to you or anyone else.

I am hoping to swap them for Quinn Direct Insurance Co next week.

[quote="gareth"]Has he a stock of beetle rad caps too????[/quote]