Overheating 1985 1.9ltr petrol

[Barry]

Mark

Going to air cooled I don’t believe is an option. 

Not sure what the engineering requirements would be. 

Whilst not the best choice in doing one head only I think it is only your labour that is at risk.

[Oldman]

Fair enough……I just saw T3 engine for sale and didn’t realise they weren’t interchangeable….easily.

[Azzman1000]

Mark

Going to air cooled I don’t believe is an option. 

Not sure what the engineering requirements would be. 

Whilst not the best choice in doing one head only I think it is only your labour that is at risk.

Thanks Barry,

Fully prepared that I will likely find myself replacing the other side down the road and TBH I enjoy the doing the work anyway. 

It’s a bit of false economy, money wasted on coolant and oil ect but spreading the cost over time is just easier to do for me. I spoke to a mechanic I know and he gave me pretty much the same advise. He said it would be preferable to do both at once but doesn’t see any harm being done.

I’ll update once it’s all running again.

[AC-T3]

Mark

Going to air cooled I don’t believe is an option. 

Not sure what the engineering requirements would be. 

Whilst not the best choice in doing one head only I think it is only your labour that is at risk.

Was once told is nearly impossible to do a retrograde engine swap, something about emissions or some such.

[Azzman1000]

Hi all,

This was supposed to be a post about my success, and it partially is. To recap where I'm at, head on the drivers side was buggered, took it off after doing a compression test to find that cylinder No#1 had 0 compression! yep that's right "zero". As seen earlier in the thread the culprit was and exhaust valve that had blown a very substantial hole in it. So i bit the bullet an bought a replacement AMC head.

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next was the challenge on reseating the jugs over the new rings (gapped and installed in the correct orientation). Everyone I've ever spoken to and all the online posts/articles i read all said its impossible to do it without removing the piston but where there's a will there's a way. I made myself a home made ring compressor of sorts using a piece of 90mm PVC pipe with a split in it and a 100mm hose clamp. I made the PVC pipe just wide enough to cover all three rings but allowing enough room for it to push far enough into the water jacket and get the cylinder over all three rings. As you can see in the images bellow, I originally tried cable ties but I just couldn't get enough force to compress the rings properly. 

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Using a rubber mallet I gently tapped the  cylinder over the rings and once all three were seater inside the cylinder I used a small ring spanner to loosen the hose clamp, pulled it and the PVC out of the way and tapped the cylinder the rest of the way home. I cleaned up the mating surfaces and installed the new head without issues.

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At this point I was vey happy with my work. I bolted everything back together filled up all the fluids and started her up. She burst to life and sounded great, bled the cooling system and off I went.

This is where the good news begins to end. I've driven it almost daily for nearly 2 weeks and at first there was no issues. Its running great, feels smooth and has a lot more power no that its running on all 4 again. but slowly over the last few days the overheating issues have returned.

Coolant levels seem fine.
Expansion tank cap is brand new "Blau"" one
Bleeder on the rad flows with coolant when opened
Radiator fan switch is new and working
Removed the new thermostat incase it was faulty

So I'm lost as to the cause of the over heating, I've bled the system using the usual tricks (even tried again jacking the front up) i seem to be getting no air out the rad bleeder and the expansion tank is full to the top without air but the temps keep soaring the the 3/4 mark on the gauge and the coolant level LED bulb is on/flashing at me, The rad fans kick in but fail to bring the temps back down and the LED flashing continues. I normally shut it down about here as I'm too nervous to let the temp needle move any further up.

There doesn't look to be bubbling in the expansion taking from combustion gas but re-did a compression test anyway and cylinder number 3 (on the side I didn't touch) is the lowest buts its within about 15-20 psi of the highest> i'm using the worlds cheapest compression tester that I found online so I don't know how accurate the numbers are but this is what I got
#1 118
#2 115
#3 100
#4 110

again these number are on the low side but I wouldn't take them as gospel, they merely give a comparison between cylinders and show if something is frightfully wrong 
(like 0 compression) 

Any advice ?

Thanks.

[luckyphil]

Is the engine actually getting hot.  When you pull over when the temp is in the high range pop the engine cover & see if it is indeed hot.  You will be able to tell as the heat will hit you in the face.  I have had one van where the gauge was reading hot but the engine def was not.  Was a problem with gauge.

[Azzman1000]

Is the engine actually getting hot.  When you pull over when the temp is in the high range pop the engine cover & see if it is indeed hot.  You will be able to tell as the heat will hit you in the face.  I have had one van where the gauge was reading hot but the engine def was not.  Was a problem with gauge.

It could be just an incorrect reading on the gauge. It feels hot but an engine should I guess. The coolant expansion tank feels almost too hot to touch but again thermostat doesn’t open until 87 degrees so it would feel that way.

What’s the best way to test the gauge/sender ? Is it worth investing in an aftermarket temp gauge ? 
Something like this 
https://engineguard.com.au/product/engin...ensor-kit/

Thanks

[Barry]

You said there was brown gunk in the fluid. 
Has the radiator been flushed?
Maybe time for a new radiator?

[Azzman1000]

You said there was brown gunk in the fluid. 
Has the radiator been flushed?
Maybe time for a new radiator?

Brown gunk was before the head change. Since then it’s had a flush and new coolant. It’s seems pretty clean now but the radiator is definitely a possibility.

[Barry]

Good chance it’s blocked. 
Not THAT dear to buy.
Getting the right one is the hard part. 

Phil knew some places OS that did the thick ones.