Experienced something very strange today!

[Mir]

Hi Guys

I experienced a very strange thing today. Here is how it goes:

First of all, my car is sorn off. I only start it once a week or twice a week just to keep things going. Always before starting the car, I ensure that oil and water is checked.

Today, the car started well and I let it to warm up as usual. The car ran for 5 to 10 minutes the max.

Anyways, After 5 or 10 minutes, I switched it off and heard "burping sound" from the water filler neck!! I then further checked the car and found that, the fans never came on when the engine was running and the coolant was overflowing onto the floor from the plastic radiator reservoir as it was completely filled up.

I spoke with quite a few rotary gurus (a big thanks to them) and they advised that, it could be the following namely;

Thermostat might be stuck,
There might be an air lock,
The rad caps might have flattened rubber

I will start the car tomorrow again to check for this issue!

Please feel free to chip in your 2pence as every advise is much appreciated.:cheers. I don\'t understand this so called "burping"!-how is it caused and how to get rid of it as I don\'t want this happening to my car!

Mir

[Grant Monkhouse]

Fill the water back up dude!

[philiwily]

Do you have an AST? If so, did you put the two caps back on the right way round?
It\'s an easy mistake to make.:o

[Mir]

I do have an AST, however, I can confirm that the two caps were put back on the right way! Whats :censored::censored::censored::censored:ing me off is that, I am not understanding the concept of "burp"!

Mir

[Grant Monkhouse]

Burp is the air leaving the water system. Air can create hot spots and warp housings. . Keep topping the water up until no more burping.

[Mir]

Burp is the air leaving the water system. Air can create hot spots and warp housings. . Keep topping the water up until no more burping.

and how do you suggest I should do that?

Mir

[Grant Monkhouse]

Start your engine with the caps off. Let it warm up. This will push water Out due to the water pump but will also push any air around the system and out of the open cap.

Keep topping up with water until it stops burping air out.

Let the engine cools down And too back up with water.

If this doesn\'t make any sense syed then please excuse me as I\'m a little drunk right now

[Grizzly]

You know when you run your motor up to temp do you check the Rad is warming up? It’s not uncommon for the Thermostat to play up and it does the same sort of thing as you described.

If you have dropped the Coolant recently then yes I’d say there may be an air lock or air around the Thermostat causing it to stay shut (but often you will get intermittent Temp gauge problems inside the car when that happens) But if it’s not had any work done on the coolant system and more importantly has been run like that and it’s just started doing it IMHO I’d be checking the Thermostat is opening and the rad is warming up as it should before pulling it to bits.

[Grizzly]

and how do you suggest I should do that?

Mir

Get a Big funnel wrap black tape round the bottom of it until it’s a tight fit in the Engine filler, put 1/2lt of coolant in the Funnel and run the engine up to temp (don\'t fill it too the top as the coolant will expand as the engine warms up). What’s important is that you don\'t remove the Funnel until you turn the motor off and have let it cool down for a good while, two reasons for this, first the water expends when hot so letting it cool will make sure you have the correct amount in the system and secondly you don\'t want to Burn yourself.

Note, when warming up from cold keep checking the rad to see if its getting warm, it should go from cool to very hot very quickly (so watch you don\'t burn your self) if the heat builds up very slowly you may have a thermostat issue. Also keep an eye on the Gauge inside (if the Thermostat is playing up it could overheat while the rad is cool) and last Watch for the fans coming on at 90deg or where ever you have them set.

Fd\'s are renound for being a PITA to bleed up.

[Mir]

Thank you very much everyone. I will report back today. However, please keep posting in your advises.

Mir

[Mir]

I also would like to add that, Motec ECU is the way forward for me and in my opinion to any FD owner. Yesterday, when the engine was getting warmed up, and the cooling system was not responding well, I noticed that my AFR gauage was displying rich reading of say 11.7... Normally, the IDLE AFR reads as 12.9, simply because it\'s not mapped completely yet.

I "think" when the ECU detacted that, the engine was getting hotter, it simply threw more fuel in to cool it down... This is not the first time it happened. Begining of this year, when I blew my exhaust manifold, the ECU did the same thing.

I am well impressed with the ECU and for me MOTEC is the way forward.

Mir

[Mir]

Ok, I would like to report back. I filled the car up with water and started it. It went up the temps and when I switched it off, No burping .
 
However, I wanted to check whether the fans are working or not, So, I started the car up again and since it was up to the temps already, I decided to rev it.
 
Guess what, the same thing happened! The water boiled and sprayed from the radiator resirvior!!
 
Ok, Now questions
 
What happens when you have a stuck thermosate?
 
The rad took 5 to 8 minuites to exceedingly heat up, does that suggest that, I have a problem with my car\'s Thermosate?
 
Say, if you have a problem with the thermosate, why the fans didn\'t come on to cool the coolant?
 
Any input is appreciated:cheers
 
Mir

[Mir]

Update:

I wish I had checked few things before ripping loads of things out from the car in order to fix that boiling issue!!!

Now the car is fix and I have taxed it too. Taking it out today as the roads are nice and clear

Mir

Edit: Its wet but I don\'t mind DRIVING IN A WET

[m1tch]

Check that the rad caps are seating correctly, remove the caps and give the surfaces a good clean to get a good seal.