Zetec Overheating

[1186497]

Happy saturday all,

So, a few weeks ago my alternator belt went whilst i was about 3 miles from home.  I managed to get the car home, stopping every few minutes as the radiator started to boil over.  Fingers crossed I've not done more damage!

Now when I've re added water to the cooling system its boiling over at the radiator end.  Also the carb side of the engine isn't getting as hot as the exhaust side ???

It doesnt seem to have air in the system as all pipes run hot, and water seems to be pumped around the system.  Although the fan sensor is on the top rope into the rad and measures only 80 degrees as it starts to boil.

Any ideas?  Should I be worries about the uneven heating of the engine, did I do more damage?

Cheers all

Simon

[DeanRudkin]

Have you checked the thermostat 

[Longboarder]

Sounds like an air-lock. Worth checking the stat to make sure it has a hole and jiggle pin to assist air bleeding. Easy on the zetec as it's just three screws.Make sure you refit with the jiggle hole uppermost. The run the engine up to temp plus ten minutes with the rad cap off and keep topping up. Then refit rad cap. That will usually shift air.

Sadly I have warped one zetec head by boiling it when I had a hose rip.

[1186497]

Cheers both, I'll give that a go and see what happens.  Fingers crossed.

 

One last question.  I have a pressure cap on the expansion tank...and also one on the radiator.  The radiator one is a legacy thing from when I ran a pinto.  Is this an issue at all, people have suggested you should only run one pressure cap.  Given it was running without issue I never changed it 

[danielbrookes]

I’m not 100% sure but I can’t imagine it being an issue.  If you think about it the cap will be sealed upto a certain psi, as long as the pressure stays below that it makes no difference.  It may also help with bleeding actually.

Might be worth opening it up and topping up at the radiator.  If there is an air lock at least your bleeding it at both ends.

Not sure if it is safe to do so but if you could run the car with both open it may also help “burp” any airlocks out.

[phaeton]

14 hours ago, 1186497 said:

One last question.  I have a pressure cap on the expansion tank...and also one on the radiator.  The radiator one is a legacy thing from when I ran a pinto.  Is this an issue at all, people have suggested you should only run one pressure cap.  Given it was running without issue I never changed it 

I would remove the one on the radiator if you have one on the expansion tank, it could be sucking air back into the system as it cools which is a bad thing. Fit a blanking one on there & allow the expansion tank to do it's work.