Lude Generation

oh dear. been stood for 4 months while i had a go at my nature induced speed holes. started her up this morning to go for a quick drive to clear the disks and make sure the brakes were ok ready for the mot. drove about half a mile then the temp guage climbed up to the red, parked up and opend rad, empty. filled it up once cooled. starts fine, sounds fine but as mine is a phantom grey lude i can see the colour slightly changing just above the silencer, this is steam how can it blow a head gasket, it hasnt been used for 4 months and was fine when it was parked up. i will try a quick spin again in the morning to see if it happends again, what i dont get is why was the expansion bottle also empty after blown gasket they usually fill up. maybe im being paranoid and the steam is just water where it has been stood, but then that would mean it was empty of water before i parked it up, but then i drove it on a 100 mile round trip to visit tramroad and was fine. checked oil, good colour. after i filled rad it was still geen so there was some water left with antifreeze. but why did it suddenly heat up like that, also the fan didnt come on, but now it does

Sounds like a possible small leak, nowt big, doubt it's the HG unless you get someone to rev it a bit when warm and look for white clouds of moisture from the exhaust. I would guess at rad hoses and possibly thermostat might need replacing, doesn't sound major, you're not far from me if you want a lend of a compression tester just to make sure the cylinders and HG are all fine. If you can get to Newent next weekend I'll be happy to help have a butchers and see whats what, or possibly might have fuel to get out to you with tools and stuff. Being stood do check the hoses though as they tend to dry out and can crack/split.

Chris

if its been stood for a while its easy for the rad to rot out or a hose to weaken check see where the leak is first before condemning the engine

uuum. i do have a compression tester. thaks for the offer duo. im not condeming the engine yet merc. the hoses look fine and no water on the drive. it still pressurises fine, if i remove the rad cap when hot it does loose water out of the top, but not enough to go into the expansion bottle. till i take it for a quick drive in the morning i cant really tell. it is parked on a slope with the exhaust pointing up hill so it could just be rain, we had alot of rain last few months. i just cant see how it was fine when i parked it up in feb but now it isnt. it still has no mot or tax so i cant take it far till mot day. i left it idling for half hour earlyer and fan was coming on fine now. temp didnt rise above normal (first time i have seen my temp guage above normal in 6 years of ownership was this morning, very allarming, perticully as it rose so fast ). all in the space of around 200 yards , although i did exalarate with the brakes draging for about 50 yards or so. the battery was unplugged and battery charged, does this have anything to do with an ecu relearn?

dont think it has anything to do with a relearn but it may have been air in the system from being on a slope for so long see how it goes

yeh im optamistic too, but then i always am. theres alwas k-seal if gasket gone they its kaput as i will have to remove the belt to remove the head, if i do that then i need a new belt (its 20 years old) then you need balancer belt, tentioners and water pump crist it soon adds up. easyer and cheaper to run it till it breaks then swap the engine

as for an airlock, it took about 3 litres to refill no prob more as i first used hot water so maybe 5 litres if it had used (lost) 5 liters it would have been obviose

Did it have anti freeze in it over the winter? We got to -15oC here and my coolant turned to slush

yeh it did, there still some left as the water is still a grren colour

You can get water in the zosrt if it's been standing for a while. If you HG has gone don't you end up with a creamy buildup in your rad hose off the engine where the oil and coolant have mixed due to the gasket giving out?

yeh usually, sometimes the gasket can go somewhere noware near an oil channel, then it may not go greamy. my sump oil is fine but there is some creamyness in the rocker cover though this doesnt always mean anything as there are breathers going into the head. either way if the gasket goes it will nearly always presurise the cooling system forcing the coolant into the expansion bottle (the best place to check for the cream). i will sleep with my fingers crossed