Francis Uricchio wrote:
>
>I had the unpleasant experience of having the fan heat sensor on the
>radiator blow out of the bushing and send radiator fluid traveling
>about the engine compartment. It does not want to stay in place once
>returned to its proper location. I have two questions 1) will relacing
>the rubber bushing alone cure the problem and 2) I am used to thinking
>of radiators as a high pressure system. This bushing/sensor
>combination does not seem designed to withstand high pressure. Is
>there something different about this cooling system compared to say an
>american car?? Thanks in advance.
>
Francis,
First off I'm sorry about the blank return message, my blow (had a
slight cranial-rectal inversion). Secondly, boy have I been down this
road.
This BS happened to me on three occasions and it sucks big time. I
thought the exact same thing as you "how in the hell does this sensor
stay put in the first place?" and to be honest I'm not sure except to
say that the normal pressure in the system somehow isn't great enough
to pop it out. I replaced that bushing each time it did pop out and
even RTVed it place but to no avail. I was finally let in on a little
secret when my exhaust pipe started doing its best imitation of a
running faucet. Blown head gasket. If I was to take a guess I'd say
this is your problem and trust me, it is a fairly common one among the
post '74 MGBs.
The real deal is the fact that the area between the 2nd and 3rd
cylinders is under a lot of thermal stress and the engine is not
provided with sufficient cooling at this area. This was probably a
small design fault aggravated to the limit by emissions controls.
Consequently if the engine is poorly maintained (not neccessarily by
yourself - perhaps by the DPO) the head gasket is likely to give way
here (and this is probably the only place it ever blows). Do yourself a
favor and BE SURE the head gasket is NOT blown before anything else. If
left to do its own thing this can cause serious damage.
1. Check to see if there are any drips coming out the tailpipe
2. Is the engine oil a "milky" color
3. Is the compression in cyliners 2 & 3 a lot lower than 1 & 4
4. How high does the temp gage go (does it even work?)
5. Any leakage down the side of the block
6. Is there any oil floating in the coolant
If you get any positive responses to the above start thinking head
gasket. Let me know what you find.
Dave Hay
PS - while you are at it, make sure the thermostat works (place cold
unit in pan of boiling water and see if it opens up)
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